MISC: The Book Fests Award

I want to thank and apologise to Ryann the Reader for tagging me in this award. I was going to do it the day after I was tagged and somehow a week has zoomed past and I’m only now getting round to it! Maybe subconciously, the pressure to write a 50 word story has been putting me off. Check out her blog, it’s full of great reviews and other bookish delights!

The Rules:

• It’s always proper and the right thing to do, when you receive something from someone, you thank them. It’s the same with this award. You can link the blogger who presents the award blog in the post you use to fulfill the requirements of the award.
• Answer the award questions that will be listed below.
• Write a Fifty Word Story, because it’s fun.
• Award five or more bloggers with this Award.
• Ask them a question of your making, you’ll like them to answer.
• Put up the award image badge on your blog via image widget.

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The Award Questions:

A book you started, never finished, but want to finish. What stopped you from continuing to read it?

There are two that come to mind, both literary classics: The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing and The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger. I can’t say specifically what stopped me from finishing The Golden Notebook. If you’ve ever seen a physical copy it’s pretty big, which might have been one of the reasons. It starts off with the two main characters sitting together, having a discussion that stretched on for quite a while, but I remember that scene vividly even though I read it two years ago, and that’s what makes me want to read it again. I think I tried reading The Catcher in the Rye when I was too young to appreciate it. Holden Caulfield didn’t interest me, but I’ve heard echoes of it in other books I’ve read, and I think I’m ready to give it a second chance.

What elements attract you to a book, which makes you need to read it?

Show me a pretty hardback and I’ll swoon, but if the blurb at the back of the book doesn’t interest me, I won’t buy it. I’m trying to read books by authors I haven’t read before at the moment (there are soooo many of them) and more current releases, so at the moment that plays a part in my decision-making.

Which do you prefer: e-copies or hard copies?

Hard copies. I’ve never read an e-book. I just find reading on a screen in general a much harder to do. I have a habit of skim-reading things when they’re in a digital format- probably because of how much time I spend reading articles and social media posts. It takes a lot of concentration to read something properly if its not on paper. And I love physical books. They have a history and a feel to them that e-books don’t have for me.

What book are you currently reading, or going to read?

 

I’m reading Stet: An Editor’s Life by Diana Athill and Dancing with Mrs. Dalloway by Celia Blue Johnson. Both are non-fiction which is almost unheard of for me, but I’m enjoying them both. Diana Athill was an editor for over five decades, and her memoirs are just brilliant. She’s so honest about her own nature.

Is it fair to judge a book by its film?

Nope, I don’t think there are many instances where I’ve preferred a film to the book. Especially now that they’ve started dragging the final installment into two arduously long films.

What book did you badly judge by its cover and end up loving?

I might have to refer to Goodreads for this one. I can’t find one. I’m just going to say The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory, because the cover of the novel didn’t pull me in, but I couldn’t read the book fast enough.

Which book character have you felt the most kin with and able to relate to?

The answer to this question, forever and always, will be Charlie from The Perks of being a Wallflower. There are probably a lot of other people out there who have felt the same, but being an introverted person who spent a lot of time in my head, I completely empathised with Charlie, and I think I was a little bit in love with him as a teenager. He introduced me to The Smiths and The Rocky Horror Show, so I’ll always have a soft spot for him.

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Ryann the Reader’s Question:

What’s the first book you can remember that got you really excited about reading and why?

Can I say Perks again? I’m gonna say Perks again (sorry). It’s just that book was a turning point for me in my relationship to reading. I used to pick up a book once every two or three months before I read it and I just became so immersed and emotionally invested that my entire attitude to reading changed. And I think, this is going to sound so cliche but it’s true, that book changed me a little too. I read so much more after that.

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My 50 Word Story:

 

As someone doing a Masters in Writing I feel like this story has to be epic or I’ll have to retire from the writing world in shame. I don’t think it’s helping that I keep thinking of Ernest Hemingway’s six word story: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”  But here it goes:

“Cacti grow slowly,” the cashier said, eyeing the pot. “It won’t need repotting for years.”

He looked at me then. I blinked back. He took a breath, his moustache quivered. His parted lips started saying something else. At the last minute, his words turned into a sigh. The checkout beeped happily- the cactus scanned through. He frowned. I followed the instructions on the card machine. I’d disappointed him somehow.

I went a teeny bit over, but I did cut it from 112 words. So, not bad?

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I’m Nominating:

I never know who to tag in these, so don’t feel pressure to do this if you don’t want to!

Kelly’s Rambles / Matxi_books / The Book Raven

My question is:

If you were a book, any book, which one would you be an why?