I keep meaning to take a formal look sometime at whether protagonists are by nature and convention prone to be less interesting than the secondary characters. I can't be the only person who consistently fixes on the supporting cast; and when I do take an interest in a main character, it's a rarity. They have to be really interesting. (Sydney Carton is the first example that comes to mind, and he actually makes the curious evolution from walk-on to secondary character to protagonist over the course of the novel—but he's not the vanilla hero. Hm. Perhaps more about this later.)

(Am greedy reader, I guess.)

Please. I don't mind at all. : ) Anybody—or any book—you'd particularly like to see dissected?