Liebster Award 2018

Hello lovelies!

Thad at Baking Thad AND Rebecca at Bookisly Rebecca both nominated me for the 2018 Liebster Award. I am so honoured you guys! You can check out both of their blogs in the links above.

You can read the rules for the Liebster Award over at the Global Aussie here, but otherwise, lets get right into these questions, firstly from Thad:

1. What’s the worst book you’ve ever read?

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. And I’m not even sorry about saying it. It’s not the play format (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is one of my fave stories ever), it’s the part where they absolutely ruined the characters of the first seven books. And you can agree to disagree! I promise not to be offended, this is just my opinion!

2. What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

I love books that put me through all the feels. Like ALL of the feels. I don’t know if it’s the BEST book I’ve ever read, but Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff is certainly up there. I actually screamed at the book at two points while reading it, and then proceeded to throw said book across the room. I cried and laughed and I genuinely loved the characters so much. For me, this was basically a perfect book.

3. What’s your earliest memory?

Ha. I was in my Dad’s office, a narrow room, in our old house. And Dad used to keep a lolly jar at the top of the bookshelf, so I climbed the bookshelf to get it (I was like four). This bookshelf is huge and old and made of oak and it’s heavy as f*** (it’s actually now my main bookshelf), but I managed to tip the whole bookshelf over until it hit the wall on the other side of the room (very narrow room!). Needless to say, all of the folders and books came off it and so did I. Mum and Dad screwed the bookshelf to the wall after this, and the lolly jar was moved to the desk.

4. Cats or Dogs?

Despite growing up with dogs, I am now slave to three lovely kitties, so I have to go with cats here.

5. What did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to go to Yale and study law when I was a child… and I grew up in Australia, so basically nigh on impossible to achieve.

6. Why did you start blogging?

Ummmm… I needed somewhere online to keep all my recipes. Especially the ones that I play with when I bake. Then I found a million book review sites and my blog was never the same again!

7. If you’re not blogging what are you doing?

Working!! But if I’m not working, then I’m reading or baking or listening to music or drawing or decluttering my house!

8. Tea or Coffee?

TEA! I drink a LOT of tea! (My favourite is Melbourne Breakfast by T2)

9. What’s your dream holiday?

I’ve been pretty lucky, I’ve travelled to Europe a few times, so I guess my next dream holiday would be the US. I would like to go to Hawaii, San Diego Comic Con, Vegas, New York and New Orleans.

10. What’s the last record/album/mp3 you bought?

Umm, I have a Spotify premium account (and have had for several years now). But if I did still buy albums, it would probably be The Wombats’ Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life.

AND these questions from Rebecca:

1. Do you listen to audiobooks?

Nope. I just don’t like them. But I also don’t (usually) like movies or TV shows based on books. I prefer to visualise everything in my head.

2. Did you have a favourite childhood book series?

I read a lot of books when I was a kid. I read the entire sets of Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Babysitter’s Club (and all the extras like the mystery sets, summer sets, etc), Saddle Club, Teen Power Inc, Sweet Valley high, Sweet Valley University, Goosebumps, and basically anything else I could get my hands on. But I think my favourites were the Enid Blyton hardcover set of 50 books. I’ve still got about 20 of them (I have no idea where the others are).

3. What’s the last movie you saw in theatres?

Umm, it would have been Infinity War, Deadpool 2 or Solo… I just can’t remember which one I saw last (because I saw Deadpool 2 and Infinity War twice).

4. Would you ever attend Bookcon?

YES! A thousand times yes. Except I live in Australia, so I would need to plan that US trip mentioned above around it (which given that I would plan it around SDCC, could happen).

5. Do you have a favourite sports team?

I sure do! New York Excelsior, of the Overwatch League. Now, I’d like to clarify that I am not some hanger on fangirl who only goes for them because they’re at the top of the ladder. Before the first ever stage started my husband made me pick a team, and I picked NYXL because ‘Excelsior’ is Gansey’s catchphrase in The Raven Boys (which is my fave series of all time ever). And I remember sitting on my couch that very fist time NY played Seoul in Stage 1 (and Seoul were supposed to be the frontrunners, and NY had just lost to Fusion) and I was on the edge of my seat, and WE BECAME THE FIRST TEAM TO EVER BEAT SEOUL! And then we went on to beat every other team, and then lose to London in the finals… ? BUUUUT, we’re gonna win the play-offs, so YAAAAAAAAY!!

6. What’s one of your favourite TV shows to binge-watch?

I don’t really watch a lot of TV. But I’d probably binge any of the shows I do watch, so:

• Riverdale
• Dynasty
• Rick and Morty (like, Rick and Morty forever and ever, 99 more years, rickandmorty.com)
• Avatar: The Last Airbender (and Korra too)
• Game of Thrones, well, I will next year anyway
• Elementary
• Lucifer
• Grand Designs

7. What do you enjoy blogging about besides books?

Umm, I like to mess around when I bake, so I started writing my recipes on here, but I haven’t added one for ages. I might have to start that again soon! (I made a delicious red licorice cheesecake the other week… month?)

8. What’s your most anticipated release for the second half of the year?

If you had asked me before I read ACOWAR I totally would have said Kingdom of Ash, but (personally) I thought the end to ACOWAR was waaaay too sickly sweet. So now I’m concerned that Maas won’t kill off at least some of the millions of characters in KoA. I mean, she’s got a cast of hundreds! Surely some of them have to end up dead!

So, I’m going with The Caged Queen by Kristen Ciccarelli.

9. Do you have a favourite boy band?

Ummm, do we just mean bands of all-boys, or literal boy-bands? I’m saying Kisschasy, The Wombats and Fall Out Boy anyway.

10. Favourite book of 2018 so far?

Oooh, tough. It’s a toss up. Either The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (yes, I only read it this year for the first time) or The Cruel Prince by Holly Black.

11. If your bookish boyfriend/girlfriend took you on a date, what would you want to do?

If Ronan Lynch took me on a date, I would want to go to Cabeswater and speak with the trees, eat pizza at Nino’s, then drive around recklessly with the music blaring until dawn.

Phew! OK, I nominate (most recent posts tagged), but please don’t feel obligated if you can’t:

• Laura
• Hannah
• Stephani
• Destiny
• Priyasha
• Shanah
• Hanna
• Nicole
• Lily
• Meaghan

And here are my ten questions for you (yes, they are unapologetically, mostly book related):

1. What are you reading right now, and what’s your impression of it?
2. What is your Hogwarts house, and do you think you should be in it, or another one?
3. What is your most treasured book and why?
4. What was your favourite book of 2017? And 2016 if you can remember that long ago!
5. If it was possible, would you store your memories and thoughts in an android before you died?
6. Who is your least favourite character and why?
7. If you could spend the rest of your life in any world, where would you go (but you can’t come back)?
8. Who is your favourite author?
9. If you could have any pet in the world, what would you have?
10. Who is your favourite villain and why?
11. BONUS QUESTION: Elephant-sized duck, or duck-sized elephant?

Thanks again to Thad and Rebecca!!