Skip to main content

Top Ten Tuesdays: Top Ten Favorite Minor Characters

( you know... all those great supporting character or a VERY minor character that might have been only in there a page or two but had an effect on you)

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly blogging meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Please visit the hosting blog to see more lists.

These are only the minor characters I could remember from off the top of my head, so if I were to do this list again it might look totally different.

This very nearly became a Terry Pratchett only list, but I was able to restrain myself (but only just).

In no particular order:

  • Fred from Anyone But you by Jennifer Crusie. The archetypal lovable ugly mutt with a personality.
  • Davy Dempsey from Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie. Sharp and dangerous and very probably a criminal but also a loving brother who will do anything to protect his family. I’m glad he got a book of his own (Faking It).
  • Jemmy from Viscount Vagabond by Loretta Chase. My favourite lovable urchin.
  • Greebo the cat from the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. He is such an epitome of evil felinity that it’s hard not to love him. My friend used to have a cat just like him: evil, smelly and crazy, and father and grandfather to most of the feline population in our village.
  • The Luggage from the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. I wish I had one.
  • The Librarian from the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. Ook, ook!
  • The Death of Rats from the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. He’s always there for the rats (and some humans), has strong opinions that don’t always agree with those of Death and acts as a conscience and guide to some of the characters. I’d like to think he came for one particular character from the Harry Potter universe...
  • Theodore from My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. Theo was an actual person, Dr. Theodore Stephanides, and a remarkable man:scientist, doctor, translator, historian and acclaimed poet. I would have loved to have met him.
  • Hagrid from the Harry Potter books. I actually did a random drawing here, between several characters. I expect to find him on a number of lists.
  • The bums from Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. A lovable band of rogues. The frog hunting chapter is one of the funniest passages in any book I have read.

Comments

Priya said…
You want the Luggage, really? I love it!! But I wouldn't like one following me around everywhere!! The Librarian's awesome; I love how he wants to stay an ape instead of turning back into a human!! Terry Pratchett's characters are so creative! Hagrid is obviously one of the best!!
Nice list!

Here's mine: http://peskypiksipesternomi.blogspot.com/2011/05/top-ten-tuesday-3.html
gabrielreads said…
I had the Death of Rats and the Librarian, too. I also put the Bursar on my list, which is where I cut myself off on Terry Pratchett characters.

Great list!
It appears that you've got the Discworld covered pretty well. I've just started Mort, which will be the second in the series for me. I've already meet the luggage - can't wait to meet the other characters!

Popular posts from this blog

List love: 10 recommended stories with cross-dressing characters

This trope is almost as old as literature, what with Achilles, Hercules and Athena all cross-dressing in the Greek myths, Thor and Odin disguising themselves as women in the Norse myths, and Arjuna doing the same in the Mahabaratha. In modern times it is most common in romance novels, especially historicals in which a heroine often spends part of the book disguised as a boy, the hero sometimes falling for her while thinking she is a boy. Occasionally a hero will cross-dress, using a female disguise to avoid recognition or to gain access to someplace where he would never be able to go as a man. However, the trope isn’t just found in romances, as may be seen in the list below, in which I recommend stories with a variety of cross-dressing characters. Unfortunately I was only able to dredge up from the depths of my memory two book-length stories I had read in which men cross-dress, so this is mostly a list of women dressed as men. Ghost Riders by Sharyn McCrumb. One of the interwove...

Bibliophile discusses Van Dine’s rules for writing detective stories

Writers have been putting down advice for wannabe writers for centuries, about everything from how to captivate readers to how to build a story and write believable characters to getting published. The mystery genre has had its fair share, and one of the best known advisory essays is mystery writer’s S.S. Van Dine’s 1928 piece “Twenty rules for writing detective stories.” I mentioned in one of my reviews that I might write about these rules. Well, I finally gave myself the time to do it. First comes the rule (condensed), then what I think about it. Here are the Rules as Van Dine wrote them . (Incidentally, check out the rest of this excellent mystery reader’s resource: Gaslight ) The rules are meant to apply to whodunnit amateur detective fiction, but the main ones can be applied to police and P.I. fiction as well. I will discuss them mostly in this context, but will also mention genres where the rules don’t apply and authors who have successfully and unsuccessfully broken the rules. 1...

Meme: Top Ten Tuesdays: Top Ten Book to Movie Adaptations

This meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish . To see more favourite book-to-movie adaptations, head over there to see which movies the other participants have nominated. I am going to cheat and interpret ‘movie’ as ‘film’, so I can include television adaptations. Oscar and Lucinda , from the book by Peter Carey. Apart from the changed ending it is an incredibly faithful adaptation, with every character perfectly cast. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo , from the book by Stieg Larsson. This one actually improves on the book, which is well plotted but badly written. Cold Comfort Farm , from the book by Stella Gibbons. Perfect casting and quite faithful to the original. High Fidelity , from the book by Nick Hornby. Moving the story to America didn’t hurt it one bit. Fried Green Tomatoes (at the Whistle Stop Café), from the book by Fannie Flagg. Perfect casting and faithful to the story. Pride and Prejudice from the book by Jane Austen, the latest BBC adaptation. Incredibly f...