The Real Neat Blog Award

Thank you so much to NapoleonSplit for nominating me for the Real Neat Blog Award! It is the first such award I have been nominated for since I started blogging and I went all Gwyneth Paltrow circa the 1999 Oscars when I got it.

Two caveats:

1. Please forgive me if I have somehow got this whole pingback thing a bit wrong. I’m a bit Nokia-Brick-Phone when it comes to some teccy things
2. May I also do a London Town shout-out to all the other wonderful bloggers who I follow but could not nominate due to the seven-blogger limit. I am really enjoying all of the wonderful book blogs that are out there.

RULES

1. Thank and link the blogger that nominated you.

2. Answer the 7 questions that the nomination has provided you.

3. Create 7 questions for your nominees.

4. Nominate 7 other bloggers.

NAPOLEONSPLIT’S QUESTIONS:

1) If you could watch a documentary about one thing, what would it be about?

How my parents managed to raise such a well-adjusted child, despite the utter nerd-dom I displayed.

2) If you had to choose a “royal” friend, from before 1850 who would it be?

Elizabeth 1st. When I was about 9, I collected a wonderful weekly historical magazine for kids called ‘Discovery’. The first issue was about our Liz and included a cassette tape (the 80s baby!!) of an actress playing Liz giving her Armada speech. I was so roused by the line ‘I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too’ that I became fixated on our Liz and used to imagine myself actually having conversations with her.

All this was in between dreaming about how I was going to make Jason Donovan marry me. Such a stressful time, Liz and Jason whirring round my mind, and the ol’ puberty monster to contend with.

You can see now why I’m so interested in the answer to question 1.

3) You know that book that you always pick up, only to look at it and put it down a second later? What book is that?

The Famished Road by Ben Okri. I have had a copy for over a decade and have still not read it. I have no idea why. I can only think it is because I love my grub and the mere utterance of ‘famished’ gives me chills. Not Jason Donovan-related chills, I mean bad chills.

4) Copy and paste a picture of one of your favorite libraries you wish was in your house.

The John Rylands Library, Manchester. There is also sufficient space for a rave, which is helpful in case the Happy Mondays make an appearance.

5) Name a mainstream book you did not enjoy. Why?

50 Shades of Grey.

Because once I was reading whilst waiting for my dad outside Edmonton Green Station and a fella walked by and grumbled ‘God it’s that pervy book that all the women are reading’ and it mightily annoyed me as in fact I was reading Homer’s The Odyssey and feeling very smug and non-pervy about it.

WELL WOULDN’T YOU BE AGGRIEVED?

6) List three songs you feel describe the last book you read.

I’m just not hip enough for this excellent question

7) If you had the option to be part of a secret society, would you? What secret society?

To quote Queens of the Stone Age: ‘Whatever you do, don’t tell anyone’. So I’m not telling.

There, I am quite hip really.

 

MY QUESTIONS:

1. How many books are on your TBR list? Be honest now
2. What is your greatest bibliophile skill (mine is walking and reading)?
3. What is your finest bibliophile dream (mine is to have a house big enough to house all of my books adequately, rather than them being split between my flat and my parents’ home, but I suspect that that is unlikely in Cameron’s Britain)
4. What is your worst bibliophile nightmare (mine is someone giving my books away and I find them in my local charity shop and no one will listen to my woe)
5. If you could thank one person for turning you on to the joys of reading, who would it be?
6. If your partner is a fellow bibliophile, do you merge book collections i.e. get rid of duplicate copies of books you both have? Or is this too much to expect, even in a long-term relationship? Am I worrying about this too much?!!
7. Paste and copy a picture of the most beautiful book you own.

 

I NOMINATE:

Fleeting Brook

Muggins Here

A Biographer in Perth

The Tip Tap of Monkey Keyboards

Eve’s Bookish Confections

Bookheathen’s Right to Read

What I Think About When I Think About Reading