Angie: Ten is my favorite number.

Mandy: Oh, gosh. Now what?

Angie: It’s my husband and my son’s birthday. Just wanted to share cause you’re my friend. And that’s what friends do: they share. I apologize sincerely if my heartfelt confession about my love for the number 10 has offended your delicate sensibilities.

Mandy: I was just worried that you were going to make fun of me because of my strong affection for even numbers.

Angie: That’s a confession! I think we just bonded. Do you feel it?

Mandy: I feel it in my fingers.

Angie: I feel it in my toes.

Mandy: I also am starting to feel an affection for the number 10. You’re enthusiasm has rubbed off on me. It’s contagious. Then again, so is the plague.

Angie: Plague? So we’re name calling? OK, from this point forward you will only be referred to as Chicken Pox.

Chicken Pox: I shouldn’t let you type because you’re really gonna call me Chicken Pox for the rest of this column, aren’t you?

Angie: You asked for it.

Chicken Pox: At least you’re not calling me Staphylococcus.

Angie: Thought about it. And you’re welcome.

Chicken Pox: Thanks, I guess.

Angie: What I was getting at is that we should do a top 10 list, la Letterman.

Chicken Pox: Only not as funny.

Angie: Really? Do you even read our column? Come on.

Chicken Pox: Let’s do “Bookends’ Top Ten Books That Have a Succession of More Than One Book and Feature The Same Characters in a Continuing Story Line.”

Angie: So, our Top Ten Book Series.

Chicken Pox: That’s what I just said. Seriously, why do you type?

Angie: Because you type like you drive. Honestly, who turns left between McDonald’s and Walgreens at dinner time?

Chicken Pox: Let’s each choose five book series.

Angie: But it’s a top 10 list.

Chicken Pox: And there are two of us …

Angie: (silence)

Chicken Pox: (sigh) … so there will be 10 book series. Because two times five is 10.

Angie: Touché, Chicken Pox, touché.

5. The Tudor Series by Philippa Gregory (Chicken Pox)

“The Other Boleyn Girl,” “The Queen’s Fool,” “The Virgin’s Lover,” “The Constant Princess,” “The Boleyn Inheritance,” “The Other Queen”

The Ishmael Series by Daniel Quinn (Angie)

“Ishmael,” “Story of B,” “My Ishmael”

Chicken Pox: I selected the Tudor series because I’m interested in that era. Gregory takes history and makes it HERstory.

Angie: What are you Michael Jackson now?

Chicken Pox: OK, Smartie Pants, why did you choose the talking gorilla?

Angie: Ah, Ishmael. My first crush. I love that Daniel Quinn makes the reader look at the world in a new way. Totally mind blowing, I mean a brain-on-wall novel.

4. The Sammy Series by Kristin Gore (Chicken Pox)

“Sammy’s Hill,” “Sammy’s House”

The Malory Series by Johanna Lindsey (Angie)

“Love Only Once,” “Tender Rebel,” “Gentle Rogue,” “The Magic of You,” “Say You Love Me”, “The Present,” “A Loving Scoundrel”

Chicken Pox: I realize there are only two Sammy books, making one a sequel to the other and not a series, but I presume there will be more.

Angie: Seeing into the future, that’s new. I would have picked mind control but to each their own superpower.

Chicken Pox: More of a hope since Gore’s books are HA-larious. And P.S., you don’t get to make fun of me this round when you picked seven Harlequin novels.

Angie: I will fight you. Lindsey is not Harlequin. She writes romance for adults: sex, confusion and power. Same themes as your Washington books.

3. The Ramona Series by Beverly Cleary (Chicken Pox)

“Beezus and Ramona,” “Ramona the Pest,” “Ramona the Brave,” “Ramona and Her Father,” “Ramona and Her Mother,” “Ramona Quimby, Age 8,” “Ramona Forever,” “Ramona’s World”

The Babysitter’s Club by Ann M. Martin (Angie)

There are 143 books in this series.

Chicken Pox (aka Amanda): In third grade my teacher, Mrs. Wachuta, read us two of the Ramona books and I haven’t stopped reading since.

Angie: Aw, that’s nice. My teacher read us “Where the Fern Grows”. She made 30 fourth-graders cry. It was traumatic.

Chicken Pox: Ramona was just like me. I would like to formally apologize to my sister for being a pest.

Angie: When I was little I tried to start my own babysitters club but my parents were afraid of being sued. Dreams-zero, litigation-one.

2. The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer (Chicken Pox)

“Twilight,” “New Moon,” “Eclipse,” “Breaking Dawn”

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice (Angie)

“Interview with the Vampire,” “The Vampire Lestat,” “The Queen of the Damned,” “The Tale of the Body Thief,” “Memnoch the Devil,” “The Vampire Armand,” “Merrick”, “Blood & Gold,” “Blackwood Farm,” “Blood Canticles”

Chicken Pox: It’s pretty obvious we don’t think vampires suck.

Angie: Anything but blood that is.

Chicken Pox: There are a lot of vampire books out there but these two ladies write them best.

Angie: Chiseled bodies + immortality = crazy delicious.

Chicken Pox: Good math, Ang.

1. Harry Potter by J.K Rowling (Chicken Pox)

“Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets,” “Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban,” “Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire,” “Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix,” “Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince,” “Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows”

The Dollanganger Series by V.C Andrews (Angie)

“Flowers in the Attic,” “Petals on the Wind,” “If There Be Thorns,” “Seeds of Yesterday,” “Garden of Shadows”

Chicken Pox: Hey, both of our authors use initials.

Angie: And the series are both about locking children away. Makes for great story telling but terrible parenting.

Chicken Pox: At least Harry Potter doesn’t involve incest.

Angie: At least my top-five list doesn’t look like a 12-year-old wrote it.

Chicken Pox: OK, the column’s over. Will you stop calling me Chicken Pox?

Angie: You got it, Staphylococcus.

Mandy and Angie, both residents of Albert Lea, want you to check out their blog, www.5drops.blogspot.com, for more information on their “Bookends Top Ten Books That Have a Succession of More Than One Book and Feature the Same Characters in a Continuing Story Line.’