The Sunshine Blogger Award

Thank you kindly to Shayney over at Shayney’s Reviews for nominating me for the Sunshine Blogger Award! I’ll link her post here so that you can see all her awesome answers to the questions she received.

Rules:

• Thank the people/person who nominated you.
• Answer the questions from your nominators.
• Nominate eleven other bloggers and give them eleven questions.

My Answers:

1. What is your favourite book that you own? And why?

This would have to be my very pretty hardback copy of The Hobbit. It was given to me by my first love for our first Christmas together a couple of years ago and it’s one of my most treasured possessions. Not only is it one of my favourite stories, but when I look at it sitting on my shelf, I’m always fondly reminded of the loving, caring relationship that I’m thankful we had. In general, I feel like a book is such a special, intimate gift you can get for someone, if it’s a surprise. It’s certainly the fastest way to my heart anyway!

2. Have you ever seen a movie that you liked better than the book?

Honestly, no. I don’t think I’ve read that many books that have been turned into films. I’ve read the obvious ones like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games and The Fault in Our Stars. But not many others. I’ve tried to read The Maze Runner but couldn’t get into the story and wasn’t particularly fond of the writing style. But I thoroughly enjoyed the first two films. They were great fun: action-packed, fast-paced, interesting story. They definitely wouldn’t win any awards but I enjoyed them a lot more than I enjoyed the first 30 pages or so of The Maze Runner.

3. Which book character would you like to switch places with?

I was originally going to answer Tessa (The Infernal Devices) for this one purely because of Jem 😍 But then I thought she’s been through a hell of a lot and I’m definitely no where near as tough as her! So instead I would like to switch places with Abigail Rook from the Jackaby series. Abigail has my dream life basically. She is assistant to a Sherlock Holmes/Doctor Who-esque investigator of the unexplained who has the ability to see and interact with supernatural beings. Jackaby and Abigail join forces to solve murder mysteries and it’s just so cool! They have a lot of fun together and I’d really like to be a part of that awesome world.

4. Do you have any guilty pleasures when it comes to reading?

I’m not sure what really counts as guilty pleasures. I don’t feel embarrassed of any of my current reading preferences – just the old ones! I used to love fallen angel books like the Fallen series and the Hush, Hush series. I also loved Twilight back in the day, too. But, I don’t feel too guilty about liking those because I was just a child who knew very little of what constituted a good story 😂

5. What book has been on your “currently reading” shelf the longest? (Swapped for another book and forgotten about, that you keep meaning to get back to)

I have a shelf dedicated for these types of books on Goodreads. I’m not sure which one has been there the longest, so I’ll talk about a few.

First up is All the Light We Cannot See. I’ve read about 50 pages of this and, although I was enjoying it plenty, it was taking me a long time to get through and I just wasn’t in the mood for it then. I wanted a quick read where I didn’t have to pay too much attention (I read Shatter Me instead!). I definitely want to pick this one back up though but I might wait until Autumn/Winter time as I prefer reading historical fiction novels when it’s freezing outside.

Next up is A Game of Thrones. Oh I really should pick this one back up. I think it’s because I sort of know what’s going to happen already as I’ve watched the TV series so I don’t really feel in much of a rush to read this series yet. One day, I definitely will get to it. But perhaps that will be when all the books are out and I can just marathon the whole series in one go.

Lastly, I also have Shadowmagic on my currently reading shelf. I think I’ve read nearly 100 pages of this one but I just wasn’t enjoying it as much as I thought I would. I found the world to be really under-developed and the character’s reactions seemed very unrealistic to me. But I do want to give this trilogy another go. Mainly because I bought the entire bind up and it does have really great reviews. I’ll just have to lower my expectations before going back in!

6. Has there ever been a book that you’ve been reading that you’ve had an instant connection with? Whether it’s the storyline, or the characters etc… (You don’t have to name the book if it’s too personal)

Not a book but Belle from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. There isn’t a character I relate to more in the world. I mean, a feminist who loves to read who people think is kind of strange? Yep, that pretty much sums me up! But I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way with a book character. I’ve felt really close with them but I’ve never really felt like I’ve had a strong, instant connection with any of them. Not like I’ve always had with Belle anyway.

7. If you could take one book and completely re-read it again for the first time with fresh eyes, which book would you chose?

Ooooh this is a good one. Pretty much all of my favourite books but if I had to pick just one series, it would have to be The Sin Eater’s Daughter. Words cannot describe how much this series means to me and to experience everything I felt the first time around all over again would be incredible. I mean, I had so many emotions whilst reading the first two books in this trilogy. And to not know the plot twists or when and how they were coming would just be the most amazing thing. I’m getting shivers just thinking about it!

8. What is the first book you remember buying for yourself?

I really struggled trying to think of the answer to this one. When I was younger, if I wanted a book and it wasn’t available at the library, I would ask for it as a present for my Birthday or for Christmas. I didn’t mind waiting for a book to read it. But I think that changed when I was 17/18 and started getting slightly obsessed with books. This was the point where I literally couldn’t wait for a book and I needed to read it ASAP. I was dealing with a lot of personal stuff at the time and books were the only thing getting me through the day. They always gave me something to look forward to and I’ve never really lost that connection since.

I’m pretty sure the first book I bought with my own money was Passion, book three in the Fallen series. At the time these books were everything to me. Obviously now my tastes have changed so when I think about how much I loved this series I do tend to cringe quite a bit. But, oh well. Like I said earlier, I was young!

9. What was the inspiration behind you starting your blog?

I’ve never really had anyone to talk to about the kinds of books I love reading. My Mum loves reading too but we have very different tastes so when I start droning on about Shadowhunters, mythical beings or the gloriousness that is Chaol Westfall she tends to tune me out 😂 Which I definitely don’t blame her for! So I just needed a space where I could talk about things that are important to me and also where I could read about other people’s thoughts and opinions. The book-blogging community is such a lovely community to be a part of, too. Everyone is so nice and polite; it’s hard to not feel welcomed here.

10. If you could go back to day one of you setting up your blog, would you do anything different?

I’ve always liked the content I’ve put out there but I think I would have liked to draft a months’ worth of posts in the beginning so I could have had those to fall back on. I was really inconsistent and I actually wrote about 4 posts then decided to take 4 months off from blogging. Whoops. But I like to think I’m slightly more consistent these days and I’m happy with how everything is and where everything is going!

11. What do you do in your spare time?

Aside from reading, I love watching films and TV shows. I also love to sing and go to the theatre. And I love to write. I’m currently writing a four-part urban-fantasy series so that’s a lot of fun. And by fun I mean ENDLESS TORTURE. But it’ll be worth it some day, I’m sure.

To be fair, my life does pretty much revolve around reading. If I’m not diving into fantasy worlds, I’m planning my reading in my reading diary and organising my time to fit around my reading schedule. And if I’m not doing that, I’m filling my head with random, useless facts, quotes and statistics from my non-fiction books and basically anything I find interesting on the Internet. Mythology (and folklore) is one of my favourite things to read about and I’m constantly researching the topic just for fun. I’m a huge nerd like that!

My Questions:

1. Which buzzwords make you want to back away slowly from a book?
2. Which buzzwords make you want to read a book ASAP?
3. Who is your biggest fictional crush?
4. Which book/series would you love to see turned into a film/tv show and why?
5. What are your views regarding diversity in fiction?
6. Do you feel guilty about the books on your TBR shelf?
7. What’s your favourite topic to read about (non-fiction reads)?
8. What is one book you’d recommend to absolutely everyone?
9. How have your reading patterns changed over the course of your life?
10. What’s one thing you’ve done this year you’re really proud of?
11. What is one thing you’re really looking forward to this year?

My Nominations:

• Eat.Work.Love.Read
• Hiraethforthepages
• Universe of YA Books
• Teen Book Reviews
• Bookshelves & Biros
• Nerdy Talks Book Blog
• Myriad Inklings
• The Bookish Mirage
• Bookish Writings
• Life is Sweet in Books
• Muggle Books

Sorry if you guys have already been nominated for this award! But if you do want to answer these questions please let me know so I can have a little read of them 😊