Tuesday, April 28, 2015

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.

16 comments:

  1. Great list!

    I grew up with the Lord of the Rings, so it's no surprise that the most memorable characters for me are the ones from this trilogy!

    Aeriko @ http://thereadingarmchair.blogspot.com

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  2. Urgh, sometimes I hate the fact that 'memorable' is not synonymous with 'great'. I completely agree that Twilight has a place on this list, but not for the right reasons!
    Beth x
    www.thequietpeople.com

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  3. Edward was SOOOOOO creepy! And Bella was so stupid! Harry Potter will ALWAYS be amazing!

    Lizzie @ lizziethesarcasticblonde.blogspot.com

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  4. Orx and Crake is so awesome, I havent read the follow ups to the serious, but those characters have stuck with me. Check out my Top Ten Tuesday

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  5. Twilight will always be remembered - Edward all sparkly and what not. Definitely Holden from Catcher in the Rye - one of my all time favorites - Great list!

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  6. I love your screaming, "Bella, get away from him!". LOL

    Randall Flagg is a seriously scary character. Mega creepy, but all those early King books contain characters like that. I mean, Pennywise the Clown. Shiver.

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  7. These are all wonderful memorable characters. Katniss is a strong female character, isn't she?

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  8. I definitely agree that the characters of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games are memorable! And that's awesome that THG helped you make a decision about going to school for children's literature!

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  9. Good point -- when you read a lot of books, it's hard to remember characters after you finish their books/series. You picked some good, memorable ones!

    Happy TTT!

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  10. This is hilarious and awesome! I definitely have this problem as well and it's a great idea to make a list of those characters that DO stick in the brain. I think I am one of the few people that was not forced to read Catcher in the Rye in school and despite that I still know Holden Caulfield's name.

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  11. This is such a great topic. Some characters can definitely leave more of an impact than others--sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a bad way. Most of these are definitely good memorable characters. I find it really interesting that Holden can fall into good memorable or bad memorable depending on the person. Some people idolize him, and some people hate him with a passion. He is memorable either way though!

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  12. Such a good list! When I first saw Twilight on it though, I did a bit of a double take because I didn't really expect you to be much of a fan. But then I read the first sentence you wrote about it and I cracked up laughing.

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  13. You nailed it on this selections for this list. I LOVE the Confederacy of Dunces. What a memorable character.

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  14. Such a good list. I love that you included characters that are memorable for all the wrong reasons!

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  15. Hell yes Harry Potter, LotR and Hunger Games^^ All-time favorites right there! Awesome list!

    Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows Reviews

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  16. I haven't read all of these, but I definitely agree with 1, 2, 3, and 5. I haven't read the Lord of the Rings books but I adore these movies :) Great post!

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