Name a Bookish Breakfast Cereal


Alison Morris - January 2, 2009

Is your new year off to a good start? With a healthy breakfast? (If not, it doesn’t bode well for that "eat better" resolution you made after a couple of beers on New Year’s Eve.)

Gareth and I are big cereal eaters, for convenience sake, more than anything else. Perhaps that’s why CEREAL (of all things) came to mind for me when Gareth and I were having a recent conversation about how he could best merchandise his graphic novels (both current and future). Imagine the fun of pouring yourself a bowl of Odyssey-O’s every morning! I’m picturing little sticks of bran fused together to resemble wooden rafts with marshmallow sea monsters added to the mix. Yummm… classic goodness.

Apart from Count Chocula, which presumably owes its inspiration to Dracula, I can’t think of any cereals with names derived from classic books. This despite the fact that the word "cereal" owes its origins to Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain, which suggests to me that the classics really should have a place in the cereal aisle.

With that in mind, Gareth and I tried to come up a list of bookish breakfast cereal names, only to find this task SURPRISINGLY difficult. But ridiculously fun.

Here’s the complete list of what we came up with:

Odyssey-O’s

Scarlet Letters

A Raisin in the Sun Bran

Agatha Crispies

Branna Karenina

Bran of Green Gables

As You Like ‘Ems

O Cap’n My Cap’n Crunch

But after that short list we ran out of ideas, which is why I am turning to all of YOU! You, YOU clever people have more great cereal suggestions, don’t you? You are DYING to coin the names of some bookish breakfast cereals! I can tell! So, please do so. Give us all a good laugh to start off the new year.

AND… because good, really commercial, sugar-filled cereal boxes often include prizes, I’m going to offer a sort of "prize" here too, which will hopefully make you all the more inclined to participate in this exercise. Gareth and I will, together, design and do a drawing of the cereal box for the suggestion that we like the best. I’ll post that drawing here and credit you with the name of the cereal, and everyone will get yet another hearty laugh out of this ridiculous exercise. (We hope!)

If you need some cereal names to refer to for inspiration check out the very lengthy list (with photos of cereal boxes) on theimaginaryworld.com. If you need book titles to work from, peruse the selections in "Fiction, Youth and Adults" at classicbooks.com.

Now get cracking. Or crackling. Or snapping and popping.

43 thoughts on “Name a Bookish Breakfast Cereal

  1. Boni Ashburn

    Thanks, Alison 🙂 I’m apparently the only writer procrastinating today- ha! All the others must be, uh, writing… Oh, and if possible, could the Higher Power Of Lucky Charms come in two flavors- plain or with newberries?

    Reply
  2. EM

    Boni, you stole my Trix-ie Belden idea. How about Catcher in the Rye Bran? Life (the Universe and Everything)? Honey Bunches of Oat-is Spofford (or just Oat-is, a la Janie Bynum)? Apple Jack and the Beanstalk?

    Reply
  3. Gretchen

    I’m *still* laughing over Oedipus Chex. I would totally buy that. Here are mine: Anna Kareni-yums / Cookie Crispin / Brave New Swirls / Grape Expectations / Journey to the Center of the Bowl / Lord of the Oat Rings / Smackbeth

    Reply
  4. Bina

    Mercy Watson’s Buttered Toasties. You’ll want to pig out on these. Cereal, Plain and Tall–we use the finest wheat stalks to make our cereal! The Trumpeter of Cracked Corn–not since Bugles has a grain tooted so many horns! Because of Winn-Dixie Brand Oat Cereal. Green Eggs and Ham Flakes. Lemony Flavored Snickets Waiting For Normal Cereal–pure with no sugar or fruity flavors Koala Chew– An Australian treat. Hunches in Brunches. (Any number of Seuss books could be done)

    Reply
  5. nannette Hamilton

    Who would of thought a book designer could come up with such clever Classic Book cereal titles but once again this designer proves to be very clever. Titles from John Hamilton A book designer http://www.johnhamiltondesign.com; “Of Rice and Men”, “Grape Nuts of Wrath”, and last but not least” Gullivers Kernels”. My favorite would be” Of Rice and Bran”

    Reply
  6. Eric Witchey

    Eyre-O-Wheat. Bronte Bran. Inferno Flakes. Plain Twain Groats. Moby-Meal with Ahab Bits. All Natural Emerson Granola. Garp Grits. Cuckoo’s Nest Nut Clusters. Emma’s Bovine Bran. Beast’s Belly Bran. Whale Tale Treats. Illustrated Men — Something Wicked Comes in Every Box. Earth Sea Delight Bites — Crunchy Magic in Every Spoonful. Welties. Lovely Bone Bits — Ghostly Goodies.

    Reply
  7. Deborah Galarza

    Edgar Allen O’s Ann Rice Crispies The Wizard of O’s Johnny Apple Jacks Alice in Apple Jacks Alice in Wonder O’s Where the Wild Things O’s Lord of the Zings Art Linkletter’s, Kid’s Eat the Darndest Rings The Hardy Boy’s Bran Flakes Stephen King’s Special K’s Othell O’s Rome-O’s and Juli-ETTs Pearl Buck O’s Pearl Buck Bran Shakespeare Bran Flakes Shakespeare O’s O so Sorry O’s

    Reply

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