Booking through Thursday and some linkage

Too tired to do much blogging, so here’s this week’s Booking through Thursday.

Sometimes I find eccentric characters quirky and fun, other times I find them too unbelievable and annoying. What are some of the more outrageous characters you’ve read, and how do you feel about them?

I love quirky characters, honestly, as long as their eccentricities aren’t their entire personality. One of the things I’ve liked about both the Susan Elizabeth Phillips books I’ve read recently was that the heroines really did seem like quirky people. with odd little ticks. Most authors would have made them come off as completely wacky, but SEP humanized them.

I also have to bring up Charles de Lint, which just goes to show it’s really time for me to read one of the de Lint books I’ve not gotten to. I love how he does quirky. The Crow Girls in Someplace to be Flying are arguably some of his more interestingly eccentric characters, and they’re a large part of the reason why I love that book so.

Authors that didn’t handle quirky well? A lot of them, actually. Particularly ones who write characters who are supposedly Pagan, because no self-respecting Pagan would get within 50 feet of some of these characters.

What about you? Care to share any of your more quirky characters?

Also, speaking of quirkiness, instead of blogging, I have been spending an inordinate amount of time listening to the archives of this obscure NPR show. It is a psychology geek’s wet dream, and I highly encourage y’all to download and listen to some of their episodes the next time you need something entertaining yet thought-provoking to listen to for an hour.