have you met any interesting characters this year?

[janine]

looking at the answers in sarah pi's thread about book characters it seems most of us don't like to read about characters that are too similar to ourselves, because we are too boring. what very non-boring characters have you met on your reading journeys this year?

[Aynge]

No, unfortunately.

I read a really interesting book about a woman who was abducted by aliens (Witnessed by Budd Hopkins), but actually she was just a normal, average housewife. While admirable, she wasn't exactly interesting. What happened to her was.

I wasn't really bowled over by anything I read in 2010. Hope 2011 is better.

[RandomAnthony]

Yes. To The Lighthouse's narrator was interesting, as well the girl from Winter's Bone, the priests from Death Comes To the Archbishop, and the whole crazyass As I Lay Dying family. The Woodcutters narrator and the killer from The Killer Inside Me were fascinating as well.

[Phil]

I discovered a skinny, boyish-looking woman who experienced great violence in her life. Despite that, she found one or two people she could trust (in her own way) and now has appeared to emerge on the other side of tragedy.

[Jane]

All of the characters in The Imperfectionists were very interesting and distinct, even the dog.

[Sally, la reina]

I really liked the girl in The Girl books, at least the first two. In the third she just writhed about in a hospital bed and plotted about a cane.

The best, though, was the girl in the Hunger Games. Katniss!

[Brittomart]

I like Katniss, but I'm just not liking this story right now. Like, this is the first book where I'm predicting what's happening next. I wanna be surprised, dammit.

I thought Lisbeth was interesting, but then I read the rest of the book. Kathy from Never Let Me Go was really interesting.

I think my favourite of the year was Rose of Sharon from TGoW.

[Sally, la reina]

Oh I need to read Never Let Me Go. I requested it from the CSU library but I actually never had a reason to go pick it up.

[Brittomart]

I want to work in a library. Like, forreal.

[Brittomart]

Alright, I'm feeling Katniss, after she kissed Peeta on the cheek. I actually said aloud, "Oh, she is about to handle her shit."

[Phil]

Handle her shit? Ewww! Take it to the "Poop" thread, woman.

[Brittomart]

Okay, Larry.

[Phil]

Some people easily confuse their pedants.

[Jammies]

Briar Wilkes and Lucy Gunning from Boneshaker both intrigued me.

[Félix]

There's a difference with former Expedia pedants.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Among fictional characters, Gustave von Aschenbach, George Smiley, Inspector Morse and Detective Lewis, a bunch of characters from The Grandmothers, the priests in Death Comes for the Archbishop. Nonfictional, Kenneth Clark, the diarist of The Worst Hard Time, Mark Whitacre in The Informant, Leopold and Loeb.

[Jonathan]

Which Leopold and Loeb book did you read LG?

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Jonathan wrote: "Which Leopold and Loeb book did you read LG?"

Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century.

[Jonathan]

Don't know that one.

I thought you might have read For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Chicago, which came out about two years ago. I met the author briefly at an event in New York and enjoyed chatting with him--very nice man.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I've heard of that one.

[ms.petra]

the first name I thought of when I saw this thread: Lobstergirl

[janine]

probably the most excentric and therefore interesting group of literary characters i met this year were bill the galactic hero and his crew of mutineers on the planet of zombie vampires. a comic highlight in my reading year.

[Arminius]

I met Rosco Conkling a former NY Senator who was said to be a debonair, charming, handsome and pompous man. He was an enemy of the Roosevelt family.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I'll come back in January and make a note of the interesting characters I met in 2011.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Augie March was reasonably interesting, although Bellow's writing itself was more interesting than Augie's character. Netta from Hangover Square was fascinating, and revolting. (Never before has unidimensionality been so compelling.) Lucy Snowe from Villette. Barbra Streisand was, like Netta, fascinating and revolting, but not precisely in the same ways. Martin Preib was interesting, in his recounting of his time on the Chicago police force. Truman Capote was sort of interesting, in Conversations with Capote. Jim Burden, the narrator of My Antonia. Patty Berglund from Freedom was fairly fascinating. There were a couple interesting characters from Harlot's Ghost: Harry Hubbard, the narrator, and Hugh Montague, his mentor.

[Heidi]

I find nonfiction to be my preferred books of choice these days, more times than not. With that said, I read an authorized biography on Louisiana's former governor Edwin Edwards. While the writing definitely needed editing, the stories/anecdotes were fascinating. So my answer would have to be Edwin Edwards... like him or loathe him, he's agreeably an interesting character.

[Janice]

Eli Sisters from The Sisters Brothers has got to be a memorable character for me.