I got a liebster award?

This post is dedicated to the lovely Aimee over at What Aimee Read Next because she gave me the award in the first place. It was extremely flattering to receive this, especially when I am only a couple of months into this blogging business. I then realised I don’t follow many folks with a smaller follower base, so I had to go blog reading to find some folks who deserve the award, whose blogs I like and want to read, and who seem like they are nice and deserve it. I think the most difficult part was finding blogs with less than three hundred followers. I don’t know how you lot do it. So, I would like to say sorry this post took so damn long, over two weeks I’ve been lurking about on blogs trying to figure out if someone had a big or a small following and whether or not they’d been nominated before. I would like to say now, anyone who I have nominated who had it before, sorry, but be flattered that people like you.

So what is the Liebster Award? How does it work? What do you have to do?

These were all questions I asked myself after being informed I was being given it. Luckily for me all the rules were listed over on Aimee's website, so it was dead easy for me to figure out

The Rules:

List 11 facts about yourself.
Answer the 11 questions asked by whoever nominated you.
Ask 11 new questions to 9 bloggers with less than 300 followers.
You cannot re-nominate the blog that nominated you.
Go to their blog and tell them that they have been nominated!

11 Facts About Me

I studied History at university. I graduated with a 2:2 and had an enjoyable three years studying at Lancaster university. Whilst there I lived with the same people people for all three years, they became some of my best friends. And, just so you all know, I loved studying History, it was one of my favourite subjects, and no, I do not plan on using my degree with whatever job I have. It is too difficult, too competitive and requires further education which I can neither afford or be bothered with.
I love computer games. I cannot afford to get these fancy new consoles, the X-Box One and the PS4 (I mean, seriously, we’re on the fourth one already, I still like to play games on my old school Playstation) and so I am not sure about all these new games and that. I have three games or series that I am dedicated to. I love Pokemon, even going so far as to buy a Nintendo 3DS simply to play Pokemon Y. I love The Sims, which I think I’ve told you all before. And, I love the Final Fantasy series. I love it enough that I am almost tempted to save my pennies so be able to get the new one on PS4, but I won’t. Also I’m terrible at games, genuinely horrible at them, but I enjoy playing them.
I love music. I have over 70GB of music on my laptop. I did not realise how much there was until I just checked. It is obscene, really. I do not listen to it all, I don’t have the time to try and listen to it all. Some of it I probably haven’t listened to in months. It’s all a part of this spending impulse control problem I have, I want something and so I buy it. It’s not a problem which is exclusive to my book buying addiction. It is simply a problem I have.
I have a weird thing where I have to read books in order. Even in series where the books don’t necessarily need to be read in order. You know, the series set in the same place with different characters, I have to read those in order as well. It’s not that weird, but it is at the same time.
I like fanfiction. I read it often. I used to read more, but since starting my blog I’ve cut down some, because there are so many books to be read.Sometimes, when I’m bored, I do still like to sample a fanfic or two. I think that they are just a bit easier than starting a book sometimes because you don’t have to get to know new characters, you just dive right into the story and enjoy. I won’t reveal all my fandoms, not unless you really want to know. If you do I may do a post on it.
I really like clothes. I don’t always tell you folks about my love of fashion, but I properly love clothes. I don’t go anywhere so can’t really justify buying a lot of things, but there is nothing more than enjoy that having a shopping binge where I just add clothes to my basket and see how much it costs (it normally goes into the hundreds) it is an evening well spent.
I still live at home with my mom. I little cringe worthy at the age of twenty-three, but the British housing market is expensive and difficult to break into, and a mortgage is not something I can afford. Also, as my many friends have told me, why waste money paying rent for a rubbish apartment when I can pay a pittance to stay home and have my laundry done and meals cooked. This way I can save for my ‘future’.
I have a thing for Home stuff, and housing programmes. I often watch shows like Grand Designs and Location, Location, Location and it makes me happy to sit and look at all the things I will one day buy for my future home. It is probably part of getting older, but I was doing this when I was still at school, so I think it is just a me thing.
I cannot drive. Not even a little bit. I have never sat behind the wheel of a car. I may learn to drive eventually, but currently my provisional license is for use as ID only. The only reason I got my provisional license to begin with was because my passport was looking battered and it just is not acceptable to use as ID when you are going to a club.
My favourite season is winter, because both Christmas and my birthday fall in that season, but weather wise I prefer Autumn. I also prefer Autumn for the fashion that comes out. I adore summer clothing, it is so pretty, but I have a complete inability to endure warm weather, ain’t it the worst?
Finally, because I am currently scraping the barrel on stuff to tell you all about myself, I will reveal something I rarely tell anyone I actually know, let alone internet folk. I am from a single parent family, not such big news I know, but my dad died when I was a baby, a car accident. I will not go into the details, because I don’t know it all. Why am I writing this to you all? It is kind of important to know because it means I properly love books where there is a strong family bond and I find it so interesting to read about different family dynamics because I have never experienced some of the more stereotypical family situations. I am fully aware no family is the same, but books with families playing important roles in a book intrigue me.

My answers to 11 questions

How do you feel about e-books?

I have no real opinion about e-books. I own a Kindle and love it, so I suppose I am an e-book supporter. E-books are great, convenient and really useful for reading on the move. I love being able to carry around a mini library with me without having the weight involved. I do love normal books, they look great on my shelf and they are so pretty, but with limited living space at home I do not have the luxury of buying loads of books.

What is your favourite genre and why?

I want to say fantasy, because it the genre which intrigues me most. It is true escapism at its best in book form. It’s more likely to be contemporary, though. It is my go to genre, anything with a good romance and I am happy. It is amazing, it keeps me so happy. I think it’s my comfort genre, so that must make it my favourite in a sense then.

Why did you start blogging?

I was inspired by the numerous blogs I read. I was reading so many book blogs and I wanted to voice my own opinion. I was previously writing shoddy reviews on GoodReads, so I decided to commit and create a blog. I had attempted a blog a couple of times before, but I think I committed to this one because I have a passion for books and reading, and I enjoy posting.

What is something weird that you do whilst reading?

I don’t do many weird things. I pull a lot of faces whilst reading, I frown and scowl, stick my tongue out for no apparent reason, I think it’s to help me concentrate. I also talk to my books, just as I shout at characters in films, I do the same to the folks in my books. When I find something cringe-worthy I have to look away because I can feel the embarrassment. I am a very involved reader.

Who is your favourite background/support character?

This is a difficult one, each book I read I develop a love for a secondary character, so it changes each week. Currently, I am loving Haymitch from The Hunger Games. He was essentially me in a middle aged drunk’s body. I am angry cynical and angry, as is Haymitch, but he still has a heart f gold. I was so angry at Katniss in the third book, partly because of how she treated Haymitch, I wanted so much more from him in the third book, and he got marginalised because of Katniss. I still love that series, but I did miss the hilariousness of those moments with Haymitch in it.

What is the one book that you really hated but everyone else seemed to love?

This is a hard one. I want to say Smoke and Bone and the entire Grisha series, but I didn’t hate it, I just wasn’t in love with it. There was emotional disconnect, I discussed that over here, and I just did not care enough about any of those characters, I know that is a series everyone loved. I also want to say Twilight, but considering the mega divide between camps with those books I can’t claim everyone loved the series. I also didn’t like Beautiful Disaster, but that was another marmite series, much for the same reason as Twilight was. I can’t claim there is any book I have majorly hated, because I tend to stop reading if I don’t enjoy something. There are several books I did not enjoy as much as everyone else did

What is your fandom of choice?

Are we talking book fandom here? Id we are then it will be Harry Potter every time. It is the best fandom for what I have seen of it, everyone is nice and happy and nice. It’s one of the better communities to be a part of. But my fandom of choice in general? I reckon that’s a cross between the Browncoats and the entire V Mars fandom as both are so nice. I think they were just such nice fandoms, probably because everything has already happened. Everything had been released and the canon is set in stone, so it is essentially all the core fans sticking together to power through the end of something and helping to relive all the memories. God, that sounds weird. But those are my key fandoms, I think, because they are all so damn lovely.

What canon OTP would you change?

I would change Cassie and Adam from The Secret Circle. I always wanted her to end up with Nick, who was way cooler. I was heartbroken when that didn’t happen. I was sure Cassie would realise you cannot instantly fall in love with a dude from a distance and realise this boy who was helping to support her who was watching out for her was worth her time. She didn’t and poor Nick got left on his lonesome, passed up for bloke who was completely willing to leave is long time girlfriend, whom he had cheated on with Cassie, because of some crazy ‘connection’ they had. What a joke.

What book series really needs a TV/movie adaptation?

Well, I don’t really know. I quite like my book staying as books, because so rarely do TV or film adaptations live up to that which you imagined when reading. It is just too difficult to please everyone when it comes to adaptations, which often leaves everyone unhappy. But, if I had to choose, I would quite like to see Fangirl adapted into a film. This is based purely on the below YouTube video I saw, which was absolute perfection and I wanted to see more.

What was the last book I read and why should you read it?

Well, my most recent finished read was Something Like Normal by Trish Doller. I am hoping to write up a review on it, but it was amazing. I know a few folks have recommended it and raved about it, and I enjoyed it. It was too short for my liking and it didn’t quite delve enough into some of the background facts for my liking, but it was a really enjoyable read. Everyone should read it because it is classed as a New Adult book by many, but it is a really original book. It is from a male perspective, surprising

Who I am nominating for this prestigious award

My Questions for my nominees

What is your preferred reading format? E-book, paperback, hardback?
If you could only recommend one book for another to read what would it be and why?
One of the recent themes of Top 10 Tuesday was if you like this TV show or film you should read this, provide a book recommendation based on your favourite film or TV show.
Where is your favourite place to read?
What is your opinion on commenting on blog posts?
What is your most anticipated read of 2014?
We all know about blogger hype, which book have you read which did not live up to the hype?
Name one author whose books you will always read.
There are certain bloggers whose opinions I value of others, when they give a good review I will go out of my way to read that book. Name a blogger whose opinions you value of others and explain why?
What is your favourite part of blogging? The book tours, the reviews, the memes, the community…?
Where did your blog name come from?

Well, that’s all from me then. Thank you for visiting, please comment below, I guess? Got no smart or relevant questions to ask to encourage commenting today, so until next time.

I got a liebster award?

24 May 2014

The Rules:

11 Facts About Me