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I’m always looking for a good novel or movie. There is nothing better than cozying up in bed with a book or movie with a quirky character to make me smile. (Right about now I am on overdose with dark characters in House of Cards. So let’s look at quirky in a lighter way.) I was inspired to make a list of quirky book and movie characters when the ebook publisher Open Road contacted me and wanted to create an ad campaign based on the quirky characters in their ebooks. I loved their idea, check out their list and you might even discover a new hero/ine.

I decided to make my own list of quirky and quirkyalone characters in books, TV shows and movies. What do we mean by a quirky character? Different from the ordinary in a way that excites curiosity is a starting point. A quiet renegade. Someone who does it his or her own way and shows us something we can learn from.

I polled my fans and friends on social media and referred back to my research. I present you with this list of characters–add your suggestions as a comment please and let the list grow!

1) Alma Whittaker from Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book The Signature of All Things: A Novel

2) Willow from Buffy (early Willow)

3) Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye

4) The incomparable Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice

5) Ray Smith in Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums

6) David in James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room

7) Sarah Nour El-Din of the ravishing novel, I, The Divine: A Novel in First Chapters

8) Radagast the Brown from Tolkien’s world

9) Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter saga.

10) Yentl in The Barbra Streisand film Yentl.

Bonus characters: Amelie in Amelie!, Anton from Summer of the German Solider, Poppy in Mike Leigh’s film Happy-Go-Lucky, Annie-Marie Pugh in Very Annie Mary, Phillip Seymour Hoffman in most roles (RIP), Mark Reynolds in the TV sitcom Don’t Trust the B____ in Apt. 23 (watch this show for serious hilarity), all Joan Didion (White Album, Slouching Towards Bethlehem): “That sense of having a little distance from the goings on around you. Like Didion, the QA is often the best observer of the machinations of society.”

Let’s hear yours! Add your favorite quirky characters here as a comment.

P.S. Welcome to all of you who joined us last week on International Quirkyalone Day! 🙂