The Sunshine Blogger Award Part Two

I have some more nominations for the Sunshine Blogger Award sitting in my tags queue so it’s about time I got around to answering a few more of them. If you want to learn more about my general opinions on the worst books I’ve read, or the worst book-to-film adaptations I’ve seen, or get some recommendations for bookish blogs to check out then this is the post for you.

I was tagged by The Readers Bay and Destiny at Howling Libraries. Thank you both so much for your nominations, I had a lot of fun answering the questions you set and I hope you enjoy reading my answers.

Rules:

• Thank the person(s) who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog
• Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you
• Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions
• List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo on your post and/or on your blog

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The Readers Bays’ Questions

1. I’m actually going to steal Emma’s question and ask: Kiss, marry, kill: The main characters of the last three fiction books you read.

I’d kiss Lundy from In An Absent Dream and marry Nikolai from King of Scars. I loved both their characters but I think Nikolai would be a lot more fun to be married to, even with the monster under his skin. I’d kill Marion from Sawkill Girls because I couldn’t connect to her, actually I couldn’t connect to anyone in that book.

2. A trope that you absolutely hate and one that you’re always down for.

I really hate love triangles. They always seem to be thrown in to add tension between the characters or to the plot and it strikes me as a really cheap way to achieve that. Give me real stakes for characters to overcome instead of another love triangle I’ve read a hundred times before.

Tropes I love are enemies to lovers and friends to lovers. I know the question asked for one but I don’t think I could choose between them.

3. Your favourite book as a child?

I had a lot of favourites as a child, but the main two that stick out in my mind are Harry Potter – cliché I know, but it’s the first series that really ‘hooked’ me on reading – and Alice in Wonderland – which is the only classic novel I can say I’ve read and loved.

However if we’re talking ultimate, obsessed-over favourites then it’s going to be Twilight. I know it’s a bad book but it’s always going to have a special place in my heart just because it got me back into reading and introduced me to the YA genre.

4. What is your bookish pet peeve?

I answered this one previously in my Sunshine Blogger Award Part One post but two more (because I have a fair few bookish pet peeves) are people needlessly damaging books. Don’t crack the spines, don’t dog-ear pages, don’t eat and spill crumbs everywhere especially if it’s not your own book.

5. If you had to befriend any character for a day, which character would it be? 

There are so many to choose from but I’d want to go on an adventure and I think Lila from the Shades of Magic series is the best person to make that happen. I’d get her to take me away from Grey London to Red London where magic is waiting, and I’d probably never come back.

6. What is the one book that you will recommend for teenagers who aren’t big on reading?

Warcross is the perfect book for teenagers. It’s fast-paced to keep them hooked, futuristic but set in the modern world so they’ll have that connection to the setting, and there are so many twists and turns to keep them engaged until the very last page. Plus Marie Lu is an incredible writer.

7. Suppose your house is catching fire and you have to run for your life. You pass your bookshelves on the way, and you just can’t resist taking a few beauties with you. What are the two books that you most definitely HAVE to take with you?

I could never just pick two books. If my house were on fire I’d probably die trying to save all my books (I have so many so it would take a long time) but if it comes down to it I’d have to say my special edition of Alice in Wonderland and one of my Harry Potter illustrated hardcovers.

8. If you could live in any fictional world, which one would it be?

The Night Circus is always going to be my go-to answer for this question, more so than Hogwarts even. I fell in love with the story and the world Erin Morgenstern created, and if I had the chance I would jump head first at the opportunity to visit Le Cirque des Reves myself.

9. Which bookish family/sibling relationship is most like your own? In case of no siblings, which bookish friendship is most like your own?

I’m really close with my sister; Molly from The Upside of Unrequited is a character I identify with and I feel like Cassie is a character my sister could connect to. She’s outgoing so I tend to get dragged along in her wake, but when it comes down to it I know there’s be no one better to have in my corner.

10. Three of your least liked books. 

I thought Reign of Shadows would be a good book but sadly it wasn’t what I hoped it would be; the plot was weak, the setting fell flat, and the characters were really one-dimensional.

Stealing Snow had all the things I hate in books; there was insta-love and a love square (worse than a love triangle and I hate those) and looking back it was just a really forgettable story.

I hated the main character in The Truth and Lies of Ella Black, and in first person POV stories I need to like the main character if I want to like the book. Also it had the worst case of insta-love I’ve ever read.

11. Pick three books from your shelf. Open to random pages on each and choose the first character that comes. Now these three characters are battling in a war with each other. Who is most likely to win, lose and give up?

Emi from Warcross is a hacker more than a fighter, so I think she’d be out very quickly in a physical war. It would definitely be between Lila from Shades of Magic and Inej from Six of Crows but I think Inej would win; there are few people out there who’d stand a chance against the Wraith.

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Destiny’s Questions

1. What is your average rating on Goodreads? (It’s under your picture on your profile, if you didn’t know!)

I didn’t even know this was a thing Goodreads did, but I suppose it makes sense. After all if they have average ratings for books why wouldn’t they do the same for reviewers?

2. What is the worst book-to-movie adaptation you’ve ever seen?

I read His Dark Materials before I saw the Golden Compass film which in hindsight may not have been the best idea because I really loved the books and the film did not live up to the series. I was so disappointed but I’m hopeful that the upcoming BBC adaptation will be better (the trailer looks good, so like I said I’m hopeful).

3. Do you have a “guilty pleasure” genre, or do you openly admit your likes and dislikes no matter what?

I think I’m more of the latter; the only people I speak to about the books I read are people in the blogging community, everyone here already knows all about my likes and dislikes. If someone outside of the blogosphere asks I will share what I’m reading, but I never go in depth about my likes and dislikes because most of time they’re just asking surface questions.

4. Have you ever bought clothing from a book series?

No, is that actually a thing though? Are there websites out there that sell clothes from book series? If so please someone tell me, and maybe share a few website links as well.

5. What was the most recent bookish quote you fell in love with?

“If it’s not important to you, why do you tell everyone I’m applying there? It’s all you guys talk about. Like it’s the only worthwhile thing about me.” My voice begins to shake. “If I don’t get in, that’s it. I’ll be Ariel, the one who didn’t get into Harvard. I’ll let everyone down. I’ll let you guys down. And I might not get in. I really might not, because I’m not perfect. They asked for perfect, and I’m not, and I don’t know what else I can—”

“Ariel,” Mom says, voice breaking.

I realise all three of us are crying.

Dad leans forward. “Ariel.” He pauses a meets me eyes. “Everything about you is worthwhile.”

6. Are you more likely to add books based on their cover and synopsis, or a friend’s review?

Definitely friends’ reviews, sometimes even just seeing a friend add a book to their TBR list will get me to check it out. I picked up the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy because my best friend read and loved it, and that’s not even touching on all the books I’ve added since I started blogging.

7. What blogging friend do you think your taste is most similar to? Give them a shout-out!

I’m not sure how similar our taste actually is, but Malanie has gotten me to pick up some incredible books which have become some of my all-time favourites. I read Darius the Great is Not Okay because of her glowing review, and picked up and binge-read the All for the Game trilogy (which I love) because she kept talking about how great it was.

8. What is the most prominent spine colour on your shelves?

It’s hard to tell, I don’t have my books sorted by colour (although I do love the rainbow shelves some people have on Instagram) but there’s definitely a lot of dark colours – blacks, dark greens and dark blues – which fit in with the fantasy vibe I have going on when it comes to my reading tastes.

9. Do you utilize libraries and/or used bookstores often?

Nope, my library doesn’t have a great selection of books – the local council spent so much money on a fancy new building but for some reason didn’t update the catalogue – and there aren’t any decent second hand bookstores near me either – and by ‘decent’ I really mean ‘any’.

10. Do you like book-themed colouring books? If so, which is your favourite? If not, why not?

Not really. I don’t have anything specific against them but I barely have the time for the hobbies I do have (my life is forever being split between reading, blogging and writing, and one of those three things is always falling through the cracks) to add another one to the list.

11. If you could be transported into one fantasy novel, which one would it be, and why?

Like I said in one of my previous answers The Night Circus has become my new ‘cliché’ answer for questions like these. It’s my all-time favourite book and the main reason is the world building, it’s so fantastical and magical, and I just want to jump into the pages to explore it for myself.

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As before I do still have some more nominations for The Sunshine Blogger Award…

…so there will be a couple more posts with me answering even more questions, but in the meantime let me know your answers to the questions in this post.

If your house was to catch fire and you could only save two books which would you pick? What’s the worst book-to-film adaptation you’ve seen, do you agree with me that it’s the Golden Compass or is there a worse one out there for you?