I recently got tagged by Eline from Aqua Pages (I love this name, it gives such literary mermaid vibes) for The Liebster Award! I haven’t answered tags & awards lately because I normally forget them for, like, SIX MONTHS and then I’m embarrassed to post, but I figured that since my last one I have followed many new people, and it would be a nice way for us to get to know each other!
My last Liebster Awards:
Liebster Award – Discover new blogs
Rules:
- Say thank you to the person who has nominated you for the Award.
- Answer the 11 questions the person has asked you
- Nominate 11 people
- Ask the people who you have nominated 11 questions
Eline’s Questions
Which book would you recommend people to read immediately?
I will go for my usual answer… Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
What keeps you blogging?
Routine, mostly. Wow, this must be the driest answer in the world. Let me explain.
I love reading so, so much! I can talk about books forever. I started blogging because I read way more than most people I know, and in different genres, too. It’s not easy to find someone to talk about a literary fiction book with my friends and family. It’s just not something people usually read.
BUT –
I have so much to do (as most people) and lots of it is working, going to the gym (I’m training for my first 5k!), cleaning etc, which leaves some hours on my week to read & do other relaxing activities, but not as much time as I’d like, especially for blogging. So, to actually keep blogging consistently, I routinely answer comments from my phone during coffee breaks or between gym exercises (really), write down ideas on my phone for blog posts when I have some, edit blog posts in the morning when I wake up and still am waiting on my coffee to be ready, and writing longer posts during the weekends. My reviews don’t normally take more than 20min to write (depends on the review, though), so I easily sneak one in on my weekly routine.
I also make sure I always have LOTS of drafts (from zero words written to ready-to-publish) for times when I can’t really blog prep at all. Apart from my Sunday posts, I tend to have up to 1 month of pre-scheduled posts. Which is why you guys normally get reviews weeks (or months) after I actually finish a book. I let go a bit of my need to publish reviews before books come out or within the next few days, and suddenly blogging was easier.
If it wasn’t for my routine and sneaking blogging time into short breaks, I’d never be able to keep doing it.
An upcoming release you’re very excited about
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I need this.
Do you like to write and if so, why? (Doesn’t have to be writing as in a big project like a novel)
I do. Since I was a child, I have always loved writing, which his why I started this blog! While I loved writing stories, I’ve just always been better at expressing myself in written form, which is why I
What’s your favourite genre and why?
I think I would say fantasy, but to be honest, I read all kind of fiction genres, and some non-fiction too. I’d say fantasy and literary fiction.
What is a book in your favourite genre that you haven’t seen getting enough love lately?
This book made a buzz when it came out but I kind of stopped hearing about it afterwards. It’s so, so good.
One character trope you like and one you hate
I’m not the biggest fan of hate-to-love tropes. It can be done well (Daisy Jones broke my heart), but normally I just cringe. You can’t… HATE someone and then change your mind and now you love them.
My favorite trope is probably
How many books is on your TBR list and do you wish it was fewer?
About 200… for the past months it’s been between 190 and 200, every time it goes below 190 I go and add more books (unintentionally hahaha). I do wish it was fewer! I have gotten rid of several books from my TBR and my shelves because my tastes change with time… and some books I bought 1-2 years ago and haven’t read yet don’t really interest me anymore.
What kinds of books were you reading as a 12 year old?
Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, I’m not sure what else.
Recommend me some of the blogs you follow!
I recommend everyone I’m tagging below! Also:
Diary of a Book Fiend (she’s on a hiatus at the moment)
My Questions
Because I am lazy, I mean, resourceful, I used most of the questions from my last Liebster and just changed a few:
- What book you wish you could un-read to experience it for the first time again?
- What’s your Hogwarts house? (or, alternatively, if you aren’t into Harry Potter: what cool superpower do you wish you had?)
- What popular book have you not read yet?
- What are some of your favorite authors?
- What book do you LOVE but you don’t normally recommend to people? (because it’s a heavy book, or a niche topic, or super long…)
- What book are you always recommending to people?
- What middle grade book do you wish you had read as a kid?
- How many books do you have in your TBR?
- What bookish universe could you live in?
- What genre do you read most?
- What is a bookish goal that you have for 2019?
Naty's Bookshelf 
Thanks so much for the mention I really appreciate it 🙂
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Aw thank you for the mention!! And 200 books on your TBR isn’t bad at all imo, mine is somewhere around 700 or 800 (but when I say ‘TBR’ I’m referring to my Goodreads ‘want to read’ shelf, I have no clue how many unread books are actually on my shelves, lol).
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Oh my gosh, that sounds very stressful!! Do you want to one day read them all or do you use the TBR as a reference of books you’d like to read, maybe? My dream is to have maybe 20 books on my TBR and just go to the bookstore, pick up a new book and READ it instead of having my books wait for years sometimes to get read… but I know some people who hate the idea of small TBRs.
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Hmm good question… I feel like it’s somewhere in between, like, I would LOVE to one day read all of these books but if I think about that for too long I get stressed, so I’m content to have my TBR serve as a kind of recommendations pool. I’m one of those people who hates the idea of a small TBR – I know there will always be more books to discover but I feel like there are so many backlist books already on my radar that I’d like to read. But, I have a similar goal of getting to a point where I can buy a book and come home and start reading it, but for me I think that’s more about letting go of the idea that there are some books I ‘need’ to read before I can read others. This should be a very low stakes hobby AND YET…
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I think book bloggers in general take this hobby very seriously. I don’t anyone for whom this is a job, but I know everyone gets stressed and overwhelmed about how much work it is to read what’s trendy, what you are interested in, the books you “should” have read by now… we’re all a bit perfectionist, I think.
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Aw, thank you so much for the mention. That’s so kind! 🙂 And I’m so with you on ‘accidentally’ topping up my TBR every time it starts to feel manageable, haha.
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My pleasure!! One day we’ll manage our TBR… I hope. Hahaha
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I wonder why they picked 11 as the number for tags and questions… Thanks so much for tagging :]
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I have no idea! After tagging people I realized I had more than eleven, but don’t tell the gods of the Tag Rules and I should be fine!
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Thank you for the shoutout!
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Thanks for the shout-out! ❤
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Thanks for the tag! 🙂
My dream is honestly to have my queue set up a month out, so I’m jealous. Hopefully I’ll be able to work up to that, though! And I actually saw Fonda Lee speak on a panel at a sci-fi convention a couple months ago, but I haven’t read any of her work. I’ll have to pick up Jade City!
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Honestly, any other way and I wouldn’t be able to blog at all… I have days when I write 3-4 posts and then a whole week when I don’t want to write anything.
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Thank you so much for including me! ❤
And aw man, you are sporty AND have a 1-month blog post queue?? I'm such a disorganized slouch! But… at least I'm a disorganized slouch with an extremely organized TBR 😉
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Girl, if you saw me running you’d never confuse me for a sporty person. 😂
Organizing my TBR is my dream tbh, I sometimes remember I have certain books I should’ve read & reviewed by now. Ooops
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Great answers!!! I had posts scheduled up for up to a month for a while, but then I just didn’t keep it up and now a blog schedule is a bit all over the place depending on how busy I am, so I totally get how making it routine helps. Reviews are what I like the best, but I also use way too much time on them. I also get the TBR problem, it always creeps up again after making an effort in lowering it, it’s like magic hah
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Thank you so much for the tag! Blogging is very much a part of my routine as well, which definitely helps. I’m also a compulsive scheduler, which is important for me because I am a mood writer and sometimes I just don’t feel like writing posts for a week or longer! Scheduling saves my butt. hahaa. I loved reading your answers!
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