I actually have never put too much thought into what it would be like to live in. The obvious answer would naturally be to pick dystopian worlds, but I am generally a huge rule-follower, so I actually think I would be fine in some of these kinds of worlds. For example, I don’t necessarily agree with the faction system in Divergent, but if I was forced to live in that world I would probably be okay because I’d want to follow the rules of it. Part of the reason I have trouble imagining living in most bookish worlds is because I tend to associate them with the problems they face in the stories. I would absolutely love to go to Hogwarts but I would not want to be there during the years when Harry Potter was there. Between having the Chamber of Secrets open to having Dementors stationed around the school to just dealing with Umbridge as a teacher, it would not be a great time to be there. Similiarly, I’d love to live in the wizarding world, but only after Voldemort had been defeated. It’s tricky for me sometimes to separate myself from the story and think of the world as its own entity.
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
1) A Time Loop (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), because I think it would be very frustrating to be stuck re-living the same day over and over. Miss Peregrine and the ymbrines do their best to keep everyone safe, but I would hate to never be able to leave.
2) Panem (The Hunger Games), because I have virtually no survival skills and would never stand a chance if I was chosen to compete in the Games. And with my luck, I would definitely be chosen. I guess your life might be pretty good if you were able to live in the Capitol, but it would come at a very steep cost of supporting the games.
3) Wonderland (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass), because the characters are all so frustrating to talk to! Most of them talk in riddles or spout pure nonsense so it would be annoying to try and have any kind of conversation.
4) Verity (This Savage Song), because it is a city that is overrun by monsters and the only way to gain protection is to pay for it. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved this duology, but I would definitely not want to live there!
5) New Beijing (The Lunar Chronicles), because although it might be cool to have a society of people who are living on the moon, the world is also suffering from a plague. Plus, I would not want to live under Queen Levana’s reign.
6) The post-Rising world (Feed), for the obvious reason — it is set in a world where the cures for diseases such as cancer and the common cold have inadvertently created a new virus that has turned people into zombies. As far as zombie stories go, the people in this one have actually seemed to learn to live with so it isn’t the worst it could be, but I would still hate to live in a world overrun by zombies
7) Airstrip One (1984), because although it is a very interesting world to read about, it is not somewhere I’d ever want to live. I don’t like the idea of “Big Brother” constantly watching everything or how they try to control not only people’s speech and actions, but even their own thoughts
8) Cloral (The Lost City of Faar in the Pendragon series). Actually, I think this territory sounds amazing, but I would personally hate to live there because it is entirely underwater and I’m not a strong swimmer. I’m extremely uncomfortable around deep water so this territory really wouldn’t work for me.
9) Prufrock Preparatory School (The Austere Academy in A Series of Unfortunate Events). I wouldn’t have it quite as bad as the Baudelaire’s did since I am not an orphan and wouldn’t have to stay in the shack, but the rules at this school are ridiculous and I definitely would not want to listen to Vice Principal Nero play his violin every day!
10) The unnamed setting of Fahrenheit 451. If I’m completely honest, I have no memory at all of this book, which I read just under 2 years ago. I just know I wouldn’t want to live in a world where books are burned, and where there is a Mechanical Hound that chases people down if they don’t cooperate
Abyssal Librarian 