The Liebster Award

“Telsin!” Waxillium hissed as he crept out of the training hut.

First line in The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

I nominated for an award! This time it was for The Liebster Award, and I was nominated by Naemi from A Book Owl’s Corner, so thank you very much! If you’re not already following her, you need to. She’s preparing for some seriously intimidating exams at the moment so please head over there and cheer her up.

What is the Liebster Award?

“The Liebster Award is an award that exists only on the internet and is given to bloggers by other bloggers. The earliest case of the award goes as far back as 2011. Liebster in German means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.”

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

Now let’s jump into the question I was asked by Naemi!

What is a trope you can’t help but love, even though it’s overused?

I will forever be in love with the chosen one trope. It’s not possible to overuse it. However, I don’t think I can explain why I love it. I just find that the chosen one character often is my favorite in whichever book they feature.

Describe your perfect quarantine day!

A quick trip to the store as early as possible (to avoid people) to shop for snacks. Then sit and read for most of the day. Taking breaks to write blog posts or gathering the courage to comment on others. I have been into playing Football Manager a lot lately, so that would also be a break from reading. Of course, I would order take-out for dinner and probably watch a Marvel movie in the evening. Perfect day!

If you could have any fictional pet, what would you choose?

I want Manchee from A Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. If you haven’t read it, Manchee is the cutest, most adorable dog ever. I’m actually not allowed to have pets where I live, but I’m sure I can figure something out with my landlord. When I tell him that I could have picked a dragon, I’m sure he’ll come around and see that a dog is actually a compromise.

What is your favorite and least favorite thing about blogging?

My favorite thing about blogging is that I get to be creative and write. And that I decide what that means. Some of the posts I’ve made have either been very weird or very niche. Like how would I ever in real life talk about how some book titles work as band names? It’s fun to be creative.
My least favorite thing is the social side of it. You sort of need to interact with other bloggers to really be a part of the community. And yeah, if you don’t know what social anxiety is, then let me you tell about how talking to people is my worst nightmare. It’s not too bad when people comment on my own posts, and I just have to answer them. Invading other people’s spaces and forcing them to talk to me, though? I want to throw up. But I still want to show my love for what other bloggers do, so I always try to comment. Just not succeeding a whole lot.

If you were stranded on a deserted island all alone, which fictional character and which author would you choose to join you and why?

My choice of fictional character is Ronan Lynch from the Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater because he has a special ability that I guess is a spoiler to talk about. Let’s just say he would solve a lot of the problems that would arise from living on a deserted island.

My choice of author is Erin Morgenstern for two reasons. I want to ask her about all of the hidden meanings in The Starless Sea, and I also just think she could come up with some interesting stories to pass the time.

Describe your favorite book using emojis or GIFs, but don’t tell us what it is. Let’s see if someone can guess it in the comments!

I don’t have a single favorite book so I just picked one of my favorites. See if you can guess.

If you could have any character from a book teach you one skill, what would you learn and who would be your mentor?

I’m simple. I just want Peeta to teach me how to bake. Anything really. I’m not worth much in a kitchen, but I love cake.

Have you ever dressed up as a character from a book?

No, not a specific character at least. As a child, I dressed up either as a witch or a princess (I know, incredibly original). Since then, I haven’t had many opportunities where it would be fitting to dress up as a book character.

What book are you proudest of forcing on other people? (For their own good, of course…)

I don’t know. I don’t get the feeling that I’m “powerful” enough to make people read something. Friends and family don’t even read what I recommend them lol. I’ve been trying to get my mom to read Harry Potter for the past 15 years, but she won’t touch them 😂.
I may have gotten a few people to read The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith, which I’m immensely proud of. If I haven’t forced it on you yet, here’s my review 😉

What is your favorite blog post that you’ve ever written and why?

The real question is: do I actually like anything I’ve written? 😅

I gave it some thought and figured I had to mention two because I have a favorite serious-post and a favorite funny-post.
The serious one is my discussion on cancel culture and its alternative solutions because that was really hard for me to write and post. I think it turned out great, though, and I was glad to get some things off my chest.
The fun one is a Top Ten Tuesday post about book characters I’d follow on social media. I put way too much effort into that, but it was such a fun creative challenge.

Which post that someone else wrote have you enjoyed recently?

I really liked a post Ikram @Readlogy did recently, which was a guide for non-English speakers who want to start reading books in English. Not that it was relevant to myself, but I thought it was very well put together, and I recognized some tips that I used when I started reading in English.

Another recent post combined my two favorite things: books and football. Nefeli @BiblioNebula told us about which football clubs book characters would support. She gave some very convincing reasons for every choice and had such a fun time reading it. Although, seeing Harry Potter as a Manchester United supporter hurt me a little.

Those were some fun questions to answer. Now, I’ve decided to make my own rules and not nominate anyone else. I very recently answered questions and tagged 11 people for The Sunshine Blogger Award and have generally tagged quite a few people recently. That social anxiety I was talking about is yelling at me to stop, so I hope that’s okay. I would love to know your answers to some of Naemi’s questions in the comments instead. Especially the one about your favorite blog post. Feel free to link it and I’ll check it out. Happy reading, guys!