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Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.
This week’s topic was a little tricky for me because I’m an adventurous and eclectic reader. I don’t regularly read romance, non-paranormal horror, westerns, or mysteries, but I have no problem picking up a book from one or more of those genres if a trope or clever plot twist in them tickles my fancy.
Of course, I still draw boundaries about what I’m willing to read and watch. I do not consume stories that make excuses for violence, hatred, or any form of abuse.
That is to say, I may read about these topics if they are themes in a story that otherwise appeals to me. They are a sad part of life, after all, and some authors have marvellous things to say about how people have risen about these experiences and helped others to escape them, too.
I will not read authors who make abusive relationships sound romantic or normal or who demonize entire groups of people for immutable characteristics like race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, disability, etc.
Luckily, authors who write this way generally give hints that they will go in those directions within the first chapter or so based on the ugly comments they often make about their characters while introducing them. Older novels are more likely to share such views in some cases, although there are still plenty of them that do not cross this line.
The beautiful part of reading book reviews is that many of them will mention stuff like this. I have only had to write a few such warnings in the hundreds of reviews I’ve written, but I think it’s better to let people know in advance than it is to give them a terrible surprise when they were expecting to read something nice.
The vast majority of the books I read are ebooks, so my place is always marked in them automatically unless there’s a technological glitch. That doesn’t make for a very fun answer to this week’s prompt, so I’ll keep talking.
Anyone who has participated in the Wednesday Weekly Blog Challenge or who has followed this blog for a few years will probably not be surprised by this answer at all.
When I was a teenager, I wrote a little bit of fan fiction for a couple of my favourite worlds (Narnia and the prehistoric world set in Jean M. Auel’s Earth’s Children series that I’ve talked about here so often, if you’re curious). I never finished any of it and it doesn’t exist anymore so far as I know, but I had a wonderful time playing around with characters and settings I knew so well.
I’m bending the rules this week and giving two answers to the prompt because I know we’ve had at least one vegetarian participate in the past. I don’t want to make them read about something that might bother them.
Many bookcases out there are quite tall. I’m a little shorter than average, so it always makes me a tad nervous to stand on my tiptoes and try to grab a book on the top shelf. This is even more true if the book is oddly shaped or heavier than usual as I have scary thoughts of one of them falling onto my face and scratching my cornea or cracking my glasses. (Yes, my fears are quite specific sometimes. Ha!)
My perfect weekend getaway would happen on Prince Edward Island.
The possibilities are endless, and I’d relish any of them.
1) They are kind, loving, and accepting of everyone.
That is the sum total of my celebrity experiences. I tend to avoid celebrity culture and take an alternate route if I see paparazzi clogging up a sidewalk here in Toronto, but I hope everyone who is into that sort of stuff has plenty of opportunities to rub elbows with celebrities if they so desire to.