Sunshine Blogger Award

I was nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by Brittany from Perfectly Tolerable, ‘A Pride and Prejudice lovers guide to other books.’ Thanks, Brittany! ❤

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What is The Sunshine Blogger Award?

The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to those who are creative, positive and inspiring while spreading sunshine to the blogging community. (So flattering! *fans herself* Thank youuu.)

Rules:

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

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Here are my answers to Brittany’s questions:

1. Do you ever read a book without reading its synopsis?

Very rarely. I usually want to know whether this book is likely to be something I enjoy or not before I invest any time in it.

2. What was the first book you really obsessed over?

I used to be a massive fan of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I’d check them out at the library every school holiday (in Dutch!).

3. What is the best bookstore you’ve visited?

Powell’s City Of Books in Portland or Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop in Galway, Ireland (see below).

4. What is a hyped book you have no interest in reading?

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Not because I think it wouldn’t be any good, on the contrary, I assume it is well written and therefore very harrowing and depressing.

Moreover, I don’t like Atwood anymore since she signed that open letter to the University Of British Columbia in support of one of their professors who was fired when several female students accused him of sexual assault and sexual harassment. To me, it seems that Atwood (and many other prominent figures of the Canadian literary scene) abused her fame & power to prioritise the well-being of this professor over possible victims of sexual assault.

5. If you could read any book again for the first time, which book would it be and why?

To be honest, none. I quite like re-reading because knowing how a book ends allows me to pay more attention to how the plot is set up as well as the small details that foreshadow future events.

6. What is the best book you have read so far this year?

As this new year is still very young I will choose a book I read in the past year instead:

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. It’s about a girl who witnesses her friend being shot by a white police officer for no reason. It’s very well written, extremely powerful and I am glad that books like this one exist to raise awareness for what’s going on.

7. What is the worst book you have read so far this year?

I hardly ever finish reading books I don’t like, as there are just too many great books out there to waste my time on the bad ones. Last year I DNFed Before The Feast by Saša Stanišić because after 100 pages I still wasn’t interested at all in the story.

Does this mean it’s a bad book? I don’t know. Maybe it just wasn’t for me.

8. Do you prefer Plot-Based or Character-Based stories?

Plot-based, definitely. Good characterisation is the icing on the cake, but if a book doesn’t have a solid plot the whole thing collapses.

9. What is the oldest book you have read?

I have a degree in English literature, and for my classes I have read excerpts of Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawain And The Green Knight etc. but never the whole work.

I’ve also read many plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, so I guess it would be one of those. Scrolling through a list of Shakespeare plays in chronological order, the first one I’ve read in its entirety is Titus Andronicus (all the blood and gore) from 1591/92.

10. What is your favourite book cover (or a recent read that you absolutely loved the cover)?

A recent ‘let’s pay more for the prettier cover’-splurge of mine was Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper. Isn’t it gorgeous?

11. How do you pick your next read?

Whatever I feel like at that moment or whatever needs to be returned to the library soon.

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My Questions:

1. What is your favourite retelling of a classic (Shakespeare, fairy tale etc.)?
2. Is there a book of which you prefer the movie?
3. What is your favourite kind of blog post to write?
4. What percentage of the books that you own have/ haven’t you read?
5. Which book has a great ending?
6. Do you write/ underline in your books?
7. Which author have you recently discovered that you would like to read more books of?
8. What is your comfort-book?
9. Greatest turn-off in a fictional love story? Greatest turn-on?
10. Which book has been on your TBR the longest?
11. What 2020 book release are you most looking forward to?

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Here are 11 blogs I love and would like to nominate for this award*:

The Brunette Bookworm Blog | Nut Free Nerd | Caitlin Althea | The Portuguese Bibliophile | DB’s Guide To The Galaxy | The Oosterbook | Cuppa Clo | Cotton Candy Book Witch | Thinking And Inking | Fawn & Fern Books | Cups & Thoughts

* I know that some of you have been nominated before, but compliments are always nice to receive, right? As always, please don’t feel any pressure to answer these questions if you don’t feel like it. ❤

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Thank you for reading!