Three nominations for the Liebster Blog Award. I'm so happy! Many thanks go to Escapism Fanatic at Escapism From Reality, Sandy at Somewhere Only We Know and PidginPea at PidginPea's Book Nook for tagging me with the Liebster Award. This award is for bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. Awardees get to share 11 facts about themselves, answer the 11 questions written by the person who tagged them, choose 11 more questions, and tag 11 more bloggers to answer those 11 questions.
11 facts about me
1. I live in The Netherlands.
2. I always have a book with me. I hate the idea of not being able to read when I want to.
3. Italy is my favorite country, New York my favorite city.
4. I read mostly YA and Chick Lit.
5. When I'm sick I always watch The Devil Wears Prada.
6. My TBR pile sometimes scares me. Although my wish list is even longer.
7. My favorite season is spring.
8. I don't reread many books, Harry Potter and The Lord of The Rings are the only ones. I'm thinking about rereading Twilight, this series started me reading again.
9. Charmed is my all time favorite tv-series, but The Big Bang Theory is the one I watch most at the moment.
10. The series that impressed me the most is The Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.
11. The most beautiful gift in my house is a Venetian mask. I got it from my grandparents for my graduation during our vacation in Venice. I love looking at it.
Questions from Escapism Fanatic
1. Are you a coffee or a tea person?
Definitely a tea person! I don't drink coffee, I don't like it. But for hot drinks I'm even more into hot chocolate.
2. Do you like paperbacks or e-books?
Paperbacks are still my favorite, but since my bookshelves are almost exploding with books I mostly buy e-books these days.
3. Do you try lots of new authors or you stick to only well-known ones?
Mostly I pick my books with recommendations I get from friends, bloggers, amazon or goodreads. I'm certainly into trying new authors, but because I get to know them through recommendations it feels like they're well-known. Since I started blogging I've read some new authors who are debuting later this year and I liked that! But well-known authors have the plus side that most people know them and you can talk about the books!
4. How much weight does a review by a friend hold for you? IF they rated badly will you still chose that book?
It depends. If I already decided to read the book, it's hard to get me to decide otherwise. If I get to know the book through the review I won't be reading it probably. It also works the other way around. When The Host by Stephenie Meyer got published I wasn't sure I wanted to read it. A friend of mine recommended it after she read and loved it and she convinced me to read it!
5. How do you get time for blogging as in my case at work?
I usually blog in the evenings, weekends and on my free day. I work four days a week and I don't blog at work. I just started blogging, and I love it, so my evenings are well spend.
6. Are you afraid of anything e.g. spiders, which is irrational?
Small spiders I can live with. Although I must add they can better not be inside my house, because they will be killed. Yeah, I know it's a bit cruel, but they have EIGHT legs, speaking about creepy. Big spiders make me running, I hate them. My colleague told me a story about being in India, where there are really big spiders and I was shaking with fear, while India is thousands miles away from here. I'm not really afraid of other irrational things, although maybe the dark is irrational. I hate being home alone when it's dark.
7. Has a book kept you awake all night until you could the sun shining?
The last time I could read a book all night without facing consequences was when I was still at school and reading Harry Potter. It was so great!
8. Is your blog a way to relax or does it make you tense about posts and follows?
My blog is for the most part relaxing. But I'm a very ambitious girl and I hate letting others down, so sometimes I get a bit tense about posts or followers. But that never sticks long, so mostly I enjoy it.
9. How many books do you read a one time?
I try to read one book at the time. But I read paperbacks at home and my e-books on the train, so mostly it's two at the time. But I don't really like it, because the stories tend to get mixed up in my head. And it takes a bit of the fun away.
10. Is there anything that particularly puts you off while reading making you stop the book altogether?
Bad writing style. It's the only thing that can really make me throw a book against a wall. If the writing style is okay, but nothing is happening I will still finish the book (although I won't give it many stars).
11. While reading, do you imagine the characters to a T or is it slightly blurry for you?
It depends on how the characters are described. Sometimes it's so clear I see them perfectly before me, but other times they stay a bit blurry. It even varies between characters in the same book. But I always she the story play before my eyes. That's what I love most about reading, being in a different world.
Questions from Sandy:
1. Do you read the Acknowledgements written by the author in the back of the book?
Sometimes, it depends on the ending of the book and when I finish it. When I finish a book late at night or when my trains just arrives I don't, because I'm to tired and because when I finish a book and close it I rarely go back for the Acknowledgements. When I have the feeling a book hasn't really ended or when I just want to read some more, then I read the Acknowledgements.
2. Did you start blogging because you love writing and perhaps want to be a writer, or just for the genuine love of books?
Genuine love for books and that I want to talk about it. I started this blog at the beginning of this year, but wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with it, so I kinda quit again, but at the end of May I decided to pick it up again and I love it so much. Talking about books, discovering new ones and of course the community!
3. What is your favorite genre?
YA, but that's propably a bit vague by now. Then I would go for Dystopian. That's what I read the most at the moment.
4. What's the first book you remember falling in love with?
Well, long ago that was Jip en Janneke, a Dutch children's book, but the book that got me back to reading was Twilight, so I have to give credits to that one.
5. What kind of music do you like?
I always describe my taste in music as regular. I listen to the radio when I'm on the train and I like most of the songs played there, but I'm not into music, so I've no idea what kind of genre that is.
6. Do you create a playlist in your head for books you read?
No, I do have songs that remind me strongly of certain books. Because I heard the song a lot while reading the book, but mostly I just like silence when I'm reading. A couple days ago I thought about doing a post about music while reading, but then I couldn't come up with any songs, so that would be the shortest post ever (by me that is).
7. Do you prefer happy endings to books or not so much?
I'm afraid I have to say 'Yes' to this one. I can love a book, but when the ending is not happy, it may happen that I will dislike the book. I think it's so stupid, but I can't help it. I had this with Delirium. I loved the entire book, but the ending got me so upset, I still haven't picked up Pandemonium. I still intend to read it, but at the moment something is holding me back.
8. Do you prefer series or stand-alone books?
I read this question elsewhere and have been thinking about it since and I must say that I don't know. When I look at the books that I've read, liked and want to read it's mostly series, but I do also love stand-alones. It's not that I don't pick up a book, because it's a stand-alone or because it's a series. Both have pros and cons.
9. Do you develop character crushes? If so, which characters have you developed crushes on?
I feel like everyone has character crushes, accept me. I just don't. I like characters, sometimes I grow really fond of them, and I always have a preference, especially in case of a triangle love, but never a crush.
10. Do you partner with your local bookstore/library?
No, but it's not really common in The Netherlands.
11. Is there a genre/theme/characteristic that you see repeated in your reading that's beginning to annoy you?
I discovered a while ago I shouldn't read to many books in a row of the same genre. I got a bit crazy with dystopians and it ended in disliking books I normally would have loved. So, no annoyance in general, but a break is healthy.
Questions from PidginPea:
1. What started your love of reading?
I've read as long as I can remember, so I would say my parents. But they're both kind of non-readers, so I have to skip that generation and say my grandparents. They read to me and my sister and that was always a time to look forward to!
2. What was your favorite book growing up?
Jip and Janneke, a Dutch children's book was the first book I ever "read", that's to say I heard it so many times that I remembered all the words. I can still remember the first sentences. Later on I read a lot of dutch authors like Thea Beckman and Simone van der Vlugt.
3. Do you remember your first YA book? If so, what was it?
Are we talking about books also before the YA genre got picked up? Because in that case it's Darren Shan. But when I read it YA didn't really exist, so than I have to go with Twilight. I had a couple of years of a really big reading slump and Twilight got me out of it.
4. What's your favorite place to read? Your "book nook" of choice, if you will. ;)
I read mostly on the train, couch or in bed. From those three the couch is my favorite. But I really enjoy reading in the sun, so that would be my all time favorite.
5. Do you have a favorite author?
I thought a long time about this question and I think it's hard to answer it. First of all because it changes every now and then, but if I really have to choose it would be Mary Hoffman.
6. If you could rewrite the ending of any book, what would it be and how would you change it?
7. What was the last book you read?
Otherkin by Nina Berry. I thought I would like it more beforehand, but it was OK.
8. What are you reading now?
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. It's amazing!
9. What are you reading next?
Probably The Lure of Shapinsay by Krista Holle. Krista was so kind to send me a review copy.
10. What's the best book you've read this year?
City of Swords by Mary Hoffman. Glitch by Heather Anastasiu is the best debut this year!
11. Just for fun... If you could be an athlete in the summer Olympics, what would your sport be?
Gymnastics for sure! I love watching it and would not mind participating!
These were my answers. So here are my questions. Hope you like them!
1. How important is the cover for you?
2. Where do you read your books?
3. When you're reading a book you're going to review do you take notes or do you write it down all at ones after you finished the book?
4. What do you love most about blogging?
5. What's your favorite movie or tv-series?
6. Which mythical creature do you like most?
7. When a book is made into a movie, what do you do first: read the book or watch the movie? And why?
8. What's the next book you're going to buy?
9. How many books are in your TBR-pile?
10. Do you spend much time on social media?
11. What's the book everyone should read? And why?
I would like to tag the following bloggers:
