Liebster Blog Award!

Hi all! I'd like to give a big thanks to Lauren from http://theheadlessowl.blogspot.com/, who nominated me and ten other bloggers for the Liebster Blog Award, an award for new bloggers with less than 200 followers. I'm really grateful to her for passing on the award because I'm still so new at blogging and it was a nice surprise to hear about this! Also, I think this will be a cool way to meet other bloggers by passing the award on to 11 new bloggers!

"Award winners share 11 facts about themselves, answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who tagged them, come up with 11 of their own questions and tag 11 more bloggers with the award." (qtd. in The Headless Owl blog).


Here are my answers to Lauren's questions, facts, new nominees, and questions for my nominees. 


Answers to Lauren's questions

1.  If you could meet any living author, who would you choose and why? Jodi Picoult because I absolutely love her books; I've read about ten of them so far. Besides the fact that I often reply “Hanging with Jodi” when my mom or dad asks what I’m doing and I’m reading one of her books or that I added a Jodi Picoult bobble head into a short story I recently wrote, I’d just like to meet her so I could congratulate her on her incredible writing. Otherwise, I’d like to meet Noelle Hancock, a new author, who wrote a memoir called My Year with Eleanor because her story is awesome and she seems like such a cool, funny person to be around.
2. Why Young Adult? So far, my blog is a mix of adult books, some young adult books, and memoirs/nonfiction books. But I still really love young adult books and I could say it's because I'm still in college, but I think I'll enjoy them when I'm older too since many of them remind me of what it was like to be a kid, teenager, or really, to be me just a few years ago.             
3. What is your favorite bookstore or library and why? I love Barnes & Noble, but that’s the only major bookstore near me. It’s a bit expensive (I get a little annoyed when I see books for half the price at Costco), but there’s a certain feel to Barnes & Noble and I could spend hours in there looking at books. Plus, the Starbucks coffee venue inside the store is a plus :).
4. Rank the last 5 books you read from most enjoyed to least enjoyed. Ahh, that’s a tough question! I genuinely don’t have a favorite between the last five books I read so I’ll just list what they were in alphabetical order: Angel Falls by Kristin Hannah, Assholes Finish First by Tucker Max, A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard, The Island by Tracey Garvis Graves, and the Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.
5. What books made you love reading? I’ve loved reading from when I was very little, but I’d have to say the books that gave me a reading addiction were Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech and Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews.
6. Why and when did you start blogging? I started blogging about a two weeks ago for a few reasons: I thought it seemed like fun and I read that it was smart for both college students and writers to begin blogging because it gives you the chance to meet a lot of cool people interested in the same field/s as you.
7. If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and what book would you take? Good question. I’d either go back to St. Martin (I went in June with my family and we go there nearly every year) because there's something special about that place, or to Italy or Australia (I’ve never been to either and they’re on the top of my list). Even though I’ve seen the movie Eat, Pray, Love, I want to read the book and think it's a fitting travel book.
8.  Describe your dream book. One that has my name as the author ;). But seriously, I love any book I can really relate to and that has characters I fall in love with. 
9. What's your favorite book cover(s)? Good question. I don’t really have a favorite, though I liked the ones from My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock and The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. 
10. What is your favorite food? Ahh I don’t know if I can choose a favorite because eating is one of my favorite hobbies, but I especially love Chinese buffets and the Italian buffet at Sbraro’s! 
11. Are you a city person or a country person? Well I live in the suburbs, which is a middle ground, so I really enjoy both city and country. I think it’s a lot of fun going into New York (my mom is from there) so I might have to choose that over country. However, I think the country is so beautiful and peaceful in its own way and it’s also a special place to visit.

11 Facts About Me

1.         When I was in sixth grade, I was riding my bike with no hands until the bike tilted off the curb, I fell, and had to get twelve stitches. Since it was only a two minute skit though, the doctor gave me the okay and I still danced.
      2.  My friend Matt once asked me, "Since when did you become a light FM station?" Although I enjoy mostly all modern music, I love music from my parents' generation and my early years (mainly 80s and 90s music). 
      3.  My favorite color is purple and my favorite animal is a pig. My grandparents asked me about these favorites when I was three, I copied what my mom's were, and have stuck with these ever since. Hence the GIANT pig my boyfriend just won me from a fair he was at (I'll post a picture at the end of the post). 
       4.  GPA wise, I was eighth out of 240 students in my high school graduating class. 
       5.  But I'm really very stupid. I once lost my phone and car keys down a jetty on the beach around 1 am. It was the day before one of my friends was leaving for Malibu and a week before my other friend and I left for our respective colleges so we thought it would be scenic to sit on a jetty at night. It was until my belongings fell down the cracks into the ocean! 
       6. I have never had gum in my life. I know what you're thinking: WTF? I'll eat anything, but I've just never had the desire to chew gum.
       7. So far I've had four jobs: I've worked at a water park, at Hollister, as the entertainment editor at my college newspaper, and currently (except for summers) as a peer tutor at my school's writing center. I've also volunteered at an adult day care center and this summer, am teaching a couple creative writing workshops for children at local libraries. I was also hired once by Pizza Hut when I was like 16, but when I came back this other manager was there and he kept sending the new employees home (for three days) because he said he didn't need us yet, so I quit =p. But my dream job is to be a writer. 
       8. I have gone bungee jumping with two of my best friends. Well, it was the bungee jumping at Six Flags (aka the Daredevil's Dive), which is a cross between bungee jumping and sky diving, but because of that wrenching feeling in my gut before we dropped 157 feet I'm still counting it!
     9.  I don't think there is a better time of year than summer. I was/am always confused by the friends who couldn't/can't wait to go back to school. Granted, I love and miss my friends down at school, but I can visit them any time during the summer when we're all relaxing. To me, looking forward to homework, tests, and killing myself over grades again isn't worth the excitement. 
     10. My boyfriend and I met nearly two years ago during the first week of our freshman year of college when I was still wandering aimlessly trying to find my classes (basically I'm always lost/lacking direction) and asked him for directions. He walked me to class instead. I had the worst cold/fever I've ever had the first week of college & when I declined his invite to the football game because I was seriously going home for the weekend to recover, he didn't believe me until we hung out a week later.
       11. This fact is super cliche, but I'll write it anyway because it's true. I love my family and friends more than anything and am so lucky to have them in my life. Oh, and I'm lucky to be making some new blogging friends! 
   
   
   Questions for My Nominees
   
   
   1. If you were stranded in a solitary room for 24 hours would you rather spend your time reading or writing?
   2. If you were to write a book, what genre would you write (fiction, non-fiction, memoir, YA, self-help, psychological, horror, etc)? 
   3. If you were forced to choose between eating a burger and french fries for a year or pizza and french fries, which would you choose?
   4. Who is someone you find really inspirational and why (it can be a relative, close friend, author, celebrity, etc)? 
   5. What book did you read most recently and did you enjoy it?
   6. Use three words to describe your style of dress (I know one of mine would be comfortable!). 
   7. What are three words you think your friends would use to describe you?
   8. What is your favorite part of blogging?
   9. Would you rather be a famous writer, songwriter, or actor/actress?
   10. What is one of your funniest memories from childhood?
   11. If someone asked you why you love reading so much what would you reply?
   
   I'd just like to say that for my nominations I had a fairly loose definition of "new blogger" as long as the rule with the followers applied. Some of my nominations go to people who have had their blogs for a few years because I really liked the blogs :). Congratulations everyone!
   
   
   Passing the Award On To
   1. Mirjam @
   http://abookwormstreasuretrove.blogspot.com/
   2. Ashley @
    http://booknerdash.blogspot.com/
   3. Pam @
   http://jellylovesbooks.blogspot.com/
   4. Amber @
   http://amberafterglow.blogspot.com/
   5. Claire @
   http://whnbstihwsoft.blogspot.com/
   6. Carmen @
   http://booketybookbook.blogspot.com/
   7. Lyra @
   http://defiantlydeviant.blogspot.com/
   8. Cidney & Anna @
   http://diamondinroughcoal.blogspot.com/
   9. Anna @
   http://www.annaallegrabooks.com/
   10. Elizabeth @
   http://dormroomdreamer.blogspot.com/
   11. Nikki @
   http://imaginativeadventure.blogspot.com/
   
   
   Thank you for the tag Lauren! I probably missed several eligible bloggers, so if I did please let me know and we'll try to pass it on to them as well :). 
   
   
   For your viewing pleasure, a picture of the giant pig I mentioned my boyfriend Fletch won for me.