The Liebster Award #3 – Books at Dawn’s Questions

Evening, all! I’ve been nominated for the Liebster award by Jesse @ Books at Dawn. Pop over to his blog and say hello if you haven’t already! I’ve done this one twice before, which you can find here (#1 and #2), but the brilliance of the Liebster award is that you end up answering 11 different questions every time, and Jesse’s questions are pretty original.

The Rules

• Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you – Thanks again, Jesse!

• Answer the 11 questions the blogger gives you

• Nominate 11 bloggers that you think are deserving of the award

• Let the bloggers know you nominated them

• Give them 11 questions of your own

1. What was the first book you fangirled over?

While I probably did a lot of fangirling over books before I knew what fangirling was, the first book I fangirled over having known what fangirling is, was ‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins. I read this back in November 2012, and I remember obsessing over it in a way I hadn’t done since ‘Harry Potter’, years previously.

2. Name an author you will always auto-buy from, even if the book is blank.

Agatha Christie. I fully intend to own and read her entire collection in my lifetime, which is a lot of books! Every time I see an Agatha Christie book I do not already own, I have an overwhelming desire to buy it, regardless of the plot or the detective. If the author has to still be publishing books, then John Green. I have read and enjoyed all of his books (apart from his section in ‘Let it Snow’ – I must read that!) and I will read anything that man writes. Previously, I would’ve said Sarah J. Maas, but ‘Heir of Fire’ and what I read of ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ have made me unsure.

3. What was the last movie you saw in the cinema?

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’. Twice. I seriously loved that film! I saw it first with my best friends, then again with my dad. I’m considering going again, in fact. I was going to write a review of it, but I felt I couldn’t really do it justice.

4. Which book do you regret buying?

I don’t think I regret buying many books. If I don’t get around to reading it, I store it for the future, and if I hate it, I am at least glad I have read it. I’m going to go with a non-fiction book, with a little story attached. For my A2 course, I had to buy a biology textbook worth about £25, and the cheapest edition on Amazon was £18. I bought the £18 version of this textbook, then ordered a different, cheaper and less informative biology textbook as a back-up, for £2.80. The expensive book arrived intact, but when the cheaper one arrived, it was in fact not the book I ordered, but a battered copy of the expensive one! If I had just waited to buy the expensive one and only ordered the cheaper one, I would’ve saved £15!

5. Which one of your 5 senses (sight, taste, smell, touch, hearing) could you live without, and why?

I could live without my sense of smell, easily. My sense of smell is actually very poor anyway, and I certainly don’t rely on it for anything like I do my senses of sight, touch or hearing, plus I like the taste of food too much to lose that one!

6. Name a book you would like to see as a movie.

‘The Book of Tomorrow’ by Cecelia Ahern. I’d be interested, as ‘Where Rainbows End’ (or ‘Love, Rosie’) made a very good film, while the movie adaptation of ‘P.S. I Love You’ was awful, so I wonder where this one would lie on that spectrum if it was made into a film. A bonus answer, if we were talking book-to-TV adaptations, I would choose the ‘Codex Alera’ series by Jim Butcher. I’ve only read the first one, ‘Furies of Calderon’, but I adored it (read my review here). I don’t know why I never finished that series, but I would love to see it as a TV show.

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

While there are more and more cases of YA books featuring characters who are non-white, transgender, gay, or have mental illnesses, I still notice a lack of physically disabled characters. Maybe it is as I have a physical impairment that I notice this absence more so than others, but I’ve found that when it comes to physical disability in literature (especially YA literature) it is one extreme or the other: characters are either completely able-bodied, or are severely disabled (see: Amy in ‘Amy and Matthew’ by Cammie McGovern or Will in Jojo Moyes’ ‘Me Before You’). Rarely do you see characters coping with life-impacting yet ‘less severe’ (I use that term loosely – basically not wheelchair-bound) physical issues, such as arthritis, and when you do see disabled but not wheelchair-bound characters, such as Call in ‘Magisterium’ by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black, or Peeta in the latter books of Suzanne Collins’s ‘The Hunger Games’, rarely do you see all that many references to how their disability affects their life – for example, both of the aforementioned characters are involved in strenuous or challenging activities and circumstances that realistically, a person with a deformed or missing leg would not be able to cope with as well as Peeta and Call do – nor do the books examine the psychological effects mobility issues have on characters. It is something I would love to see a lot more of.

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

I don’t tend to like figures of royalty in books, as there is often a cockiness or air of superiority attached to the role, which is my number one hate. Heroes are very predictable characters, and being ‘the best’ or ‘the saviour’ etc. as heroes so often are can also inspire that cockiness. There is something much deeper and more mysterious about an assassin as a character, and the role appeals to me so much more than the other two, so I would choose assassin every time. *Thinks of how amazing Naji is in Cassandra Rose Clarke’s ‘The Assassin’s Curse’*

9. Pick 6 of your favourite characters and pretend they are in a horror movie. Only one can survive, 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?

I love this question! My characters (no more than one per book) – Alec Lightwood, ‘The Mortal Instruments’ by Cassandra Clare; Effie Trinket, ‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins; Henry Branwell, ‘The Infernal Devices’ by Cassandra Clare; Nymphadora Tonks, ‘Harry Potter’ by J.K. Rowling; Fidelias, ‘Codex Alera’ by Jim Butcher; Levi Stewart, ‘Fangirl’ by Rainbow Rowell.

I think Henry would be the first to be killed. He is a little too inquisitive, the kind of person who goes snooping around and ends up meeting his fate because he was far too interested in a discovery that he let his guard down. Effie would probably go next: her defence skills are somewhat lacking, and you can’t run that fast in high heels! I’d say Levi would be killed third. He is a bit too quick to see the best in people, and has no magical abilities or training to protect him like the other three do. Tonks would be the final victim. As an Auror, she is obviously a very talented witch, but with her clumsiness, she has a trait that can be turned against her and lead to her demise. That leaves Alec as the survivor, and Fidelias as our killer.

10. 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?

I hate this kind of question, as I just do not know what to ask! To be honest, I’m not sure I would want to talk to my favourite author; I’m the kind of person who hates meeting people they idolise or admire – I have no desire to meet any celebrities. I would probably choose J.K. Rowling, and fulfil my childhood want for more information by asking her about the school years of the Marauders.

11. In your opinion, who is the worst literary couple ever?

I’m presuming this has to be canon! I have so many hated non-canon ships that other people ship like crazy! Struggling to come up with an answer, I’m going to say Anastasia and Christian in ’50 Shades of Grey’. I haven’t yet read this, but everything I know about this couple screams wrong to me. Of course, this choice could probably be replaced by most pairings from erotic fiction, as I’m sure most of them are just as unhealthy.

My Nominees

(If you’ve done this already, feel free to ignore my tag!)

Raquel @ Rakioddbooks

Shannon @ Just One More Page

Amanda @ The Book Thirst

Chelsie’s Book Addiction

Anna @ My Bookish Dream

Emma the Book Lover

Katarina & Mara @ The River of Books Blog

Charley @ booksandbakes1

Meg @ La Foi Aveugle

Samantha @ Reed’s Reads & Reviews

Zainab @ A Bibliophile’s Obsession

My Questions

1. You have to burn one book from your shelf. Which book do you choose?
2. Which non-canon ship do you ship the most?
3. Name an author whose book(s) you have been planning to read for a long time and just haven’t gotten around to yet.
4. Who is your least favourite author and why?
5. When asked if you have read a particular book, do you ever pretend you have when you have not? (Be honest!)
6. Has there been an instance where you prefer the movie/TV adaptation to the book? What was it?
7. Which book have you owned for the longest and not read yet?
8. How often do you cry when reading? Which book has made you cry the most?
9. Name a popular character you just cannot bring yourself to like. Why do you dislike them?
10. If you could live in any fantasy world, just for one day, where would you want to live?
11. What is the one bookish trope you are most fed up of reading about?

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