I wish I could say that I have read something really wonderful lately, but I haven’t.  However, I have been thinking about heroes, or main characters, male and female.  One of the sites that I belong to compiled a list of literary losers, a list inspired by the 60th anniversary of Snoopy and the Peanuts gang.  Charlie Brown probably is the ultimate lovable loser, no super strength or special talent, except, possibly for his optimism in pursuing the little red-haired girl, of thinking that Lucy will leave the football in place so that he can kick it.   And of course, it is his optimism which makes him lovable, that and his unwavering steadfastness in the face of overwhelming odds.  That is what I think of when I think of a literary loser.  I think of a main character who endures, who refuses to give up even when things are somehow going wrong.  Some of the books on Abebooks’ literary loser list are The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, and Post Office by Charles Bukowski among others.  However, when I think of literary losers, the one that comes to mind immediately is Quoyle of The Shipping News, which is number six on their list.   The Quoyle of the book (not the movie) is physically unattractive, bungling at work and inept at relationships in the beginning of the book, but by the end, we see him quite differently.   Also, we might have to put Olive Kitteridge on the list.  Olive is not always likeable, and is certainly flawed, but so well drawn that she could walk right off the page and take up residence in your neighborhood.  Other books mentioned are Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (has anyone actually read that?),  Rabbit Run by John Updike, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and that delightful children’s book Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume.