This is my magical and all encompassing post in response to being awarded the Liebster Award by Brontë’s Page Turners. I wasn’t aware of the award, but it is really really nice to be nominated. The award is for blogs with less than [insert number here] followers. It appears that this year it is 200, but that is coming down every year. I couldn’t find a huge amount of source info, but quite a few blogs have the award and are sharing it around. The source appears to be here..? Have a Google for the award, you will find a lot of interesting blogs with their Liebster award posts, and here is mine.

The Rules of Liebster

Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
Display the Liebster Award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note: the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)
Answer the 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.
Provide 11 random facts about yourself.
Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have less than 1000 followers.
Create a new list of questions for your nominee bloggers to answer (if you want to).
Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster Award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!) or list these rules in your post (you can copy and paste from here).

My Answers

1. Thank you

Thank you very much Brontë 🙂 I posted on your blog already, but why say thanks once when you can do it twice??

2. Display the Award

Well, have a look at my front page. There it is, and guess what, it links back here !!!

3. Answer questions posed by Brontë

To paraphrase the poet Ronan Keating – Is Life A Rollercoaster, and Must We Ride It?

Of course it is! Bill Hicks says it is, and I have a blog post about his book. If the roller-coaster is life, then we have to ride it, we have no choice. While we live we accept its rise and fall, its corkscrews and loop the loops. The key is to roll with it, enjoy the ride!

What made you start blogging?

A huge number of books that I had bought and not read. I found myself holding another one and had to check what the hell I was doing. Here are a couple of posts from the early days…

I have always been quite into conservation and environmental issues. Stopping our addiction to consumerism would be a great start. Have I solved my own situation?? No, but I’m working on it and as I do my aims are changing too (watch this space…)

Did you take photos of your book-case as a 9 year-old (see featured photo), or were you quite a reasonably adjusted child?

Nope. I was many things as a child, but I wasn’t into library photography and I wasn’t well adjusted. I don’t think any child is well adjusted, isn’t that the point? Find your own groove (You get your own roller-coaster, with its own twists and turns.)

I buy most of my books from charity shops. Does this make me a fiend for not more fully supporting independent bookshops, or am I just one of Thatcher’s children, always chasing the cheapest price?

A good portion of my library is from charity shops and it will probably return to one if it ever leaves my ownership. I do have a plan to distribute what I get rid of, but I haven’t got round to much literary philanthropy yet. Charity shops are great. If a book gets into one, then the author has seen the sales. The continued circulation of books after their initial sales spike is what keeps them alive. On the other hand, a good independent book shop should be whole heartedly supported. I would actually include Waterstones in that description because our local one is great and is trying to be as involved in the local literary community as it can be. The problem is Amazon. It is stupendously easy, well realised and all encompassing, but at what cost. Amazon represents so much that I like and at the same time, the reason why I don’t like consumerism. When everything is for sale and the machine is so obviously run by very hard nosed accountants. Anyway, high horse dismounted. Charity good, book shop good. Other stuff bad.

Television Book Clubs (e.g. Richard and Judy’s in the UK, Oprah’s in the US, and any others elsewhere around the world that I am not cosmopolitan enough to be aware of): a good or bad thing? (Responders must try not to be swayed by the boyish good looks of Richard Madeley.)

Meh. I don’t really pay attention to them. I obviously already have enough books (I am kidding myself; I am about to get new books for my birthday. Rule 10 ) I do notice the stickers on books in shops and I think that “R&J” offer a fair indication that a book is going to be good. I don’t think that you can get too upset with initiatives that get people reading, whatever they are. You could argue that these things cuts down the diversity of the books that people might read, but if you read you read, and if a percentage of what you read is recommended by someone on the telly, then so be it.

Have you ever inherited any books from a relative and, if so, did you come across interesting finds?

Good Question! I don’t think I can recall a particular book that I have inherited with a story, but I have a good story none the less. My Dad was a magician. He used to read a lot of psychology and fiction (separately!) But, I got some of my reading habits from him as he often didn’t finish a book either! My Dad died a few years ago, but it was not until earlier this year that my Mum, my Brother and I got the power up to sort through Dad’s books. We found pretty much what we thought we would, but… My Dad used to use playing cards as book marks. He used to have various packs of cards laying around, quite often incomplete due to various tricks. We found about half a pack of cards as we went through his books. I think his favourite card was the Queen of Hearts. We found two cards that had cigarette holes burned through them and a high number with people’s names written across the face (“Without me seeing so that you can identify your card later. Now, slip your card into this envelope. I haven’t even touched the card…”) Brilliant piece of history 🙂

Thank you for that.

4. Random facts about myself

I am successful, but I have never gone and done everything I want to in life. Roller-coaster, take me there.
I was 2 months premature and have been five minutes late ever since.
I am training to run a marathon in August 2016.
I used to breath fire, but I haven’t done it for years.
I am not that fast a reader.
I can touch type, so when I write I quite often have my eyes closed.
I make home brew wine, beer and cider.
I love my family more than I know, and more than they know. They know I love them a lot.
I was born in Essex (UK), but I don’t live there now.
I have played Digeridoo in the tower on top of Glastonbury Tor.
My first car was a mini (original one, not BMW.)
I can (apparently) sprout useless facts about myself very easily. It’s getting me to stop that is the problem.

5. Nominate Other Blogs

Here is a list of 5 other blogs that I am nominating for a Liebster Award. I have no idea how many followers they have??? Either way, have fun with the questions guys. I will ready your replies with interest 🙂

First off the Shelf – A blog with an aim I can identify with
Never Imitate – I almost met NI at a book launch earlier this year, and I love the title of her blog 🙂
A life in books
Fiction Fascination
Leviathan Bound

6. My questions to be answered…

I have only asked 4 questions as the third one could be a bit involved. It would be great if you get stuck in though!

How often do you blog and why that often?
How much do you pay attention to the “business” of blogging, the marketing and cross posting and shenanigans that goes over and above typing words into a post?
Do you own books that you haven’t read? Presuming that you live on earth and are not a ferret;
1. Name and link to one book that you own that you are going to commit to read; tell me why you have owned this poor book for so long and not given it the time it deserves?
2. Name and link to one book that you own that you are obviously never going to read, ever! Why, for goodness sake, do you own a book that you will never read?? tell me that, and if you feel brave, write in the book, put a link to your blog, and one to mine, and take it to a significant place. Release that book into the wild so that it can have a life away from your oppressive indifference. You never know, it might find a new owner who loves it and, y’know, opens it and reads it!?
Last question is one of Bronte’s: Have you ever inherited any books from a relative and, if so, did you come across interesting finds?