I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.
This week we're talking about bookish worlds you'd want to live in or never want to live in. Since I previously wrote about bookish settings I'd like to visit, I decided to go in the opposite direction for this one! Here are worlds envisioned differently from our own where I personally wouldn't want to live.
1. Any dystopia (1984, Brave New World, The Giver, Never Let Me Go...)
This seems pretty obvious... the definition of a dystopia is a place or society where things are not good, for one reason or another. There are plenty of books that fall into this category, and I wouldn't like to live in any of them.
2. Any post-apocalyptic world (Station Eleven, The Stand, The Road...)
There's some overlap with dystopian fiction here, but you can have a dystopia that's not proceeded by a catastrophe and a catastrophe after which people manage to rebuild something stable and not totalitarian. Even so, I hope I never have to live through a global catastrophe that wipes out most of the world population (assuming I lived through it, which I probably wouldn't)!
3. Most other futuristic worlds (Leviathan Wakes, Stranger in a Strange Land...)
Even if you look forward and don't foresee total destruction or the dominance of a totalitarian government, I don't necessarily like the predictions. Living in space and being dependent on the galactic economy for affordable air to breathe, or only encountering grass if you're rich enough to grow some inside your apartment? No thanks!
4. Chewandshallow (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs)
A world where food comes down from the sky depending on the weather is something that's fun in theory and would be terrible to actually exist in.
5. Dune (Dune)
This is a sand world that's so dry that you have to recapture and filter your own bodily fluids to stay hydrated. Blergh.
6. The world of His Dark Materials
I admittedly remember very little of this series (one reason I hope to reread them this year), but I remember it seeming very dark and like you were always in danger of getting kidnapped or being the victim of a politically or religiously motivated murder.
7. The Hundred-Acre Wood (Winnie-the-Pooh)
I didn't realize until listening to this series with my son that most of these beloved characters are kind of terrible. Rabbit is mean to everyone, Eeyore is passive-aggressive, Winnie-the-Pooh only visits people as an excuse to eat their food, Tigger lies constantly, and Christopher Robin gets bored easily and acts like he doesn't care about anything. There'd be way too much everyday drama for my taste.
8. Inkworld (Inkheart)
Not only is Inkworld basically like going back in time to when everything was controlled by the feudal system and there was no plumbing, but there's also the matter of people constantly popping in from the "real world" or disappearing forever. It's a fascinating idea to read about, but I wouldn't want to live there.
9. Narnia during the Age of Winter (Chronicles of Narnia)
I understand that Narnia is not always the way it is in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (which is why I also hope to read the whole series this year) but that's always how I picture it when people talk about going to Narnia. I don't enjoy being cold. I don't want to go to a place where it's always winter!
10. Oz (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz or Wicked)
Whichever version of Oz you're talking about, it sounds way too terrifying and unpredictable for me to ever want to live there.
Which bookish worlds would you never want to live in?
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Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing and Dune
Five years ago I was reading: Gone Girl
Ten years ago I was reading: The Drama of the Gifted Child
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