The Sunshine Blogger Award x2

I was actually nominated twice—by erin @ReadingonaStar back in July and Siren @SweatersandRaindrops in August. And since I’m so far behind on well, everything, it’s taken me until now to post my responses! Sorry for being such a slack, and thank you both so much for nominating me!

I’ll be answering a mishmash of questions from Erin and Siren, because I am an indecisive person.

What is the Sunshine Blogger award?

The Sunshine Blogger Award is an award within the blogging community – given to bloggers by their peers. Those who are nominated, inspire and spread positivity through their blogs. (riselovelive.com)

Here are the rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you for this award 
2. Make sure to list the rules and post a photo of the award logo
3. Answer the 11 questions that your nominator asked you
4. Nominate 11 other bloggers and ask them your own 11 questions
5. Notify your nominees by commenting on one of their recent posts

The Questions

1. What was the last show you binge-watched?

I caught up on The Boys over Labor Day Weekend, in between frantic bouts of editing and heading into work to move furniture back from carpet cleaning day and checking the bookdrop on my holiday time (yooo, if the library is closed, don’t return your books!). It’s much grittier than what I normally watch, I don’t find it funny (it’s more cautionary) and the plot moves slow as gravy, yet something about it kept making me watch one episode after the next. I’m hooked, and now my wife is pissed that I watched it without her (apparently we’d watched the pilot together then taken a break, and I had forgotten and thoughts he hadn’t wanted to see it). Ooops. #NoRagrats

2. What’s your zodiac sign? Do you fit with the stereotypes of your sign?

I’m a Sagittarius—the hardest fucking sign to spell. But minus the generous bit and being philosophical and liking travel (I prefer to travel while reading) and love of the outdoors (I like the PNW outdoors where not everything is out to eat you like in the South), this is pretty much me. I am so impatient it’s not even funny anymore. Tact? Don’t know her.

3. What is your dream career?

I already have it! Although my job gives me daily headaches, I love being a librarian. I’ve always wanted to be one, mostly because I enjoy helping people and connecting them to opportunities they might never have considered, and because my elementary school librarian quite literally saved me. However, it can be a hard field to break into, as gatekeeping within the librarian world is ridiculous, and if you’re doing a mid-career switch like I did, do what I didn’t and get yourself previous library worker or internship experience while you get your MLIS degree. Lots of jobs will only hire first-time librarians with previous library experience (yes, this is ironic, I am well aware). However, non-degree requiring library positions can be just as wonderful as full librarian positions, although the pay is not as good (and the pay for librarians isn’t great either).

4. Rant time! In three sentence or less, rant about your most disliked/hated book. Alternatively, you can rant about your most disappointing read.

The recent most-hated book is November 9 by Colleen Hoover. Billed as a contemporary romantic semi-thriller about a young author and his muse, this really unraveled into forgive your emotional manipulator and stay together.

Before that, my most-hated book was Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg, featuring an asshat of a protagonist and non-consensual date rape and entrapment explained away through a series of increasingly shaky logical steps that the protagonist was applauded for.

5. Do you have any weird reading habits?

I don’t think so? My reading habits all seem pretty normal to me, although perhaps I’m not the best judge. I do bounce from genre to genre, fiction to nonfiction, without a seeming rhyme or reason. I claim to read mostly science fiction and fantasy, but in reality I read with a lot of variety. I read a lot? I guess that’s weird? Although I’m surrounded by social media people who read 200+ books a year on the reg, so by comparison I’m not that unusual.

6. Audiobook vs. ebook vs. physical book. What’s your preference and why?

I don’t have a preference. Story over format, always. I’m always reading at least two books: an audiobook during my commute/cleaning (usually nonfiction) and a physical book or ebook for everything else. And I love graphic novels too, which totally count as reading (I got into an argument with an obnoxious twelve-year-old Karen who only read novels recently—I will fight a bitch who poopoos other ways of reading and I don’t care how old they are).

Read what you like, how you like, when you like. Read for joy, always.

Unless it’s going to be a hate finish, in which case, I want to see those reviews. Or for school, in which case: sucks for you (my sympathies). Remember: Joy is how you define it. Maybe reading diversely brings you joy. Maybe joy comes from horror, or sad books or leadership books or fanfiction or comic books or books that make you uncomfortable. There is no such thing as a magical reading list of the 100 books to read before X age. Find what brings you joy. Fuck everyone else’s reading preferences or opinions. Don’t be a gatekeeper of reading—open doors for people. Okay, I’m going to step down.

7. What are your top 5 reads of 2020 so far?

Only five? Well shit I can’t choose! Remember that whole I read a little bit of everything thing? Remember that whole being indecisive thing?? Years of Marine Corps and having to make decisions all the fucking time has turned me into an anti-decision making queen. So above is my top five nonfiction and top five fiction. Take that, erin!

8. What was your dream job as a kid?

I wanted to be a large animal veterinarian! I had the entire plan set in place: I started really focusing on my studies in fifth grade, and strove to get fantastic grades through middle school, because for some reason my brain was like “they won’t accept me into med school without a 4.0 beginning in kindergarten, which I don’t have so I’ll have to be amazing beginning yesterday.” Somewhere along the line (I blame moving into the city) my dream shifted and it turned into a Navy pilot (did not happen—thank you eyesight and fake asthma, seriously though, thank you fake asthma because the Naval Academy would have been a shit decision for many reasons) and then Marine Corps officer. And librarian lurking around in the background throughout it all. However, you can be a librarian at any point in life, and joining the Marine Corps has an age (and body ability) limit.

9. What fact amazes you every time you think of it?

Some trees can live to be over 2,000 years old! This fact blows my mind, along with the knowledge that trees can communicate with each other through their intertwined root systems. It’s amazing every time I think about it. Venturing into old growth forests always takes my breath away.

Speaking of longevity, some sharks can live to be over 100 years old, and some species of jellyfish are thought to be immortal. Some turtles have very long lifespans, as do many whales and elephants and bird species (many parrots have a lifespan of 50-60 years, and they often pair-bond with their humans, which makes it even more heartbreaking when the human dies).

10. Favourite podcast(s)? Or podcasts you’re looking forward to starting?

I don’t listen to a lot of podcasts and I always feel guilty because while there are so many good ones, I am also always listening to an audiobook.

I love, love, love The History Chicks. And I’ve recently (heh, not really) started listening to Dressed: The History of Fashion, The Librarian is In, Our Opinions Are Correct, and That’s Not How That Works. I don’t like a lot of over-produced podcasts or podcasts that are 70% ads/the hosts chitchatting before diving into the nitty gritty, which is why My Favorite Murder is on my list but that long-ass run time means it’s pushed to the bottom of my queue. And I want to start listening to Are We There Yet? but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

11. The longest you’ve gone without reading?

Technically speaking? Since I started really loving reading in like, second grade, it’s going to be never. In military training you read a lot (technical manuals and coursework counts) but I um, managed to smuggle in Breaking Dawn into the squadbay during Officer Candidate School, and I read that after lights out or during semi-free periods of time. Fiction reading is a priority in my life and I make time for it. During my master’s program while I was working full time and getting my yoga teacher’s certificate (I’m lazy, so this was very unusual for me), I carved out an hour of sleep for fun reading in the morning. And my sleep is sacred.

I Nominate…

• Karen @ Twisted in Pages
• Corina @ The Brown Eyed Bookworm
• Hâf @ The Library Looter
• Ashleigh @ Ashleigh’s Bookshelf
• Luna @ Bookish Luna
• Madeline @ The Bookish Mutant
• Mayeesha @ Head Over Books
• Orang-utan Librarian @ The Orangutan Librarian
• Intisar @ Intisar Speaks
• Nen & Jen @ Nen & Jen
• Toni @ The Bookish Hangover

No pressure to do this! I tagged you all because I love your blogs, even if I don’t hit the like button as much as I should!

My Questions

1. How did you choose the name for your blog?
2. What’s your favorite bookish thing that you own or that you want to own (that is not books)?
3. What is your stance on pineapple on pizza?
4. Furthermore, what is your opinion of fruit in ice cream?
5. What is a genre you don’t usually read or don’t often pick up?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. Which character would you bring to life and why?
8. What is your favorite comfort food?
9. What have been your favorite books of 2020?
10. What are your most anticipated releases for the rest of 2020 and beyond?
11. What are your goals for 2021?

Thanks for reading! If you weren’t nominated, feel free to consider yourself tagged or answer the questions in the comments!