Sisterhood of the World Award

I’m back again with another award- oh come on you could look a little bit more excited. I understand it’s a Monday and unless you’ve got a job with Reed recruitment then everybody hates Mondays but I’m not forgiving you just yet- hopefully this post will make it more bearable. I’ve been nominated for the Sisterhood of the World award by the wonderful Helen of Troy at https://inwhichhelen.wordpress.com/ (p.s. Helen where have you gone please get back to your blog and write more plz) and am super excited about this award because between all the feminism and Daily Mail slamming and carmex applying I haven’t managed to fit anything about books into my blog which is rather tragic as I LAAAVE books.

Have you ever got any author’s signatures? Whose? My biggest claim to fame is a handwritten postcard I got from Jacqueline Wilson in response to some fan mail I sent her in 2011ish about my career dilemma: do I become a writer or a zoo keeper (it’s a tricky one I know). She replied with such sweet advice saying that I could do both and then write animal stories- although she could’ve written my court summons and I would’ve still been over the moon by the fact she replied.

Has a book ever changed the way you feel about something? Before I Go To Sleep made me feel so grateful for being able to remember things and trust the people around me, these are things the main character can’t take for granted. However I’m still a little bit emotional after I found out S J Watson IS A MAN! I’m gutted but the book is an incredible read so he’s forgiven.

Definitely didn’t steal this from my childhood library

Do you think all books should be available in every language? I was trying to get the German versions of Clarice Bean/Tracey Beaker/that kind of thing to revise with over summer but they were so hard to source, I settled for a Cosmopolitan magazine instead (which is insanely hard to translate because sadly ‘erection’ isn’t in the Collins German Easy Learning Schools dictionary). It would make it a lot easier if books were in the most spoken languages at least.

Do you judge a book by its cover? Yes. Always. The cover is like the book’s personal self-promoter so it has to be eye catching else I’ll end up leaving you on the shelf. Also, I think books with a photo of an eye on are pretentious.

What is the worst book you’ve ever read? A Girl Is A Half Formed Thing by Eimear McBride which sucks because after all the awards it won I was so looking forward to reading this. It’s just so difficult to understand because it’s not written in proper sentences just fragments of words (in fact I’ll read you an extract):

‘Grating. Think of cheese and not my skin blooming rashes. But it does red and pink alive for me. The burn of it. That smell. That deep in his neck like warm and rich and far away. Like memory I might have had.’

Now imagine reading 200 more pages of that. Oh and there is mild incest.

What was the book that got you into reading? My Mum read to me when I was a baby so I always grew up with stories but I think the first one to break my heart was Charlotte’s Web (which is ironic because I’m terrified of spiders) so maybe the emotions of that left me wanting more?

I hate you

Where is your favourite place to read? I’m a fan of conventional places ie. on a chair, none of this tumblr nonsense when people are sat on Beachy Head with a novel or chilling in the bath- don’t even get me started on reading in the bath. Just imagine if you dropped it.

Bookmarks or dog-ears? I am deeply saddened that you didn’t mean actual dog ears. I could never ever fold back the pages of a book, I think I’d be arrested for novel neglect, but I’m not a fan of bookmarks either. I like trying to remember where I’ve got to and then rediscover old bits I’ve read as I skim over them along the way. (I like to think of it as the book equivalent of when you’re watching a TV show and they show the ‘previously’ clip so you can reminisce over last week’s instalment)

The moment when you realise it’s a vagina

Do you think you could write a book that someone would publish if you wanted to? No being modest PLS. Well Helen that is a rather sassy capitalised PLS there. And I understand that you want modesty but I’m warning you in advance once you’ve unleashed the kraken that is my ego it can be hard to contain. I would love to write a book although I’ve heard getting an agent can be tricky- especially if you don’t fall into a really clear genre. Who knows. I might just become a crayon instead.

Do you know any writers? I won a competition to meet Sue Heap when I was little (I’ll insert the picture if I can find it) but she’s the only ‘proper’ writer I know. The rest of us are just chilling in journals or on blogs or at the student paper until we can write something you actually want to read.

My questions for my nominees (they’re a cake mix of books, life and political bias):

In the movie version of your life, what would your catchphrase be?

Which Disney princess is your favourite?

If the Eiffel Tower and the leaning tower of Pisa were both running for class president who would you vote for?

What’s your favourite piece of punctuation?

Have you ever read the Bell Jar and if not then WHY NOT? (I hope you like my Helen-esque sassy caps)

You can have two scoops of ice cream, which flavours will you order?

Late nights or early mornings?

What’s your album of the year so far?

What would your stage name be? (And don’t pretend you don’t have one…I refuse to believe it’s just me)

Aren’t these the best questions that have ever been asked ever?

And my nominees are:
My ultimate Patricia Hernandez science KT mcmuffin http://justanotherthespian.wordpress.com/
The wildest and most beautiful roses https://wildroseandthistle.wordpress.com/
My go to giggler Victoria (I’d call her a Teamale but there’s coffee in her Twitter name hehe) https://victoriagiggles.wordpress.com/
The gal saving the world via animal rights https://mirrorthelove.wordpress.com/
My favourite American sugarplum https://seasweetie.wordpress.com/