Top Ten Tuesday: Memorable Characters

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is top ten books which feature characters who _______. I’m filling in the blank with “are memorable.” I chose this topic because I was staring at my bookshelves and trying to remember the names of the characters in each book. It was surprisingly difficult. Here’s my list of the characters I remember.

1. The Harry Potter series – J.K. Rowling

You knew that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would be on this list, right? I grew up with them, and they’re iconic in YA literature. Unless I get dementia, I won’t ever forget them.

2. The Twilight series – Stephenie Meyer

These characters aren’t memorable for a good reason. I was creeped out by Edward and his stalker tendencies. I spent the whole series screaming, “Bella, you stupid girl! Get away from him!”

3. The Hunger Games series – Suzanne Collins

I read this series while debating whether or not to go to grad school to study children’s lit. I remember Katniss because she was edgier than a lot of the YA heroines that I was seeing at the time. Katniss helped me decide that I was interested enough in YA literature that I could spend two years studying it at school. I still prefer my YA lit to be as edgy as possible.

4. The MaddAddam series – Margaret Atwood

It helps that the main characters’ names are the title of book #1 in the series. Crake is one of the most complex villains I’ve ever come across.

5. The Hobbit / The Lord of the Rings series – J.R.R. Tolkien

Hobbits are strange little creatures, aren’t they?    

6. The Stand – Stephen King

Remember Randall Flagg? He shows up in a lot of King's books. He’s a scary dude.

7. The Green Mile – Stephen King

Mostly I remember Mr. Jingles the mouse. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I read this book when I was a young teenager, and it traumatized me. Every little detail is still burned into my memory.

8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky

Charlie is one of my favorite fictional characters ever. He feels very realistic to me.

9. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

Everybody remembers Holden Caulfield. Probably because we all have bad memories of being forced to read this book in high school. I love The Catcher in the Rye, but forced reading usually ruins books for me.

10. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

I know that a lot of people hate this book because the characters are whiny, pretentious, and self-centered, but I think Ignatius J. Reilly is hilarious. I used to have a bunch of his quotes saved on my computer.