Friday Frippery! The Liebster Award…

…aka The Truth, The Whole Truth, etc…

I have been nominated for the Liebster Award by the lovely Brontë at Brontë’s Page Turners! Thanks, Brontë!

The rules:

1. Acknowledge the person who nominated you and display the award.
2. Answer eleven questions that the blogger gives you.
3. Give eleven random facts about yourself.
4. Nominate 11 blogs who you think deserve it.
5. Let the bloggers know you’ve nominated them.
6. Give your eleven questions to the nominees.

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The questions:

1. What made you start blogging?

   I was looking for a new hobby and someone suggested jogging. Fortunately I misheard…

2. I have to purchase every book I read. Do you?

   No, not at all. Unlike the rest of my family who are notorious book hoarders, I really try to keep the number of books in the house down to a reasonable level. It doesn’t always work – I end up with piles of books all over the place, until I take a mad fit and cull them drastically. The only books I want to keep are books I firmly expect to re-read, and that’s a tiny sub-set of the overall number of books I read. I do keep some books for sentimental reasons, though – if they were given as a special gift, for example.

   

3. I have a spreadsheet of all of my books to guard against theft (aka borrowers not returning items) and other calamities. Do you?

   Oddly, no, that’s never occurred to me, despite my profound love for spreadsheets. I don’t often lend or borrow books – I’m a hopeless returner myself, so I expect other people to be too. I do keep a spreadsheet of the TBR, but most of that is on Kindle.

4. I run yearly maintenance on my books, giving them a good airing and checking for damp. What lengths do you go to to care for your books?

   Umm… I toss them in the bookshelves if there’s space (organised purely by heavy ones at the bottom, light at the top, for health and safety reasons) or build a pile on an available surface. And then I forget about them till I want to find one, or until I decide it’s time for a cull. (You all hate me now, don’t you?)

   

5. To paraphrase the poet Barry Manilow…Questions 2-4 show How Deep Is My Love for books. Can you tell me something that demonstrates How Deep Is Your Love for books?

   Erm… *wriggles uncomfortably*… I read them? Nope, don’t sniff them, stroke them, sing to them or water them daily. They don’t have pet names or go to luxury bookeries when I go on holiday. If the cats chew the corners while I’m reading, that’s OK, because I love the cats more than the books.

   Ooh…ooh…wait! I don’t write in them and think people who do should be put in the stocks and pelted with rotten tomatoes! Phew! That sounds a bit better! Can I still be a member of the bookosphere now?

6. Do you have a favourite song based on a book?

   Oh dear! I’m sorry! I can’t think of a single song based on a book! Are there any? *rubs forehead frantically* Oooh, no… I mean, yes!! I do! How could I have forgotten?? Loads of them in fact. The entire The War of the Worlds concept album!!

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Give eleven random facts about yourself

(Goodness! I’ve totally failed to do the Versatile Blogger Award because it demands seven interesting things about myself, so what are the chance of me thinking up eleven! Hmm… *scratches head*)

1. I’m rotten at thinking up interesting facts about myself.

2. My first pet was a hamster called Jerry. I used to take him for walks.

3. I used to love John McEnroe because he was so rude, and now I disapprove of Nick Kyrgios because he’s so rude. Who says we don’t change as we age?

   

   

4. During a heated argument over the ridiculous claim that parallel lines meet in infinity, my irate maths teacher told me I’d either just have to accept it or create an entirely new system of maths. I’m still considering the latter option.

5. I love the marzipan you get on Christmas cakes and hate the marzipan you get in chocolates. Why is that?

6. Sometimes I baffle myself.

7. I can read upside down. The book upside down, that is, not me.

   

8. I can only tell left from right by checking which arm my vaccination mark is on.

9. I have no sense of direction (see random fact 8) so when I used to take my mother out for a run in the car, I would tell her it was a mystery tour, and then wherever we ended up I pretended that’s where I had been heading.

10. I used to be able to touch the tip of my nose with the tip of my tongue, but I can’t anymore. The question is – which got shorter? And how? (See random fact 6.)

11. I once put my real name into an anagram generator and it came up with two options – firstly, with my middle name: Banal Hive Earthling; and then without my middle name: Arabel La Thigh. I prefer the latter.

That was awful! That was great fun – thanks so much for nominating me, Brontë! 😀

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The nominations:

As always, I am nominating anyone who wishes to participate because you all deserve an award!

Here are your questions should you choose to accept… (or answer in the comments)

1. What is an anagram of your name?

2. If you were only allowed one chocolate in the box, which would you take? (DON’T take the coffee cream!)

   

3. Cats are better than dogs. Discuss.

4. Complete this sentence – “I love…”

5. Do you think of dawn as late or early?

6. If you were a book, what book would you be?

7. Complete this sentence – “I hate…”

8. When you look out of your bedroom window, what do you see?

9. Which bookish/filmish/TV-ish character would you desert your spouse/partner/singleton-ness for without a moment’s hesitation?

   

   Hands off! He’s taken!

10. What would you most like someone to invent?

11. Complete this sentence – “I’m so glad she didn’t ask about…”

HAVE A GREAT FRIDAY! 😀