A Liebster Award Nomination! For Me?!

I was nominated for the Liebster Award by the lovely, hilarious Brontë’s Page Turners who is actually a star. Love you loads.

I’m quite new to this awarding business, but I’ve googled it thoroughly since my nomination and I think I can rock it.

So, there are rules to this. Oooh riskaay…

Acknowledge the person who nominated you and display the award.
Answer the questions that the blogger gives you.
Give eleven random facts about yourself.
Nominate 11 blogs who you think deserve it.
Let the bloggers know you’ve nominated them.
Give your eleven questions to the nominees.

The rules are normally subject to change and twists but you follow.

So I’ll get onto answering the questions! (This is exciting isn’t it?)

1.What made you start blogging?

Well… I’m still a bit of a blogging baby, having only started my blog back in June. I started on a whim, having just finished a set of exams and reading a huge pile of books I had accumulated over the academic year which had been neglected by exam season. After reading a load of them, I realized I wanted to talk about them and get out all the heartbreak, frustrations and thoughts on these books. I turned to blogging to vent about books. That’s the reason and my motive actually lies with my Liebster nominator whose book blog got me reading (and giggling) and offered the real inspiration for the book blogging scene. You da bomb.

2.I have to purchase every book I read. Do you?

YES. I completely do this. I buy books whenever and wherever I go adding them quite happily to my to be read shelves. Even if I read a book online electronically (a rare occasion but has happened in desperate times) and enjoy it just moderately its being bought. Standard. I have this theory that all the books you read are a part of growing; the books I love and the books I hate have all had an impact on who I am. That’s why the first thing I look at in someones house is their bookcase; you expect the good and the bad.

3. I have a spreadsheet of all of my books to guard against theft (aka borrowers not returning items) and other calamities. Do you?

Um… I find this fact impressive. I can’t say I spreadsheet my books, but keep a very VERY mental note of where my books are and with which people. For example I know a book series is being borrowed by a friend (has been for the entire summer) and yeah… I’m waiting patiently. I do have this habit of piling up all my to be read books on their particular shelf (classic/biography; science/general reading; series [which then graduates to the series bookshelf; yeah this is a serious business]) with there pages facing out and their covers facing down so I have no idea what I pick up next to read, only the possible genre. Its like a mystery read every time, and I’m always satisfied. I also have a method. I read a classic, and then as classics are usually quite hard reading or heavy ideas and so on, I give myself a breather by graduating down to general reading. I then move up (ooh shake up) to a pile of books that are related to my a level courses and can range from Shakespeare to Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene. I then move down to series (I read too many series for my own good). And then the process begins again.

4. I run yearly maintenance on my books, giving them a good airing and checking for damp. What lengths do you go to to care for your books?

I don’t do this, but its a great idea! I’m quite hesitant towards lending out books to people if I know a page is slightly lose in the book, or the glue of the spine is crackly or its really old. Just… no. I do this because I remember once I was reading a book borrowed from a friend and was reading whilst eating dinner at the table. My mother got quite annoyed by this and snatched the book out of my hands, ripping half of one of the pages. I felt absolutely horrible. It wasn’t my book! I think I bought her a new copy but it still isn’t the same. That guilt has never left me and yeah, I’m just quite sad when it comes to books. To be fair I’m actually quite bad; I write my name in my books and break the spines at crucial points in the story. They are loved that way!!!!

5. To paraphrase the poet Barry Manilow…Questions 2-4 show How Deep Is My Love for books. Can you tell me something that demonstrates How Deep Is Your Love for books?

Quite deep. I love books. Always have, always will. When I was learning to read I remember reading Little Red Riding Hood as a bedtime story. Being a little rebel who didn’t believe in bedtime, once my parents would leave the room, light off and all I would pick up Little Red and lean quite close to the window so I could read in the dim light. I remember one night there was no light and I was turning the pages the pitch black, but had memorized each word of each page. And so I can read in the dark.

6. Do you have a favourite song based on a book?

I can’t say I listen to much music based on books. Maybe I have without knowing. But in my angsty teen days (slowly fading) I remember listening to Youtubers who had composed songs based on (QUEEN) Cassandra Clare’s Infernal Devices. Fantasy, teenage forbidden love, the author of The Mortal Instruments (I will definitely be dedicating an entire blog to this lady soon). I’ve read the series so many times. But yes, angsty songs were made and when I’m in the car with headphones in and its raining the songs come out. Fire and Ice was fab.

Getting onto some fantastic facts about Jess.

I am left-handed! #LeftiesUnite
My favourite color is green although you’d hardly find me wearing it.
I can speak German and Arabic (rusty) along with English my mother tongue.
I make a banging cup of tea.
I grew up in Hurghada, Egypt. Google it, its really beaut.
I want to visit the Marshall Islands before they disappear.
I once bumped into Albus Dumbledore at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. I kid you not. He was having a fag.

And so my tantalizing questions!