Liebster Award

I was nominated for the Liebster Award by the wonderful Mandy @Book Princess Reviews – please go check out her blog and marvel over her unique princess rating system. So cute!

Rules

1. Thank the person who nominated you and answer the 11 questions they’ve written for you.

2. Nominate 11 people and give them 11 different questions to answer.

Questions

1. If you had to sort your own personal library, how would you do it – color, author, another way?

Personally, I organize my books by series more than anything else. I don’t have a ton of space in my room, so I only have one bookcase there. That’s where my favourite books and series are located: Harry Potter, Shadowhunter Chronicles, Percy Jackson, Throne of Glass/ACOTAR, Ember in the Ashes, all of my leatherbound classic books, any signed books that I have, etc.

There are two bookshelves in the family room that a lot of my other books are on. They’re more or less sorted by genre/type, so there’s a shelf of all of my school books, a shelf of books from when I was a kid, all of my other copies of HP, etc. And I have a book problem, who doesn’t? So I had to store a lot of my books in large storage bins when I came to the Peace Corps and they’re not organized at all.

2. How important is a cover on a book for you?

It’s terrible, but I totally judge a book by it’s cover. There are just certain covers that pull you in and the book completely lives up to the beauty on the outside. I’m usually good at judging a book by its cover, but I remember seeing Cinder on display at my library and thinking.. ‘hmm that’s a weird x-ray or robot foot in a shoe?’ and then never reading it. Imagine if I had taken a chance on it then rather than stumbling across it again last year and reading the whole series? I could have fallen in love with it so much sooner!

3. What made you choose blogging – not Youtube or etc. but blogging?

I love talking about books. I decided to start writing reviews a few years ago on blogger but wasn’t very good about posting them. I kept changing the style of how I wanted the posts to look and the format didn’t always line up properly once posted. I’d write a lot for months and then life would get in the way, as it does, and I wouldn’t write for a while. I was never satisfied with the look of my blog and eventually switched over to WordPress – I’m so happy I did! I essentially started over, but I feel so much more connected to this site and community.

4. What Princess (or Disney character) can you relate the most with? IF you don’t watch much Disney, what fictional character period can you?

Even though my favourite character is Mulan, I’m probably not most like her. Being a voracious reader my whole life, a little odd, brunette with hazel eyes, I’ve always been compared to Belle. So when my cousins and I would play as kids, Meg was Ariel, Kaitlyn was Cinderella and I was Belle. I remember there was a CD (and maybe dolls?) that Disney created where Belle, Cinderella and Ariel were in a band. That was the best for us, haha. Anyone else remember them?

5. If you could only have one song as mood music to reading, what you choose?

This is just cruel. I’d probably have to go with something either classical, or the instrumental version of a song. Words would be way too distracting to read to, background or not. (One of) my favourite classical pieces is Vivaldi’s Spring, which would be perfect to read to. I’m obsessed with Beauty and the Beast right now, so I would also consider the Prologue (instrumental) or Transformation song. It would make any read magical.

6. If you had to have your favorite meal – sans arugula of course – what would it be?

Well that is a strange specification, is there a story behind that? Potatoes are my favourite food, so a meal involving them, lots of veggies, and homemade bread would be the best. Preferably either made by my mom or my grandma, there’s nothing better.

7. Do you have a favorite time of year? If so, when is it and why?

Autumn. There’s no time better in New England, the crisp air, changing leaves, apple cider, pumpkins, Halloween (haunted houses, corn mazes, hayrides), and getting to wear my favourite boots. There’s an art festival I love going to in October with a huge library book sale, tons of arts and crafts for purchase, delicious food, and a raffle.

8. What was your last binge watch/read?

A friend just gave me digital versions of the X-Files to watch, and I’ve never seen them before so I just started watching them. They’re sooo 90’s. I just can’t. But I’ll be home in 3 months and have access to Netflix, Amazon Prime and proper internet – so what should I binge watch?

9. What was your favorite story (folktale or fairytale maybe?) as a kid?

My entire childhood was Disney, Disney, Disney, so my favourite fairytale was whatever movie I loved most at the time. Probably Aladdin. But my parents told me stories all the time and my favourite were made up by them about the Peaceable Kingdom. My mom was actually going to write them as a book until she saw that someone had already used that name for a book. I still think she should though.

10. Do you discuss books with anyone in real life?

All the time. I frequently try to push my favourite books on my mom. She read an Ember in the Ashes, a Torch Against the Night, and is now on book five of Throne of Glass. She read some of Percy Jackson a few years ago, but she’s going to re-read them and finish the whole series. I also constantly recommend books to another friend who finally created a Goodreads account, which she filled by just going through my list of read books to make it easier. She binged all of Shadowhunters and is currently reading Percy Jackson.

11. If you could meet your favorite author, who would it be and what one question would you ask them?

J.K. Rowling is my favourite author and she is such a queen that I don’t even know if I would be able to breathe, let alone speak. Honestly, I would just want to tell her how much Harry Potter means to me and thank you.

Wow. That was a lot of questions. I always feel like I need to come up with really cool original ones but then I can’t. Because of question 11, I am going to do Harry Potter inspired questions. I’m playing tag catch up, so again apologies for a lot of tag posts in the same week. Anyone who wants to answer these questions in their own post or in the comments below, please do!

My Questions

1. What is your dream wizarding world job?
2. If you could have any magical pet, what would it be and why?
3. What is your Patronus?
4. What Hogwarts/Ilvermorny house are you?
5. Which character do you most relate to and why?
6. Imagine you and a group of friends were facing the series of challenges from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which one would you be most likely to succeed at?
7. What position would you play in Quidditch, or would you be a spectator?
8. Would you rather have a portrait stuck to your wall with a permanent sticking charm of the Fat Lady, Sir Cadogan, or Phineas Nigellus Black?
9. Would you rather duel Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy or Augustus Rookwood?
10. What is your favourite magical beverage?
11. What is your favourite Hogwarts subject?

Have a magical day!