The Sunshine Blogger Award

“Philip heard him.”

First line in The Devil’s Apprentice by Kenneth B. Andersen

Hi, guys. I was so kindly nominated for The Sunshine Blogger Award by Naemi from A Book Owl’s Corner. So thank you, Naemi! 😀

If you don’t know, The Sunshine Blogger Award is given by bloggers to other bloggers they find creative, inspiring and positive. It’s a great way to spread some love within the community.

The rules:

• Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog.
• Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you.
• Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
• List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

Now it’s time to answer the 11 question!

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What is an interesting non-bookish fact about you that most people don’t know?

Something that most people here in the online community don’t know about me is that I spent 3 years at university to get a degree I’m not even using in my current job. I studied International Business Communication, which I don’t regret because it still improved my communication skills and anybody can find use of that. I don’t think I would have this blog if I hadn’t taken that education. But now I work as a postal worker. I spend my days alone without talking to people. It’s awesome.

Has your opinion on a book ever changed as you got older? For example: Is there a book you used to dislike that you now love, or a book you adored but fell out of love with?

I haven’t tried going from disliking a book to then loving it. I tend not to give books second chances so I don’t reread books I find bad or average. There are some books I read as a child that I don’t love anymore though. To name one: I don’t think I would love the Percy Jackson books if I read them again today.

Which fictional food would you love to try someday?

I don’t notice food, this was so hard! I’m going with a pretty well-known one: Lembas from The Lord of the Rings. It’s supposed to be the most nutritious thing you could possibly get and also tastes kind of sweet. However, the recipe is kept extremely secret by the elves so I doubt we’ll be seeing Lembas any time soon.

You get to resurrect a fictional character of your choice, but in order to gain the energy necessary to restore their life, you have to kill a different character. Who would you save and who would you sacrifice?

I’m assuming the two characters don’t need to come from the same book because I’m totally taking advantage of that. But as this is a quite spoilery question, both in terms of who to save and who to sacrifice, I’m giving SPOILER WARNING for A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara AND Shades of Magic by V. E. Schwab. Don’t read the next paragraph if you don’t want spoilers for those.

Who to save: Willem Ragnarsson from A Little Life. If you’ve read the book, you know I’m also technically saving Jude so there was no doubt in my mind about this. I don’t think I’ve ever been hit this hard by a character death because Willem was just a genuinely good person. He deserves to live and bring happiness to Jude. The one I’m sacrificing to make this possible is Delilah Bard from A Darker Shade of Magic. She’s just the opposite of Willem. Rude, selfish, irrational. She really should have died at the end of that trilogy anyway.

Do you ever feel second-hand embarrassment when reading? If yes, name a scene that really made you cringe!

I guess I do feel second-hand embarrassment but not for specific scenes in that sense. It’s more something I come across whenever I have to read a book in my native language, Danish. I try to avoid this so much because it’s really a horrible language. Any emotional or serious scene will get awkward and cringey in Danish and I just can’t deal.

If you could have one item of clothing from a book, what would you pick? Be aware that any magical properties won’t transfer to our world.

It limits the options when you don’t get the magic, too. I think I’m turning to the Hunger Games universe because why would I not choose something Cinna made? One of those fiery dresses Katniss wears would be perfect to make people keep their distance in today’s environment and also just in general.

Do you speak any other languages? If so, what is one unique thing about them? If not – are there any languages you would like to learn?

Yes, I do speak other languages. I just bashed my native language two questions ago. But Danish does still have some unique qualities. When talking grammar, Danish has two genders. Funnily enough, our language decided to be politically correct before that was even a thing, because those two genders aren’t masculine and feminine. They’re called ‘common’ and ‘neuter’ instead. The downside of this, I guess, is that it’s difficult to guess a noun’s gender as a foreigner learning the language.

I also understand a little German as it is the language we learn in school. However, I will hold on to my right to look confused if someone starts talking to me in German.

What is your biggest bookish pet peeve?

Not sure if it applies to this question but I find it quite annoying when I go to Amazon to buy a book and the Kindle version is the most expensive. That’s the only version I buy through Amazon because shipping to my country is way too much money when Book Depository exists. But how does a digital version of a book cost more than a hardcover? There’s something about that that doesn’t connect in my mind because a Kindle version doesn’t actually “exist” if you get my meaning.

What would you like to see more of in books?

I find this difficult to answer because whatever I say, there are probably going to be a lot of books containing that element. I just haven’t found them yet. So I guess my answer is going to be what I would like to read more of.

The “strong female character” is something I so rarely see done right, at least to my taste. It’s not so much that the “strong” part means physically strong. I think authors have listened to that and moved away from it a little. Now, I think my problem with these characters is due to the fact that their strong trait of cleverness means that they become snarky and self-absorbed. Not that I mind intelligence in my female characters. I love that but I wish it would take a different form sometimes. I also wish that empathy would be seen as the strongest trait someone could have. But that might be a societal thing we need to change first.

Short version: I want more female characters like Vasya from the Winternight Trilogy.

What is the first book you ever read by yourself?

I have no idea how old I was, but I’m sure it was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. For some reason, I have some very vivid memories of this.

Recommend a book that you think doesn’t get enough love!

I’m going with The Binding by Bridget Collins which is a highly atmospheric book about books. But some very special books as they hold memories. If there’s something you want to forget, just get your bad memories written into a book.
The Binding is a slow, low fantasy story with characters you quickly fall in love with, and I think more people should read it.

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Those were some really great questions to answer. Now I’m going to nominate 11 other fantastic bloggers who deserve some love. I always feel like I’m too small a blogger to tag anyone which makes this a little weird for me but here we go:

• Jess @Jessticulates
• Jordann @The Book Blog Life
• Lola @Lola Et La Vie
• Rin @The Thirteenth Shelf
• Nadine @Nads Book Nook
• Sammie @The Bookwyrm’s Den
• Rukky @Eternity Books
• Alison @Alison In Bookland
• Susan @Novel Lives
• Brittany @Perfectly Tolerable
• Imyril @One More

Absolutely no pressure to do this. Just know that I think that you and your blog are real nice 😀 ❤️ Here are the 11 questions to answer:

1. How are you doing at the moment?
2. Do you have a Twitter or Instagram account where you talk about books? If so, how do you use them in connection to your blog? If you don’t have such accounts, why not?
3. Pick one character you would have a conversation with (either one you hated or one you loved). What would you talk about?
4. Are you an indoors or outdoors type of person?
5. You like music? What is your current favorite song?
6. Do you read ebooks? Why do you like/dislike them?
7. Is there a genre you could never see yourself reading?
8. You have briefly been granted the ability to pull an animal/creature out of a any book to have them live with you. Who is your new pet?
9. If you were asked to recommend 2 books with a great portrayal of friendship, which ones would you mention? (If you want to mention more than 2, don’t let me stop you)
10. Do you have any future plans concerning your blog? Are there certain milestones you want to reach?
11. What are some of your favorite character traits? What does it require for you to love characters? Name as many traits as you want!

This was a really fun post do to and thank you again to A Book Owl’s Corner for nominating me. Happy reading!