Feature and Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop (#4)

Let me just say, I LOVE FRIDAYS! Not only is it the end of the week, but my husband got offered a really cool job today at a prestigious university. Um, oh yeah, and we got cable again, complete with DVR:) Our three month trial period with just Netflix and no cable really bummed us out.
Without further adieu, here are my memes this week!

It's that time again! Friday is here! Thanks to Parajunkee and Alison Can Read for hosting a meme that allows book bloggers to get exposure and all of us to make new friends in cyberspace.

Question: Have you ever wanted a villain to win at the end of a story? If so, which one?

I'm trying to think of a story where this was true. If I was truly evil, I'd want the Wicked Witch of the West to win...but I love Dorothy and that would have been horrible, even if Oz was all a dream.

I don't have much pity for villains. If we're talking bad characters, I'd pick Gene from A Separate Peace. He had nice qualities. He just got sick of his best friend being so good at everything. I dislike his choice of purposefully shaking the tree branch that Finny's on because then Finny has a terrible accident. But as far as characters, he's likable enough.

I don't know if he'd be considered a villian even though his bad decision changed his friend's life forever. He never needed to win since he wasn't a villian, but I wanted him to learn something from the experience. 

Jen from Crazy for Books hosts the Book Blogger Hop, where bloggers can gain followers and learn a little about each other in the process.

Question: Many of us primarily read one genre of books, with others sprinkled in. If authors stopped writing that genre, what genre would you start reading? Or would you give up reading completely if you couldn’t read that genre anymore?”

Really great question!

The following is a made up conversation between me and one of my students to fully explain this question:

Student: They banned all those vampire books at the library and the new craze is robots. All the authors who were writing about vampires completely stopped. I can't take it. My life is over. I quit books.

Me: WHAT!? So you're going to stop reading for good?

Student: Yes. It's the only way.

Me: Excuse me!? I did not teach you to be lazy. Things change. We adjust. The human race is flexible. One day, we just didn't use horses anymore for our main form of transportation. There was the train, then automobiles, then planes. Do you think when horses became unpopular, people gave up on getting from Point A to Point B because they didn't want to take the new-fangled steam engine?

Student: Whoa, you're taking this way too far.

Me: I need to. We live in Oklahoma! There are horses around. And you can't stop reading just because something drastic changed in the book world. Adapt. Grow up.

Student: (Runs out of the room in tears.)

Okay, so I don't even ride horses (you'd think I do). On a side note, people in Oklahoma don't ride horses as their main form of transportation. And our Native Americans don't live in teepees. 

If I absolutely couldn't read contemporary or dystopian, I'd turn to paranormal romance first, then historical fiction. If I was bored with that, I'd turn to steampunk and fantasy. There would always be something new to try even though I'd have a defeatist attitude like my fictional student.