The Sunshine Blogger Award

I didn’t realise how many awards I have to catch up on! So, I’m going to take a break from the tags, and start responding to some of these award nominations. I was nominated for The Sunshine Blogger Award a loooonng time ago by Joey @ Thoughts and Afterthoughts, and more recently by Jesse @ Books at Dawn. If I’ve forgotten you, I’m sorry! Let me know and I’ll answer your questions too.

RULES:

1. Answer the 11 questions from the blogger who nominated you.
2. Nominate some wonderful bloggers and write 11 questions for them to answer.

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JOEY’S QUESTIONS:

1. If you’re in an epic fantasy, what does your warcry sound like before battle? (Spell it out!)

So…I’m a coward and I’m pretty spineless, which means that pre-battle I’d probably just be whimpering and hiding in a corner. Sorry to disappoint you, Joey 😀

2. Who is a villain you despise? Now imagine that your child looks up to this villain. How do you handle it?

I read Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch recently, so the first villain that comes to mind is the King Angra of the Spring kingdom in the Snow Like Ashes trilogy. That guy is pure evil and I cannot stand him!

And how I’d react? “Alright, that’s it. Dishonour on your whole family! Dishonour on you! Dishonour on your cow!” Man, I love that scene from Mulan.

3. You’re a bartender. Concoct a drink with 3+ book titles in the name.

Scarlet Eclipse at Dawn (that makes no sense BUT shout out to Books at Dawn!)

          

4. What is one book cover (minus text on it) do you think could fit another book?

I just received Carry On by Rainbow Rowell in the mail the other day (the hardcover is soooo beautiful! Plus built-in bookmark!). Looking at the cover, Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan came to mind straight away! I mean, lots of contemporary covers are pretty interchangable but I think the Carry On cover represents what Two Boys Kissing is about. Plus the covers themselves are so similar anyway.

5. What’s a song you feel best fits a book hangover?

To be honest, I can’t even think about music when I’m in the middle of a book hangover. But I just happened to be listening to really old Delta Goodrem songs today, and I think Be Strong is really appropriate for a book hangover. Even the lyrics are kind of perfect.

6. You’re on commute surrounded by readers. You notice that some have cracked spines, others dog-ear their pages, a few annotate it. How do you feel?

Like the world is ending?! I am the ultimate freak when it comes to the condition of my books. They have to look perfect even after I’ve read them. Whenever I see cracked spines and dog-earred pages or covers, I am actually horrified. I can’t even fathom… I just can’t. It hurts. But… people can do whatever they want with their books. As long as they’re not mine, then it’s fine. I still freak out though.

7. Would you rather read the page at 25% or 75% (a play on first/last).

Definitely 75%! If I’m going to cheat, I might as well go for the 75% mark where the climax usually is.

8. Blogging-related. How do you find new inspiration?

I think my biggest source of inspiration are all of the bloggers I follow. Being around people who have different kinds of creativity makes me want to push myself harder.

9. Your ideal book-significant other (i.e. boyfriend/girlfriend) ends up being together with one of your friends. Your reaction?

Aentee (Read at Midnight), WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! Aentee and I kind of have the same fictional boyfriends, so I’d probably race to Melbourne to hunt her down and then do a really impressive rendition of Jolene! And then we’d go yumcha 🙂 (So if you want me to come to Melbourne, you better start finding a real life Rowan or Levi).

But if it’s not Aentee, it’s probably Jesse who I need to hunt down. That guy goes around stealing all of my book boyfriends 😛

10. Of all the books on your shelves, which book would you hide something in (you can think about carving the pages out or not)?

I would probably hide something in one of my Penguin Classics. I have about 12-15 of them and they all look the same. It won’t be a book that will jump out at you when you look at my bookshelf.

11. Complete the phrases: “Reading is…”, “Blogging is…”, “[The] Community is…”

Reading is experiencing something you’ve never experienced before in your own life. Blogging is connecting with other like-minded people. The community is a place where I can fangirl as much and as hard as I want without judgment. 🙂

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JESSE’S QUESTIONS:

1. You’ve committed a crime and are going to jail for life. The judge allows you to bring three books with you and those are the only three books you’ll be reading for the rest of your life. Which three are they?

           

This was actually a pretty easy choice. These are my top three favourite standalone books of all time. I wouldn’t want to bring any books that are part of a series because it would kill me to not be able to read the other books.

Obviously, I have to take All The Light We Cannot See with me because it’s my favourite book ever. But I would also bring A Little Life since it has amazing writing, and it’s also a 720 page book. Each re-read would take me forever. And I would bring I’ll Give You The Sun because it’s YA and features a great romance and diverse characters.

2. Pick three characters from your favourite book and play the F*ck, Marry, Kill game.

My favourite book, as mentioned above, is All The Light We Cannot See… but that book really only features the two main characters. The side characters kind of come and go. So I’m going to pick Throne of Glass because I don’t think I talk about how much I love that series enough.

So I’d kill Chaol, marry Dorian, and have some sexy times with Rowan.

3. You’ve been granted a magical power from the Gods. Which power is it and why?

I think I would want the power to communicate telepathically with somebody else. Because sometimes I have a lot of feels that I can’t express with words and it would be cool if they could just read it from my mind, without me having to form the words 🙂

4. You’ve been in a relationship with your man/woman and things are getting serious, but out of the blue they ask you to choose between them or your books. Which do you choose and why?

Oh my gosh, that would be my worst nightmare. Books are such a big part of my life that it would almost be like having to choose between a guy or myself. So, I’d probably choose books because I’d hate myself if I had to give up something that defines who I am as a person. I DON’T KNOW. Ask me again when I’m actually in a relationship.

5. You’re being held at gunpoint and the shooter says he will set you free if you burn three of your books. Which three would you choose?

           

6. Hero, Assassin or Prince/Princess? You can only pick one. Which do you choose to be, in a story with you as the main character?

I don’t think I’m badass enough to be an assassin, though that’s probably the one I would choose. It would be so completely opposite to who I am as a person that I’m interested to see what kind of a role I play in the story.

7. There is a new law coming into effect. It bans (insert genre here) from ever being read/written again. Which genre would you choose?

Horror. I cannot deal with anything scary at all, so I wouldn’t miss horror at all.

8. With wanting more diversity in books nowadays, what is one aspect you believe should be represented more and why?

LGBTQIA+ books are some of my favourite books to read, but I feel like there are quite a few of them out there now, and more and more being released. There are also a lot of books about mental illnesses and POC. What I think I’d like to see more of are books about physical disabilities.

9. Your favourite author is going to call you for a once in a lifetime chance to talk. You can only ask them one question. Who is the author and what is the question? Why?

Anthony Doerr is the author of my favourite book, but I’ve only read that one book by him. I don’t know if I can call him my favourite author. I’ll roll with it anyway. I don’t think I could just ask him one meaningful question, so I’d probably just ask “Can you come to Sydney?” Because there are pretty much no international authors who come to Australia. Plus I really want my first edition copy of All The Light We Cannot See to be signed by him.

10. If your favourite ship doesn’t end up together by the end of the book, would you give it a low rating and why?

Even though ships are super fun, I never base any of my ratings on them. It would be really spiteful if I did.

11. Pick 6 of your favourite characters and pretend they were in a horror movie. Only one will be the survivor, four of them will die, and the other one will be the killer. Who is the survivor, the killer, and in what order did the others die?

Eek. Okay, the characters I’ve chosen are Will Herondale, Cress, Rowan (ToG), Theron (Snow Like Ashes), Celaena, and Jem Carstairs.

Celaena will definitely be the killer because she’s an assassin. And Will is my ultimate book boyfriend so he has to be the survivor. He survives because Jem either sacrifices himself or saves him, as his parabatai. Cress would definitely be killed first because she’s timid. Theron would probably die next – I don’t think he’s as badass as the rest. Rowan would be next to go, as he tries to stop Celaena (she probably accidentally stabs him or something). And I think Jem would stay alive the longest because Will would have his back.

I’m actually pretty satisfied with this story. But I love all of these characters and would never let any harm come to them!

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MY QUESTIONS:

1. If you had to choose between never reading your favourite book again or never eating your favourite food again, which would you give up?

2. Imagine there’s a massive spider next to you and the only way you could kill it was to hit it with your beautiful, signed and personalised copy of your favourite book. Would you do it, even if it means getting spider guts all over your book?

3. What is your patronus?

4. What is your favourite book of all time and would you want it to be adapted to film or TV? If there’s already an adaptation, what do you think of it?

5. If you were given the chance to attend Hogwarts, but had to kill your favourite Harry Potter character in order to attend, would you do it?

6. What is your favourite book that is set in Australia? If you haven’t read one, which one would you like to read?

7. If you could only eat one dessert item for the rest of your life, what would you choose? Pictures please?

8. If you could meet any blogger right now, who would you choose and why? (Link them, so we can check them out too!)

9. If your most anticipated book of the year came in the mail in very bad condition, and you had to send it back to the seller before they sent you another copy, would you just keep the damaged copy or wait for a replacement? Basically, imagine that you have to either return it that same day or keep it forever.

10. Do you have a favourite review that you’ve ever written? Why is it your favourite?

11. Name your top two favourite authors of all time. If they were both doing author events on the same day, at the same time, which would you choose to attend?

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I TAG:

• CW @ Read Think Ponder
• Evelyn, Vane & Tash @ Books with Chemistry
• Giselle @ Hardwork Boulevard
• Jasmine @ Jasmine Pearl Reads
• JM @ Book Freak Revelations
• Josie @ Josie’s Book Corner
• Kelly @ Dancing Through The Pages
• Maan @ Pigeon Reads
• Nicolette @ A Little Bookish, A Little Writerly
• Stefani @ I Read Books
• Summer @ Xingsings