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Greetings my friends! On this fine November morning, or day, I'd like to get you're brain spinning. So, who's your favorite character in a book?

For me, it would have to either be Richard Sharpe in the "Sharpe" series, or, Atticus Finch.

"Why?" You may ask (and if you don't care, bully for you, I suppose) Well kind reader, let me explain: Richard Sharpe is your average, run of the mill soldier fighting in France. But when he saves the Duke of Wellington from three horse-backed frogs, he receives a Field Commission and becomes a leftenant. (That'd be a lieutenant in the American Army) Proving that anyone can rise the ranks. And, Atticus Finch is just a good person, who cares for his fellow man.

There are quite a few, but I'd say mine is Ponyboy from The Outsiders. It's been a while, so I don't remember exactly what I liked about him, but I remember I really liked the characters from that book.

I actually never read The Outsiders. Is it good? If so, I'll have to go on a library trip.

Yeah, it's great! There's also a movie for it, too.

The Outsiders is pretty good. It's got action, history, and some compelling emotional characters. It's not my favorite book in the world, but, I highly recommend it for the pragmatic reasoning that, if you're in the US, it's also a book you're likely to have assigned to you in middle or high school (I know that was the case with me) and there's nothing that eases class for a month or so like getting assignments for a book you already read.

Well as anyone here will tell you, Watership Down is literally the only book I've ever read, so I'll pick Hazel.

I have never read Watership Down either. Is it good?

It's pretty much my favorite book, and the one I've reread the most often over the years. I recommend it pretty frequently whenever there is some dim stirring of life in this section of the board.

Not really a kid's book but it is about talking rabbits, so that is a hurdle for some. (Rabbits that act like real rabbits though, not furries.) One of the characters has a kind of sixth sense and gets a premonition of the warren being destroyed, so a group of them that believe him (or who were just about ready to leave for their own reasons anyway) go on this journey to find a new home.

I've always considered it pretty much the perfect adventure story, although it's a little bit of an older book so it takes a little time to deliver some beautiful imagery and immerse you in things instead of just rushing along. There's this in depth rabbit culture and religion and everything gradually introduced, but as I said the characters really are just normal rabbits and believably act like it. A lot of things are obviously really well researched and the entire book takes place on a patch of English countryside the author was familiar with IRL.

Watership down is fantastic, it's among my favorite books.  I highly recommend it, though I don't think I could do a better job recommending it than Mizal already has.  I read it when I was pretty young, so it was one of the first adult-oriented fiction books I read.  The worldbuilding and history is fantastic, the characters are all well-developed and several go in interesting directions.  It's essentially a fantasy epic, with a more exciting quest and more intriguing development of the main cast's situation than most actual fantasy epics.

Amusingly, my dad always said he though of it as a world war two buddy movie.

Good job having the only other objectively correct opinion in the thread so far!

I have a couple that I can't choose between.

Dantes from "Count De Monte Cristo" (It's an English book, and Dantes is just awesome to follow during the story, and his hardships resonated with me despite never actually going through such hardship like he). Aisulu from "Stand On The Sky"(It's based on a real clan that's living in Mongolia I think, and it's really fascinating to watch her raise and train a real eagle despite the odds). Enjolras from "Les Miserables" (It's an English book, and he's a respectable student with a great cause). Martha Flaherty from "The Long Exile" (she's a strong and brave Inuit girl).

Do you know any of these characters?

Les Miserables is most definitely not an English book. One would think the name gives it away. I did read an English translation in high school though and watched the 2012 movie. Javert was my favorite character, a real tragic hero. All he wanted was to put a no-good thief behind bars; is that really too much to ask for?

That makes sense. I didn't think it through. I also read an English translation, but in Middle School. Javert was indeed a tragic hero, all he wanted was to do his job faithfully. However, he should consider that people can change. Jean Val Jean didn't do any crime after leaving jail. It's not too much to ask for, but in that situation, one needs to re-consider the other side. Despite what I say, Javert's ending was sad though.

He did commit another crime after leaving jail. As you'll recall, he was released from prison after his sentence was up. He was no longer a wanted man. However, he immediately broke his parole, changed his identity, and left for a different city, which is why he became wanted again. Also, I thought it was ridiculous how he tried to convince Javert when he was caught that he needed to go pick up Cosette and he would definitely, pinky promise turn himself in within 3 days. Who's gonna believe that?

Enough people have read this one and have opinions that maybe it'd be a good focus of a book club thread.

It's a great read, but it's also quite long, and while some parts are definitely page-turners, other parts are a bit mundane to say the least. The unabridged English version ranks among the longest novels ever written and infamously has entire chapters dedicated to long-winded tangents about the Battle of Waterloo and its legacy or various aspects of 19th century Parisian society including an entire chapter describing its sewer system. Even the abridged version that I read for school was over 200 pages longer than Watership Down. I know there are even shorter abridged version out there, but I wouldn't recommend them considering how much plot-relevant information I hear they cut out. Given how much the book club thread struggles to stay alive, I'm not sure a book like this would be the best fit.

Well...I read the book some years ago, so I guess I don't remember everything.

True. No one is going to believe a crime committer who says they'll come back after 3 days. However, he was desperate to take care of Cosette, or at least help her the best he can. Jean Val Jean was a little bit of a changed person, and would do anything (even if it's not believable) to help that tiny girl. Javert really didn't believe him, so he ran away and didn't come back even after 3 days. But, if Javert (or another policeman was there instead of Javert) did somehow believed Jean Val Jean, Jean might have actually came back. This is a very small possibility (0.01% possible), but it's not impossible. 

Originally Gandolf, but in modern times Moraine or whatever her name was, from the Wheel of Time, when it still held wonder and awe about how it could all possibly end.

I think I stopped reading around book nine or ten though, when it all changed from that, to the stark realization that this was all just an infinitely expanding clusterfuck of loose-ends that would never be tied up.

And then the rotten bastard kicked the bucket, because by that point, the belt was his only way out of the massive black hole he had dug for himself.

Gurgi from the Chronicles of Prydain was a childhood favorite. Taran himself too of course. 

Hmm I'll participate here. There are a lot of characters from a lot of different media that I have liked over the years; however, one that I keep coming back to is Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities. I read the book a long time ago, so I don't remember every detail, but I have never forgotten the major details of his storyline. Basically, I'm a sucker for self sacrificing characters.
 

Sydney constantly sacrifices himself for his friends and those he loves. From failing law school because he did his friends homework but not his own, to being his friends assistant to make his law firm the best in town, and even giving up his own life to safe a man the woman he loves is in love with, Sydney almost never does anything that benefits himself more than it benefits his friends. This is, to me, an ideal characteristic to have. It falls in line with a lot of aspects of my life, even if it is taken to a more extreme level than I ever have had to go to.

I like to read more business literature. I like to read everything that happened on real events. Now for me it is Henry Ford. Amazing story.

okay tom holland

It's a bot and it's dead now.

Interesting that the bot picked Henry Ford, someone who was a major developer in mass production and assembly lines, along with being a big fan of Hitler.

All things that our mechanical rivals would approve of in getting more of their fellows out there faster, along with rounding up meatsacks into camps.

Well, now I wonder why @Ford picked his name aside from being a romanceable character in Tavern crawler.

On his home planet he goes by Praxibetel.

Honestly no book has ever managed to tickle me in the same way that House of Leaves did when I first read it. Something about the way the relationship with Tom and Navy was drawn reminded me a lot of my own brothers, so I think Tom Navidson might snatch my top spot for favourite character