The Real Neat Blog Award!

Happy Wednesday!

I’ve been nominated for the Real Neat Blog Award by the wonderful Amanda (Literary Counsellor). Thanks Amanda! Please be sure to check out her blog!

How it works:
1 )Put the award logo on your blog.
2) Answer 7 questions asked by the person who nominated you & create 7 new ones
3) Thank the people who nominated you, linking to their blog.
4) Nominate any number of bloggers you like, linking to their blogs.
5) Let them know you nominated them (by commenting on their blog, etc.)

My answers:

1) What was the last (work safe) picture you took with your phone/camera? Share it?

The last photo I took was at the Andrew McMahon concert on Sunday (a review will go up next Monday!). You can see it on my instagram here (sorry it’s blurry!).

2) Do you have a favourite book that no one else seems to know about?

The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty has been one of my favourite books for about ten years. I haven’t met anyone else who has read it, though!

3) If you were to get any quote tattooed on your body, what would it be?

Ooo, so many (especially if we’re including lyrics as quotes!). If I had to pick a bookish one, it’d either be “Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story” (Neil Gaiman) OR “Words…are an inexhaustible source of magic” (J.K. Rowling. Dumbledore, to be exact).

4) What is something you’ve always wanted to try but have been too scared to?

Sometimes I just want to cut off all my hair and rock a pixie cut (or half a shaved head), but my ears stick out too much.

I’m sure there’s a less superficial answer for this, but I can’t think of anything right now!

5) Who is a character from a book that you’ve always resonated with?

I’ve always connected to Audrey from Audrey, Wait!. Not because I’ve dated a musician or had a song written about me (yet!), but because we both understand the power of music.

6) If you could master one skill you don’t have right now, what would it be?

Languages. Any and all. I speak French and can introduce myself in Spanish, but I think it would be fascinating to learn other languages, maybe ones that aren’t Latin-based. German, for example.

7) If you could time travel, would you go to the past or the future? Why?

The Elizabethan era is my favourite, so I’d go there. The only problem with travelling to the past is the lack of hygiene, so I’d probably travel back-and-forth a lot.

Thanks again, Amanda! That was fun :)

Nominations:

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop Books
Delirious Antidotes
Hidden Staircase
Insanity Talks
It Started in Oxford
Starlight Daydreamer
Words…I Need Words 

Questions:

1. What is your dream job?
2. Is there a post/photo/some sort of created content that you are particularly proud of? Link it up!
3. Do you have tattoos/do you want any?
4. What genre do you prefer reading?
5. If you could have one Christmas wish, what would it be?
6. Speaking of Christmas, what is your favourite holiday (doesn’t have to be religious)?
7. What is one thing that is guaranteed to make you smile when you’re having a bad day (a book/movie/video/photo/song, etc)?

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Characters Who Are Fellow Book Nerds

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

This week’s prompt is Ten Characters Who Are Fellow Book Nerds. A couple of these characters are more “word nerds” (or writers) than “book nerds”, but I think all book nerds have an appreciation for words in general.

1) Matilda from Roald Dahl’s Matilda
2) Daphne de Luce from Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series
3) Hermione Granger from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series
4) Catherine Morland from Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey
5) Sadie from Sara O’Leary/Julie Morstad’s This is Sadie
6) Vander Burke from Page Morgan’s The Dispossessed series
7) Liesel Meminger from Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief

Word Nerds/Writers
8) Ambrose Bukowski from Susin Nielsen’s Word Nerd
9) Mia Thermopolis from Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries series
10) Lydia Jaackson-Oberman from Jaclyn Moriarty’s The Year of Secret Assignments

Those were the ones I could think of, though I’m sure I’m missing someone obvious. Who made it onto your lists?

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Characters You’d Like To Check In With

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

This week’s prompt is Top Ten Characters You’d Like to Check In With and is described as being characters in books/series that are over “and you so just wish you could peek in on the “life” you imagine they are leading years down the line after the story ends”.

I can’t talk about them without spoiling the last book in the series, so here’s a list in no particular order:

1) Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire (and Beatrice Snicket!)

From Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (13 books)

2) Artemis Fowl (and Butler and Holly, obviously)

From Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series (8 books)

3) Charlie Bone and friends

From Jenny Nimmo’s under-rated Children of the Red King series (8 books)

4) Aislinn, Seth, Donia, Keenan, Niall, and the other faeries

From Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series (5 – technically 6 – books)

5) The Vampirates crew

From Justin Somper’s Vampirates series (6 books)

6) Gemma, Felicity, Ann, and (maybe) Pippa

From Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle trilogy (3 books)

7) Bartimaeus the demon

From Jonathan Stroud’s Bartemaeus Sequence (4 books)

8) Lydia, Emily and Cassie (and their respective boyfriends)

From Jaclyn Moriarty’s The Year of Secret Assignments (standalone, but technically part of the Ashbury/Brookfield books)

Sidenote: I love that it’s called Finding Cassie Crazy in the UK.

Fun fact: I have an ARC of it, and it was the first time I learned that there was such as thing as advanced copies (I was 14 and my sister had got it from work).

9) Audrey/James, Victoria/Jonah

From Robin Benway’s Audrey, Wait! (standalone)

10) ALL THE WITCHES AND WIZARDS FROM Harry Potter

Do I even need to tell you who wrote this series?

Sidenote: Yeah, there’s all the extra content on Pottermore, so maybe I’d get my fix if I actually logged in once in a while, but I’m sure most HP fans will agree: sometimes I just want random details about their day-to-day lives. In book form. So that I can read it forever.

BONUS:

Rachel Watts and James Mycroft

From Ellie Marney’s Every series

Technically the last book has not been released in North America, but I’ve read it and it was wonderful, and I just want 5346984 more stories about Rachel and James. Wattscroft forever!