Meet the Book Blogger Tag #2

A huge thank you to Kat from KBbookreviews for tagging me! I adore her posts and her book reviews are some of my favorites, so do check her out, especially if you love fantasy.

This is the second time I’ve done this tag, so I’m going to see if I can come up with some different answers.

---

The Rules

• Nominated bloggers can nominate ten other bloggers.
• Use the same questions from the tag.
• Tag the original creator (Bibliomavens) and the blogger who tagged you

---

The Questions

Who is your all-time favourite book character?

Miss Rumphius from, well, Miss Rumphius. This is a children’s book I’ve loved since I was a child. Miss Rumphius wanted to be like her grandfather, who was an artist by the sea. He told her that, yes, she should travel the world and retire by the sea, but, above all, she must find a way to make the world more beautiful. And of course she finds a way by spreading lupine seeds, and how could a little girl who loved flowers not love that? It also recently struck me that she never married, and this is a book that was published in 1982 and features a time period somewhere around the turn of the 20th century.

If you were stranded on a desert island, which book would you take with you? (Survival books do not count)

Last time, I picked The Count of Monte Cristo, and this time I considered another really long book (I’d really like to savor War and Peace again, but…maybe not anytime soon). Considering I really want to hunker down and write this year, I’m going to pick a 5 subject college ruled notebook. Notebooks are books, right? I mean, it’s right there in the word…Of course, I’d also need some things to write with, but, considering I carry interesting things with me at all times, I’m sure I’ll be fine. I recently remembered carrying a pair of safety scissors into Knott’s Berry Farm as a child just because I’d stuck it in my jacket pocket one day, but that was well before 9/11 and restrictions and security checks.

What’s your most unpopular book opinion?

Last year, it was that I despise YA, which I still do. So this time I’m going to go with I also despise bookish merchandise. I just don’t like collecting things. Sure, a collection of candles and bookmarks I’ll lose and strange little figures that stare at me might make for good Instagram photos, but I struggle with even remembering I have Instagram. Besides, the knick knack thing isn’t for me. I’ll just take the books, thanks. Also, I’d never sleep with little figurines staring around my home all night.

What’s your weirdest bookish habit?

I don’t have any? Well, I don’t know how weird it is, but I like to zone out while reading and pretend I’m part of the story. Usually a super minor character who hopefully doesn’t get killed.

What character would you bring to a family event as your fake partner?

I don’t know! My family’s pretty weird and my aunts are kind of nuts, so definitely not someone good looking. That might make things a little weird. I think I’ll have to go with Lan from The Wheel of Time. None of my aunts will be able to get anything out of him!

What made you decide to start a book blog?

I don’t have a unique answer for this. It was an accident. I never intended on falling into a niche back in 2018, and The Lily Cafe was actually originally a writing blog. But I love books, signed up for NetGalley while my son was a preschool and my daughter was sleeping on me, started taking review requests, and, well, here I am. It’s an accident that has now put the name of my blog and a quote from one of my reviews into a book published by Berkley. It’s kind of funny how life guides me sometimes.

What about reading and books do you love the most?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always felt like I’ve lived with one foot in reality and one foot in a fantasy world, heavily leaning towards the latter while reality tries so hard to pull be back (it’s an interesting game of tug of war). Books really help push me over the edge a little more into fantasy and make me feel a little more at home. I’ve always been a little weird and definitely different from most people (conformity is not a word I allow in my vocabulary), so fictional worlds have always made me feel more at home and more like I actually belong somewhere.

What is your field of study/desired profession/current profession?

I study and practice how to remove stains, keep toys in an organized chaos, cook foods at least one child will declare disgusting, and listen to children chatter almost 24/7 without letting my mind implode. Also known as how to be a stay at home mom to these little ones I’ve been stuck at home with for about 2 years now. In a previous life, I was being trained to be a psychologist, and I’m pretty sure a lot of that training has been handy over the past 2 years, but my Master’s Degree currently goes unused.

Otherwise my desired profession is traditionally published author, and I really should get to working on that story that I’ve decided to write but will do a blog post on it at a later time.

What are some book recommendations that became your favourites/obsessions?

Last time, I mentioned a book my mom said I would love called Garden Spells. I don’t have a ton of readers in my life, so it’s hard to come by recommendations, especially when I’m so particular, and one of my friends has, in no uncertain terms, said I should definitely not read Dracula, so I will not. So I thought I’d go in a different direction this time and mention a book recommendation that became my least favorite thing in the world. Oddly enough, it was also recommended to me by my mom, and I’m still struggling to figure out why. The book: Outlander. Do I even need to write who the author is? I got stuck early on when Claire (don’t know and don’t care if that’s how her name is spelled) and her husband were tumbling down a hill. This was page 30 or 40 something. Then I gave the book back to my mom and asked for something else. I think she took me to the bookstore instead. It remains one of my least favorite reads ever and I will not willingly touch it.

What is the book you shove down everyone’s throat?

I have to pick my usual answer: the dictionary! It’s great to learn new words, and it’s also a useful tool for writers since there are so many homophones in the English language, and it drives me batty whenever someone misspells pique. I once saw a list of commonly misspelled words that also listed misspelled as a commonly misspelled word! What can I say? I’m a stickler for correct spelling and word usage.

Thanks again, Kat! I’m not tagging anyone in particular, but, if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged!

This blog is my home base, but you can also find me on:
Pinterest | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook