#MicroblogMondays 19: Caught in a Good Book

by Mel

33 comments

1 Middle Girl { 01.05.15 at 7:40 am }

I haven’t so much wanted to inhabit the worlds the characters lived in as I wanted a beloved character to live within me, I wanted to become them, walk in my steps in the real world.

2 dennasus { 01.05.15 at 7:54 am }

I LOVE discovering new worlds through books, Harry Potter was one, of course and Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next Series another. I’m not sure I’d be willing to crawl into one though, I’m rather glad to be watching them from the outside. Or a tiny hidden corner of these worlds 🙂
Some time ago I had started with Prattchett Disc World series, but I didn’t really got hooked, so I put reading those books on a backburner.
But I’m definitely going to check out the Magician series, because I’m always interested in new book worlds.

3 Turia { 01.05.15 at 8:26 am }

When I was little (ten or so), I found Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series. I must have spent three or four years wishing with all my heart that I could have been a part of their adventures. I even used to dream about the books with me as one of the characters. It was the same with Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar Tapestry.

I still think if a door to the faerie realm opened up in front of me, I’d walk through.

4 Persnickety { 01.05.15 at 8:33 am }

So many many book worlds! Harry Potter, Robin McKinley’s Damar and the library from her first beauty and the beast book, the VorKosigan universe, the lakes district of Swallows and Amazons. And many more I can’t think of.
Sometimes I want to live in the world of a book, sometimes I just want the characters to exist in my world, I don’t want to live in theirs.
I think this is one of the drivers for some people to write fan fiction, trying to live in that world just a bit longer…

5 Cristy { 01.05.15 at 9:16 am }

Oh so many, Just started watching “Nebraska” and really recommend it. Other obvious ones are “Wizard of Oz,” “Harry Potter” and “Battlestar Galatica.” Need to think about this more, but the list is definitely long.

6 Rachel { 01.05.15 at 9:49 am }

Harry Potter….hands down. I can remember being young when I read them, and things weren’t good at home, and I would go to bed and beg God to make me part of Harry Potter’s world. Over and over again. Even though life is good now, I can still taste how badly I wanted to be part of Harry Potter’s world. If I was given the chance now, regardless of how much I love my life, I think I would still seriously think about it…. LOL.

7 earthandink { 01.05.15 at 10:33 am }

I just lost my comment. Argh.
First: Harry Potter’s world. But only if I’m a wizard. I don’t want it as a muggle.
Second: Star Trek’s world. They seem to have dealt with prejudice and inequality and I love that. I think if we could get past those two things, we would have a chance at being a pretty great place to be, our Earth, so Star Trek makes me hope we can do that. I’d like to experience that world.

8 Lori Lavender Luz { 01.05.15 at 10:45 am }

Oooh, I’m in Game of Thrones now, and it’s a world I would NOT want to live in.

I messed up the first link. Feel free to delete it if you want….

9 Geochick { 01.05.15 at 11:35 am }

I love losing myself in the world of a book. There’s a few that have always grabbed me as a place I would want to crawl inside: The worlds of Jane Austen, Star Trek and Dune. They’ve stuck with me since the first time read the books/watched the tv show.

10 Eryn { 01.05.15 at 12:05 pm }

Ohh… so many great books I wish I could have gotten lost in. Two that come to mind are ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ and ‘Beautiful Ruins’… but there are so many more!

11 Shail { 01.05.15 at 12:26 pm }

I’d definitely like to go and be part of Wodehouse’s Blandings Castle 🙂

12 Tiara { 01.05.15 at 12:37 pm }

Over Christmas I binge-watched all four seasons of Game of Thrones & became completely immersed in that world. For books, I’ve always loved Maeve Binchy for her ability to create a place I’d want to be lost in.

13 Laurel Regan { 01.05.15 at 1:09 pm }

I dream of moving to the world of Coventry, as featured in Becky Cochrane’s books A Coventry Christmas and A Coventry Wedding. I’m not normally a fan of the romance genre, but these books are SO different from what you might expect, and the world she’s created is full of people I want to meet and know. Seriously lovely, and I’m waiting with bated breath for a third book to make it a trilogy!

14 anks { 01.05.15 at 1:25 pm }

I think everyone who loves stories had fallen in love with this fantastic worods. While I am absolutely in love with Harry Potter, I am also inamely jealous of JK Rowling to have created it .

15 torthuil { 01.05.15 at 1:44 pm }

Going to be unoriginal and say what people have probably already mentioned: Tolkein’s Middle Earth, Diana Gabaldon’s Scotland (and pre-revolutionary America), Harry Potter too (reminds me I haven’t read Harry Potter in a long time). I feel like I’m missing something. When I was a child I definitely wanted to be inside L.M. Montgomery’s 1900s Canadian Maritimes (Anne of Green Gables, Emily trilogy, etc.) I also enjoy Phil Rickman’s Merrily Watkins series and could totally visit that world (maybe not live in it)

16 Cynthia Samuels { 01.05.15 at 2:44 pm }

I wrote this post about The Newsroom before I saw your question but I would love to crawl into that world (really, to return to it since it used to be my world…when it existed as it did in this show.) So sad that it’s gone. My other choice would be the Glass Family for sure. You may remember that I posted here about a quote of Seymour’s. I really DID want to be them when I was a teenager and still love them dearly. WHAT A GREAT QUESTION!! No surprise though, since it’s you, Mel.

17 Ann Z { 01.05.15 at 3:00 pm }

Fun question! I enjoyed Levi Grossman’s Magicians books (second more than first, haven’t read the third yet), but “soft and comforting and warm” are not terms I’d use to describe that world.

I think the first world I truly fell in love with was Oz, and then the universe of Wrinkle in Time. Since then, I’ve fallen in love with Lois McMaster Bujold’s worlds (from both the Vorkosigan sci-fi series, and the Chalion fantasy series), and the Gunnerkrigg Court world (online web comic). And since I’m now reading Harry Potter with my daughter, I’m reminded of how much I love that world, too.

18 Mrs T { 01.05.15 at 4:26 pm }

I prefer dystopian novels, so unsurprisingly I’m having a hard time coming up with one I’d want to live in! Going back to childhood, I wanted to live in the Boxcar Children books or Harriet the Spy.

19 Justine { 01.05.15 at 5:00 pm }

Harry Potter, hands down. I always wished I could go to school forever, and Hogwarts would be an ideal place to be. Though I used to lose myself in all sorts of worlds: the Anne of Green Gables books, the Nancy Drew series, Narnia. And I loved The Phantom Tollbooth, too. 🙂

20 JustHeather { 01.05.15 at 5:04 pm }

Ooh, I loved the Clan of the Cave Bear series when I was younger and would have loved to lived with Ayla and Jondalar. 😀 I am sure there are other books I would love to live in, but these days, it’s all about Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. (Sheesh, I sound like a broken record nut job for always refering to this series!)

21 Jess { 01.05.15 at 6:49 pm }

Hmmm. I read a lot of books with world-creation at their center, but usually that world is colossally messed up, like Game of Thrones, or Hunger Games, or Legend, or Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake trilogy. I do love when a world is so real I keep obsessing about the characters after I’ve finished a book, like Game of Thrones (which surprised me because that fantasy world is not usually my bag). I also love when I cry at the end of a book because it’s ending and I can’t live there anymore. Sadly though I can’t remember the last book where this happened for me, but it’s out there! Great question.Ohhh, Anne of Green Gables, to steal from Justine. Loved her world.

22 Junebug { 01.05.15 at 6:51 pm }

“Discovery of Witches” by Deborah Harkness was my big find last year

23 Junebug { 01.05.15 at 6:53 pm }

And “Anne of Green Gables” of course. I love Gilbert Blythe.

24 Mali { 01.05.15 at 8:41 pm }

I read your post this morning, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. I fall into books easily, and so often want to be absorbed in their world. Love the idea of Jane Austen’s world that someone mentioned – and the talk of Hogwarts reminds me that as a child, I loved the boarding school books, and wanted to be at them (many of Enid Blyton’s (Claudine at St Clare’s etc), and the Chalet School books). But in terms of an actual World, I loved Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover, especially for the feminist element, when I read it many years ago. Also Terry Pratchett’s Discworld for the laughs, though I wouldn’t want to live there.

25 Northern Star { 01.05.15 at 10:15 pm }

The first time this ever happened to me was when I was 12 and read the Secret Garden. I’ve since read it several times and it brings back this feeling of wanting to join their little world!

26 Jamie { 01.05.15 at 11:32 pm }

Harry Potter, for sure. Anne of Green Gables, as well. I love historical fiction. The television show that I am really into right now is Call The Midwife.

27 Vidya Sury { 01.06.15 at 1:23 am }

It would have to be a series of P G Wodehouse books, Mel!

Happy New Year to you! I love the questions you pose with #MM 🙂

28 Jules { 01.06.15 at 6:34 am }

Just discovered #MicroBlogMondays. Another great idea Mel!

29 Corinne Rodrigues { 01.06.15 at 12:42 pm }

Would you be surprised if I wanted to visit all of Jane Austen’s stories, Mel?
Aren’t you a creative genius! I am amazed!

30 mijk { 01.06.15 at 5:21 pm }

Did you read the inkheart trilogy i think you’ ll like it!

31 Rebecca { 01.06.15 at 5:28 pm }

I want to live in the world of Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood trilogy (Dawn, Adulthood Rites and Imago). (Actually, I want to live in the worlds of all of Octavia Butler’s books and I want her not to have died and to write many more worlds… and now I’m making myself sad.) Whenever I re-read those books I live there again and, when I finish, I don’t want to leave.

And, now I know that it is time to go back to that world… after Magicians, that is, because that’s actually the next one lined up on my e-reader.

32 Rebecca { 01.06.15 at 5:30 pm }

Ooh! And I second the Maeve Binchy reference above, too! Her worlds are wonderful.

And, now I’m sad again. Why do my favorite writers keep dying?!

33 Deboshree { 01.07.15 at 1:02 am }

Harry Potter! I wouldn’t mind Alice in Wonderland either – or that wonderful garden she manages to get into.
P.S: I love this idea of Micro Blogging Mondays. I am definitely joining. 🙂