Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Favorite Minor Characters

In all my favorite books I have favorite minor characters.

Lonesome Dove has Gus and Call, of course, but it also has Lorena and Newt. 

I love Calvin and Charles Wallace as well as Meg in A Wrinkle in Time.

It's obvious who the title character is in Anne of Green Gables, but who can resist Marilla and Matthew?

India Opal Buloni and her father, The Preacher, and the dog, Winn-Dixie? I adore all the characters, minor and major, in Because of Winn-Dixie.

How often do you run across Death as a character in a novel? It's Death that makes The Book Thief so poignant.

By the Great Horn Spoon is full of crazy characters: 12-year-old Jack Flagg; his butler, Praiseworthy; Jack's Aunt Arabella; and the dastardly Cut-Eye Higgins.

There's Head of Ranch Security, Hank the Cowdog, of course, but there's also his loyal assistant, Drover; Hank's chief annoyance, Pete the Barn Cat; two buzzards, Wallace and Junior; two coyote brothers, Rip and Snort; and the humans, ranch owners High Loper and Sally May, and their kids, Little Alfred and Baby Molly. All the characters of the Hank the Cowdog series are favorites.

You never know what characters you will encounter in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, but I have come to love inept wizard Rincewind and his luggage and Cohen the Barbarian, the tourist Twoflower, and witches Granny Weatherwax and Tiffany Aching. Oh, and, you can't forget Death.

Don Quixote has the lost dreamer himself but also the wonderful Sancho Panza.

You might be thinking about reading The Count of Monte Cristo now that you've seen the series on PBS. I encourage you to do that. You love The Count in all his pain and hurt, but you will also find yourself intrigued, I think, to read more about Mercedes and Abbé Faria, and the wicked Danglars and Fernand Mondego and Gérard Villefort.



Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.   

14 comments:

  1. Give me a day or two and I’ll think of one!

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  2. Marmee in Little Women? Everybody in War and Peace? The Dwarves in The Hobbit?

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  3. Mary in Austen's "Persuasion." I don't like her but she's a well drawn character!

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  4. That's a cool take on the theme and I also love some of the monor characters in series I read.

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  5. I adored Marilla and Matthew.

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  6. One of these days I really should read Because of Winn-Dixie.

    Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.

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  7. So many great choices! I loved Marilla and Matthew. Granny Weatherwax is a hoot, and I always had a soft spot for Calvin in A Wrinkle in Time!

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  8. Hank the Cowdog. Such a winsome series. I listened to a few of them and laughed throughout.

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  9. Matthew Cuthbertson was a fantastic secondary character! Great choice. Have a good week!

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  10. I was introduce to Granny Weatherwax earlier this year at a Terry Pratchett play. She's a fun character.
    Here's my TTT for the week: https://readbakecreate.com/ten-series-ive-caught-up-on-in-2026/

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  11. Newt is one of my favorite characters in Lonesome Dove!

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  12. Charles Wallace "Onion salt, Meg" as he's making her a liverwurst sandwich!! lol Love him.

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  13. Great choices, Deb. I loved Matthew Cuthbert. Thanks for sharing.

    https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2026/05/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-favorite_0212763717.html

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