Pages

Friday, September 9, 2011

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. 
Book Blogger Hop
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. 

16 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree with you, if my favourite genre ceased to exist, I would still have plenty to read. I'd probably even discover new genres and new authors that I love!

Amy
followingthereader.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

I gotta agree too. Reading is awesome no matter what it's about! : ) New follower here!
Feel free to follow back @ http://www.booklove101.blogspot.com

Sarah (The Book Life) said...

I'd almost feel sorry for the Wicked Witch of the West, too, but Dorothy never really did anything to deserve her wrath.

New follower :0)

My Follow Friday

Sarah @ The Book Life

Beth D. said...

Loved the student/teacher conversation. Why were the vamp books banned at schools? Is it middle grade? Did they include Dracula in that list? oh.. sorry, now I have a ton of questions about this situation! Thanks for the Followage! I will be returning it.

New Follower
Beth ^_^
http://sweetbooksnstuff.blogspot.com/

Christin said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog - I'm a new follower here :) Love your conversation! And I sort of agree with you about the Wicked Witch - that's why I loved Wicked so much.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Jex said...

Creative answer. Lets hope that dystopian never goes out of style :-)

Jex @ Everything and Nothing

Karen L. said...

I haven't read that many paranormal romances, but the ones I've read, I enjoyed, so I'd probably read some more of that genre too. Thanks for stopping by!

Pawing Through Books said...

Thanks for stopping by Pawing Through Books and following. I'm returning the favor! I love dystopian as well and would agree about simply moving on to paranormal romance and other genres!

Jo K said...

I agree. I wouldn't stop reading, I read a lot of genres, so I would definitely find something to my taste if my favorite genre ceased to exist.

Have a great weekend!

http://beyondstrangenewwords.blogspot.com/2011/09/book-blogger-hop-28-follow-friday-3.html

Giselle said...

Haha poor student. I would never be able to stop reading even if I wanted too!! I would switch from YA to UF or PRN.

New follower hopping on by! :)
Giselle @ Xpresso Reads

Anonymous said...

I love your answer! I perused your blog and LOVE your answer to last weeks hop as well. I just read Lord of the Flies in the beginning of the year and totally felt like it was a cop out.
New Follower, and thanks for stopping by my blog.
jfeldt

Jenna and Ashley said...

Beth, I just made the dialogue up. The teens at my school would all have heart attacks if they banned the vampire books (our librarian is too great to let that happen!).

Thanks to all my new followers. J. Feldt, you're too kind. LOTF frustrates me every time I'm forced to read it (luckily, that was only twice!).

Christy @ TheReaderBee said...

The vampire books are big at my daughters school too. :) It would be hard, but there are definitely tons of other books to read if my genre was no longer written. :)

Thanks for hopping by!

Bellas Shelf said...

I would be sad if they no longer wrote my fave genre but would make do :) I love to read and would read the backs of cans and cereal boxs if all books were to go missing!
New follower :) Luv ur blog


Books and Beyond

Jenni Elyse said...

I don't have much pity for villains either. I do have a little pity for gray villains, though.

Sherre said...

Thanks for stopping by. I like the convo. Its so funny, but I completely agree. You cant give up!!!