But anyway, it's Top Ten Tuesday time! *cue some dramatic theme music that I'm sure someone's coming up with right now*. Hosted by the wondrous The Broke and the Bookish, I found this week's topic far harder than I thought I would... I guess I'm just not as into characters as I thought I was, or, possibly, my brain is broken. Or maybe both! Either way, here are my
Top Ten All Time Favourite Characters in Books
1. Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee- Always, always Atticus. He's brave, smart, moral-y- he's basically just perfect, and I will love him forever.
2. Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte- I don't really think that anyone can not love her! She's an absolute (early) feminist icon for a start, even if that does come with a hefty dose of religion too.
3. Beth March from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott- She's wonderful. Sweet and quiet and always trying to make everyone's life better, by doing the little things. I probably admire Jo more, but I love Beth.
4. Belize from Angels in America by Tony Kushner- Essentially I love everyone in Angels in America (apart from stupid Louis. Oh, and Roy, obviously) but Belize is like the gay best friend you wished you had, and he really is a great one to Prior (who I also adore).
5. Melanie Hamilton from Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell- I love Melly! LOVE her. God forbid anyone who calls her a drip, because she is strong, and brave and amazing. If she had married Rhett instead of Ashley, they would have been perfect, and Ashley and Scarlett could have just hung out and made each other miserable.
6. Rhett Butler from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell- YUM.
7. Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky- He's so sweet, and kind of naive, and he's just trying to figure out what's going on with people. Love. Him.
8. Levin from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy- I am in love with Levin. Seriously. It's worth reading Anna Karenina just for him and his wonderfulness!
9. Laura Brown from The Hours- I don't necessarily agree with everything that she does, but I feel very very deeply connected to her character so in that kind of narcissistic way, she's one of my favourites.
10. Ben Hanscom from It by Stephen King- Since I obviously can't have a list that doesn't include Stephen King, Ben is definitely one of my favourite characters, because he's sweet and amazing and I just want to smoosh his fat little face! That's not very good reasoning, I'll grant you, but I really do love him.
This list is super arbitrary, since it's basically just my favourites for today- I mean, there isn't even an Austen character on there! What?! But still, I do adore these characters, and Atticus will always, always be at the top of my favourite characters list.
Rhett does equal YUM! He was the first fictional boy I fell head over heels for. I'm intrigued with the idea of Melly and Rhett. I may have to ponder for awhile. Great list!
ReplyDeleteMy List
I'm not sure how they'd do, but he admires her and she's awesome, and I bet being pregnant with his babies wouldn't have even killed her!
DeleteTotally with you on Jane Eyre! And, while I didn't like the book version of The Hours, Laura Brown is my favorite from the movie, too.
ReplyDeleteI hate the new blogger interface. I miss the old editor. Not the old draft editor, but the one before that, the one I started with. I managed to stick with it while Blogger upgraded everyone else to Draft mode. Now, all the problems I had with Draft are incorporated into this new one. Formatting problems, image upload limitations, boo...
Oh dear oh dear! I've only experienced the one just before this, and I was all navigating it like a pro, and now I'm like WTF is going on?!
DeleteAlso, yay Jane Eyre! And Laura. BUT THE BOOK IS SO GOOD!
I just did a wheeze-laugh at the very idea of Rhett and Melly married to each other!
ReplyDeletep.s. Just realised that Scarlett O'Hara and Elizabeth Taylor are like THE SAME PERSON in my head. How odd and unrelated to your list!
Like, in a bad way? Because I love them so much! Although Rhett would probably get bored, and Melly would be like 'he's such a brute!' but she'd secretly like it!
Deletep.s. That is weird! Although Elizabeth Taylor did play a lot of stone cold bitches. I bet she would have been a good Scarlett though, albeit a wee bit young to play her (7!)
Eek! Rhett and Melanie? Rhett would revere her as china he couldn't touch for fear it would break, and she would revere him as strong and good and kind without ever actually knowing him and loving the things Scarlett loves -- his singularity, his honesty to the point of being rude, his willingness to admit he is selfish and out for #1. Melanie would love the good down deep but wouldn't honor him by seeing the bad and loving that too. She'd be unable to recognize it.
DeleteI always loved Melanie from Gone with the Wind too. She is a very strong character.
ReplyDeleteShe is, thank you! My mum called her a drip once, and I still haven't forgiven her for it!
DeleteOh Atticus, so wonderful. Also I appreciate the disclaimer "these are my favorites today" because yes to fickled favorite characters.
ReplyDeleteAlso no Marian? Has all of her awesomeness failed to affect you?
I did wrestle with putting Marian on there, but in the end... nah. Although I still love her! But there are characters I love more, and *they* don't keep going 'ah, if only I was a man I could do things' because, hello, annoying!
DeleteAh, we are both fond of the drippy characters. :D Meaning when I read Little Women I'm like "WHY CAN'T I BE LIKE BETH NOOOOOO." And Melanie is AMAZING. So great. She drags herself out of her sickbed and tries to kill a marauding soldier with a sword. Daaaamn.
ReplyDeleteTHEY ARE NOT DRIPS! FFS! I'm totally like 'why can't I be like Beth and just be satisfied with what I've got and be lovely to everyone all the time?' And YES Melly with her sword! And talking Rhett out of his mad mad crazy mad when whatsherface dies.
DeleteAww Atticus :-) He IS such an awesome character.
ReplyDeleteHe is the GREATEST! :)
DeleteLevin is a GREAT pick! Also Laura Brown and Jane Eyre. I'm excited you picked Beth March and Melanie Hamilton instead of Jo March and Scarlett O'Hara. I can't help loving the strength in the latter two, but the sweetness in the prior two makes them beautiful characters, indeed. :D
ReplyDeleteI need to finish To Kill a Mockingbird! I've only read the first 100 pages or so, but I do love Atticus so far.
I LOVE Levin! I would absolutely have his babies! And I do love Jo (and I love/hate Scarlett) but I do just love the sweet ones who you almost don't notice but that you'd totally miss when they were gone.
DeleteATTICUS IS AMAZING! I still admire your savouring of books though, it's something that I can't really do very well!
Yay for Atticus! But great list in general. You make a good point about Jo and Beth.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to check out my list :)
Thanks! :)
DeleteI love your list and I love Charlie as well.
ReplyDeleteI love Charlie so much! Apparently I really like sweet characters...
DeleteI had Scarlett in my list! Glad I'm not the only Gone with the Wind fan. Jane didn't make it onto my list but she was right there at the end! Here's mine if you are interested: http://www.babiesbooksandsigns.com/2012/04/top-ten-favorite-characters-of-all-time.html
ReplyDeleteI've seen quite a lot of GWTW love today actually, which makes me :)
DeleteAtticus is one of my favorites as well. I didn't really enjoy reading Gone With The Wind, but I did like the character of Rhett. Is that weird?
ReplyDeleteI don't think that's weird! I think you can totally not like a book that much but still like one of the characters, eg I just finished Watership Down, which I didn't like very much, but I did like Fiver, who actually wasn't in it very much. Which is probably part of why I didn't like it so much.
DeleteI'm totally into Beth from Little Women. I almost included her on my list and then described her as "quiet," which is also why I would include Mary Anne from the Babysitter's Club.
ReplyDeleteAh! Now. Mary Anne is my only exception to liking the quiet, sweet character, since I fear she may actually be a drip. She was my least favourite babysitter actually, except for Mallory, who it seems like everyone hates lol! Poor Mallory...
DeleteAgree with Beth March and Levin :) Also, I wanted to add Ben on my list too, because I only recently re-read IT so I remember him clearly; but it would have turned into Favourite Stephen King characters, if I'd allowed myself to include more than one! I HAVE to read To Kill a Mockingbird.
ReplyDeleteOk, now I really really want to make a list of favourite Stephen King characters! There's just TOO MANY AWESOME ONES! :) Also, you really should read To Kill A Mockingbird, it's probably (if I really really had to choose) my favourite book. Maybe.
DeleteExcellent choices! Scout made my Top Ten. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my all-time favorite books. Jane Eyre is completely wonderful as well. New follower via GFC :)
ReplyDeleteAngela @ AJ Arndt Books Blog
I enjoyed Rhett's interaction with Scarlett from the few chapters that I have read. :)
ReplyDelete