Top Ten Favorite Characters of All Time

This is a tough one. I've read thousands of books in my life, and loved a great many of them. But let me see if I can narrow it down to just ten. Sheesh.

 Top Ten Favorite Book Characters of All Time

Sherlock Holmes - From The Complete Sherlock Holmes. I love Sherlock, in every single incarnation. He's like the Doctor, he just keeps changing his face and coming back just as awesome. I love all his weird little idiosyncrasies. My favorite moment is in one of the stories, when he tells Watson that he didn't know that the Earth revolved around the sun because it had no bearing on his everyday life. To him, until the day that the Earth stops revolving around the sun, there's no reason for it to take up space in his mind. I think it would be awesome to just delete information in our brains to make room for other information. “Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”

 Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind and less importantly, Rhett Butler's People. The picture to the left is from my favorite scene and it depicts exactly why I love Scarlett. She seems like a silly, self-centered wench when in reality she is a strong and resilient woman. Are her methods a little crazy? Yes. Is she dumb to be in love with a man who is so obviously not good enough for her? Yes. But she works hard for herself and those she loves. She puts others before herself even when it seems like she is being selfish. She takes in and helps to care for the bride of the man she loves. "As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!"

Gemma Doyle from A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and  The Sweet Far Thing. Gemma is everything I love in a heroine. She's kind, smart, a little out of the ordinary, doesn't really fit in but is very likeable. When faced with danger, even though she is a Victorian lady, she doesn't shy away from fear. Instead she confronts the problem head on, even when it is something as personal as her father's opium addiction. I've been wanting to re-read this one for a while. I think it might be time. I've written on my blog a couple of times about how much I love Gemma and the relationship that develops between her and Kartik. I can't really blame him for falling in love with her. She's pretty much perfect. “And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time.”

Tyrion Lannister from A Game of Thrones,  A Clash of Kings,  A Storm of Swords,  A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. George George George. Thou art the bane of my existence. I could write this entire post on the my top ten favorite characters from Game of Thrones alone. For those who haven't read the books, they are from multiple character points of view. One of those is Tyrion Lannister, the youngest Lannister, brother to the Queen, and oh yea, he's a dwarf. He is also the most awesomely bad-ass character in the history of characters. He doesn't take shit from anyone, including his wench of a sister and jerk of a father. He fully accepts what he is and what he is capable of. “My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer and I have my mind...and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That's why I read so much Jon Snow." Sheesh, I need to make room for Jon Snow on this list somewhere too. So much awesome. I still hate you George.

Dorian Gray from The Picture of Dorian Gray. I love Oscar Wilde. He was waaaay ahead of his time. He was sarcastic and witty and had an amazing view on people. Dorian Gray is probably his darkest work, but it is my favorite. The story of a innocent young man who is corrupted by culture and inscrutable people, all while he doesn't age a bit and his portrait does. Oscar's writing will creep you out and have you laughing all one the same page. The story itself is actually rather sad, since Dorian starts off as an innocent and becomes a monster by the end. “You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.”

The Fellowship of the Ring from The Lord of the Rings. I couldn't choose just one character from Lord of the Rings, so I choose the entire fellowship. I love Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, Pippin, Gandalf, Merry, Samwise, Aragorn, and of course, Frodo. They each are brave and amazing in their own way. Tolkien's ability to create well-rounded characters and fully-fleshed out worlds is unsurpassed. “I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Phillip Pirrip (aka Pip) from Great Expectations. Pip has been my favorite character since I was a kid. He was always the literary character I felt the most like. No one has any expectations that he'll become anything, so he has to have expectations for himself in order to become something. And he does, all on his own terms (eventually). “There either is or is not, that’s the way things are. The colour of the day. The way it felt to be a child. The saltwater on your sunburnt legs. Sometimes the water is yellow, sometimes it’s red. But what colour it may be in memory, depends on the day. I’m not going to tell you the story the way it happened. I’m going to tell it the way I remember it.”

Captain Hook from Peter Pan, Capt. Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth,  Peter and the Starcatchers, etc. I might be obsessed with Captain Hook. He's the absolute perfect villain. My dream is to someday write a book about him. I've got the start of it down, but haven't gotten too far. I love everything about him, except I hate the Disney version of him. Way too goofy. The way I imagine him was best portrayed by Jason Isaacs. Suave, debonair, and supremely evil. "After all, what would the world be like without Captain Hook?"

 Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby. In my opinion, The Great Gatsby is the perfect novel and Nick Carraway is the perfect narrator. He is the perfect everyman. He observes everything all while being a part of it and apart from it. He's watching a train wreck in Jay and Daisy and is powerless to do anything to stop it. “I wasn't actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity.”

Jon Snow from A Game of Thrones,  A Clash of Kings,  A Storm of Swords,  A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons.Wahoo! I was able to fit him in. I thought for sure I already had ten and he was going to be an extra, but he managed to sneak his curly-haired bastard self in there. I've already talked about my love of these books and my disdain for George RR Martin (because he is an evil, evil little man). Jon Snow is the underdog that you just have to root for. I hope that at the end it is just him and Daenarys as king and queen and they all live happily ever after. Do NOT ruin this for me George!!

So who is your favorite character of all time?


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