The Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

It’s been ages since I was tagged in a post that required me to answer questions about myself, which is probably a good thing as I’m really bad at getting around to them. But I was tagged in one about a week ago and in an effort to be a more conscientious blogger, I thought I’d best get it done within the six months of me being tagged! So many thanks to Julianne over at Outlandish Lit for tagging me in the The Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award. Make sure you head on over and check out her blog and share the bloggy love!

Here are the rules for the The Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award:
1. Thank the blogger that nominated you, and link back to their site.
2. Post the award’s logo onto your blog.
3. Answer the 10 questions you’ve been asked.
4. Nominate 10 other bloggers and ask them 10 questions.

One and two are done, and below are the answers to the questions posed by Julianne. Down the bottom I’ve nominated five bloggers to answer the questions – only five because I’ve just done another one of these posts and I’ll run out of people to tag. And now, without further ado, here are my answers.

1. What’s the weirdest book you’ve ever read? The first question and I’m already stumped! None really spring to mind actually. Maybe The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas, but that was mostly because I couldn’t connect with any of the characters. It’s also the only book in recent years I’ve started and not finished.

2. What’s your favorite book cover? Probably the book I’ve just finished reading actually – The Secret Pilgrim by John le Carré. It’s quite simple, but it perfectly encapsulates George Smiley – the master spy who flits through many of le Carré’s novels. The day my first novel is given the publishing nod (because it will definitely happen you guys), is the day I contact the illustrator of this cover and ask him to do the cover of my book.

3. Condense the summary of your least favorite book into a haiku. See if you can guess what the book is. The first correct answer in the comments will win nothing but the pride of knowing you were first. Here’s my haiku:

Ties and whips, and a
Biting of lips: a bad plot
That still makes money.

4. If you’ve met an author, who was it? If not, who would you like to meet? I have never met an author, although I’ve seen one of my favourite authors in an airport. It’s always been a regret of mine that I didn’t go say hello to him. Anyway. If I could meet two authors, it would be William Shakespeare and John le Carré – the former to ask him all those questions about his work that remain unanswered today, and the latter to say how much his writing has helped my own and to just have a really good chat about spies and stuff.

5. Tell me your personal eBook feelings. My preference is paper, but I’ve started carrying my iPad with me everywhere, which has proven handy when I finish a book on the train and have nothing to read – there is always an unread book on my iPad. So in this sense they are quite handy. However nothing beats the smell and feel of a book. Paper forever!

6. What book do you recommend to people most? I don’t usually recommend books to people actually. Despite the amount of books I read, no one ever asks me to recommend them anything, which is weird now that I think about it. But! If I had to recommend a book it would be The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho, on the proviso that you only read it when you’re ready to read it, because it will be at that time that you will be ready to take from it whatever message is meant for you.

7. How do you feel about open endings? I think it depends on the book and how many questions are left unanswered. Sometimes it’s good to have an open ending so that the reader can take whatever they want from it, but then other times you need that definitive closure. There’s nothing worse than getting to the end of a book and having a million questions racing through your mind that will never be answered.

8. You’re Jack in The Shining. What line from a book will you type over and over again to frighten your family? Ok. I had to go through my past blog posts for this one. I think this is pretty suitable, it’s from The Rosie Project (the post is here if you want some context) “Do you eat kidneys? Correct answer is c) occasionally.”

9. Do you like me? Circle one: Y / N. Just kidding. What’s the worst book recommendation you’ve ever received? OF COURSE I LIKE YOU! 😁 As to the book recommendation, this is a similar response to the question above regarding me recommending books to others – I don’t get a lot of book recommendations. Weird again, because I’ll read just about anything. So if you have any recommendations, please put them in the comments section below and I’ll read it when I get to the bottom of my fifty strong to be read pile (maybe that’s why people don’t recommend books to me – they know I already have too many to read).

10. What book would you have sent into space to best represent humans? ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. I feel like it encompasses everything that is most silly about human beings as a species; our preoccupation with figuring out why we are here rather than just living our lives and being here; and I suppose if it came down to it, it would be useful as a way for the inhabitants of other planets to decide whether we should be destroyed or not – do they not destroy us because the book is so awesome, or do they destroy us because we have little relevance in the grand scheme of the universe? When the dolphins start flying and singing ‘So Long and Thanks For All The Fish’, grab your towel, folks.

And now for my tags. Some of these are blogs I’ve just started following recently, and others are ones I’ve been following for a while – but they all belong to some excellent ladies, so make sure you go check them out.

Lisa at thelisahope.com
Fran over at the wonderfully named Curious Incidents of a Flailing Mermaid
Laura at a thousand times too short
Sam over at sammyoflife
Jess at sigh, oh Jessica

Ladies, congratulations or commiserations depending on how you feel about these things! If you hate doing these, please feel free not to do this one. If you do decide to do it, you’ll have to answer the same questions as those I answered above, because I’m slack and can’t think of any new ones to ask!