One Lovely Blog Award!

RULES:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link their blog
2. Add the One Lovely Blog Award to your post
3. Share 7 things about yourself
4. Pass this on to as many people as you like (max 15)
5. Include this set of rules
6. Inform your nominees

They have all been very late, but I’m incredibly happy to have gotten so many awards for the blog! A big thank you to Sophie for this nomination! If you don’t already know Sophie’s Blame It On Chocolate Blog is filled with a ton of great book reviews using unique and mouth watering chocolate graphics, and an occasional post on other things like Loot Creates and anime reviews. You can view her blog and her fun to read award answers by clicking: here.

7 More Unicorn Facts

1) My first ever tattoo! I’ve LOVED the look of tattoos so naturally I have always wanted to get one, but have kept putting it off. Seeing as how I’m such an indecisive person, I was afraid I’d quickly grow bored of something so permanent. Now after doing tons of research and thinking I’ve finally figured out what I’d like to do! And am sure I won’t regret my choice.

2) Disney, Pixtar, DreamWorks, etc. I love them ALL. I sometimes get odd looks when I admit this one, but I still love watching animated kids movies. Even in theaters. It helps to have younger relatives to take to the movies.

3) I have always been into various arts and crafts and D-I-Y projects. I often find myself looking up new D-I-Y projects, trying to figure out how to do various arts and crafts (mainly book related) thing myself. Making my own bookmarks, bookends, and bookish bracelets are just some of the things I’ve tried out. 

 

4) As a kid I used to bring just about any stray- a ton of cats- home. This…unfortunately included a couple wild animals (a few baby birds and a squirrel). So even though I was really quiet and usually opted not to socialize with the human race, I quickly became the go-to person in my neighborhood for petsitting and most animal related problems.

 

5) I’ve got a green thumb. Keeping and caring for all those animals, both stray and pets alike was all quite costly…much too costly. So now, until I’m certain I can financially afford it, I’ve substituted said stray animals and pets with dozens of houseplants. 

6) Recently I somehow came to develop a “strong appreciation” (a.k.a borderline obsession) with art books for anime/manga. It makes sense in a way considering my habit of looking up fan art on anime/manga I really enjoyed and lovingly gazing at posters, but I can’t say I thought I’d ever be so into it.

7) Lastly, I am an expert at procrastination. I have tried many times to properly schedule things so I don’t leave it to the last minute, but for unknown reasons it usually doesn’t work out…

Nominations:

1. The Book Heathen
2. Kirsty’s Book Reviews
3. The Book of Meghan
4. Myopinionsblog
5. Media Shadow Reads
6. Pokeninja@ bakphoontyphoon
7. MorganFaye @mybookjourneysite
8. Eve Messenger
9. Ayesha @The Writing Whale
10. Daiyamanga

*I look forward to reading everyone’s response, but of course there is no pressure to get to it right away or to do it if you already have multiple times :)*

The Versatile Blogger Award

Rules

• Show the award on your blog & thank the person who nominated you
• Share 7 different facts about yourself
• Nominate 15 blogs of your choice
• Link your nominees & let them know of your nomination

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I was nominated to do The Versatile Blogger Award by Sophie at the *A-M-A-Z-I-N-G* Blame It On Chocolate Blog! Sophie nominated me quite a while ago, so most of you may have read what they wrote for this Award, but if you haven’t please head over there and read the post that they did for The Versatile Blogger Award. Well, seeing as how it has taken me so long to get around to doing this post…let’s jump right in! 

The 7 Unicorn Facts 

1. It is incredibly difficult for me to pass disorganized and improperly shelved books at the bookstore and be able to resist the urge to rearrange them correctly. Even my bookish best friend sometimes can’t hold back from chuckling at me when I’m reorganizing shelves on one of our many trips to Chapters.                                             
2. Let me preface this fact by just stating that I do not own a VCR. However, I do own a VHS collection of mostly children movies. It’s mostly for nostalgic purposes…or so I shall say because hilariously enough, I started collecting them after not having a VCR for years upon years. So, yup I’m going to play the nostalgia card on that one!   
3. I can “play” the Violin, Piano, and Guitar. I can play each with a varying degree of skill and I’m not a prodigy or anything with any of those instruments, but I absolutely love it.                                                                                                                        
4. Almost everyone I eventually become acquainted with says that when they first met me they thought I was incredibly quiet, unapproachable, and reserved. Although I do have a case of RBF, I’m actually quite “haunted” and have random outbursts of giddy foolishness that most would never have expected from me…well, that is until they really get to know me and then I feel comfortable enough to be my genuine weird, creepy self around them. 
5. I LOVE DESSERTS! I just love them so much! A lot of people prefer savoury foods over sweet foods, but I’m a definite sweets lover. I have a particularly prominent obsession with cookies. Team Dessert all the way 🙂   
6. I adore art and creativity. I am not an artist, by any stretch of the imagination, but I love sketching, painting and making drawings of the most random stuff. I have absolutely no skill on a level that I could allow myself to consider myself an artist, but I love creating and illustrating, and it’s one of my longest maintained hobbies.  
7. I have an incredibly huge weak spot for boxed sets of novels, manga, and graphic novels. There’s just something about having a collection, or portion, of a series contained within a uniformed and beautifully decorated box! In my defense…it’s both practical (for storage and preservation purposes) and cost effective to collect a series in a boxset.  

The 15 Nominees 

1. Ryuji’s Anime Review 
2. Fragglepuss 
3. D Talks Anime 
4. Melting Pots And Other Calamities 
5. 100 Word Anime  
6. Mel To The Any  
7. MovieJoltz   
8. Redheaded Book Lover  
9. Emma the Book Lover 
10. Hit or Miss Books  
11. Doddy About Books 
12. Purple Pancake Blog 
13. The Book Heathen  
14. Books We Left Unread   
15. It’s A Reader’s Life   

I will contact each nominee throughout the week and let you all know that you’ve been nominated. I tried to make sure that everyone I nominated had not already done this Award, or at the very least, had not done it in the past few months! I look forward to reading all of your posts for the Versatile Blogger Award! 

THANKS FOR READING!

The Sunshine Blogger Award! Part 1

I was nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award!!! What?!? Thank You!

Gify

Rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you in the blog post and link back to their blog.
• Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you.
• Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions
• List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog
  

I want to extend a very big thank you to Matthew from Matt-In-The-Hat -who does some awesome posts on manga, video games, and anime- for nominating me for the Sunshine Blogger Award! This is an incredibly belated post in response to this nomination, but I’m doing my best to catch up with all these amazing nominations. If you haven’t checked out his original post where he nominated me, please head over to his blog post here. I’ll be doing a post on the other nomination once I’ve finished catching up with the others. 

11 Questions:

1. What kind of trading cards, if you any, do you collect?

A: I haven’t gotten into trading cards since the Pokémon craze as a kid. I’ve seen some pretty cool looking ones recently, but don’t have much of an interest in getting back into it. 

2. How do you play video games? On console, portable device (Nintendo 3DS, PS Vita), Smartphone, or PC?

A: I don’t play many video games overall. There is an Xbox in my house as well as a PS, so I’ve picked up a few here and there, and do play quite a few on my phone though.

3. Do you have a favorite game board to play?

A: Umm…I’m pretty out of touch with board games, but I loved Sorry, Chess, and Monopoly (yes I know I just cheated and gave a list lol, my mind will forever insert plurals into these kinds of questions).

4. If you met someone that wants to get into anime, what anime series would you recommend them?

A: It would depend on their tastes, age, and favorite genre, but in short EVERYTHING. Lol, seriously though, I’d agonize about which ones to recommend before ultimately spewing out the extensive list of all my favorites.

But, just in case anyone is interested, I’ve thought out the ones I’d be quick to recommend to complete novices by genre. Though these aren’t necessarily my favorites, I loved them all and overall I’d say…

Fantasy:

  Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood or 

  Moribito – Guardian of the Spirit 

Thriller:

  Death Parade or    Death Note

Mystery:

  Monster or    Beautiful Bones

Action/Adventure:

  Attack on Titan/  

  Princess Mononoke (fantasy adventure movie)

Romance/Comedy:

  Your Name. (Kimi no Na wa.) (movie)/ 

  Mob Psycho 100

Drama:

  Wolf Children (movie) or  

  A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi) (movie)

Sci-Fi/Dystopian:

  Psycho-Pass (sci-fi & dystopian) or  

  Cowboy Bebop (sci-fi)

Horror:

 The Future Diary or    Another 

**Almost everything I listed here is intended for adults or older teens. There are links leading to where the pictures are from and a short synopsis of each show (trailers, episode count, rating, score, reviews, etc.). Now excuse me while I agonize about all the wonderful stuff I’ve just left out. 

Gify

5. If the same person asked what anime to avoid, what series would you not recommend?

A: This is much easier to answer! Diabolik Lovers  

Gify

6. What was the recent movie you seen this year, 2016?

A: Umm… I’m just going to go with the last movie I remember seeing last year which was the live version of The Jungle Book! 

IMDb.com

7. What’s the recent cringiest moment you have ever experienced (in anime terms or non)?

A: My entire life! Lol, I kid. In terms of anime the most recent is pretty much my entire, very short lived attempt to watch Super Lovers. 

8. Do you remember your first follower when you started to blog?

A: Ummm… I have the memory span of a goldfish lol. But luckily for me I can look it up! Hold on a sec…Okay, here we go First follower ever: Urbanpo’E.Tree(s)

First follower since actually blogging is: Dirty Sci-fi Buddha

9. Who do you follow the most as soon as you log in your WordPress account?

A:  Michel’s blog: Raistlin0903. He’s got a lot of amazing movie/TV show reviews, and has some reviews on games that have made me seriously consider getting into more video games outside of GTA, Assassin’s Creed, Dragon Age: Orgins, and a few others. 

10. If you could have any food or meal for your last meal, what would you eat? (money is ignored)

A: Desert…just all of the deserts. Literally ALL of them. 

11. What’s the number 1 goal do you plan to do in 2017? It could be about your blog or personal life.

A: I don’t do personal; therefore, blog related. Let me think . . . to actually follow through with all the new changes I’ve made: posts that are not book reviews AND be more present/active on social media.

Nominations:

1. Leaf
2. Artistbybeauty
3. Papersuns
4. Booksofonesown
5. Acacia aurora @toritsukamanga
6. Lealea477 @Icysquirrel
7. Fujisei
8. Emma The Little Book Worm
9. Avi and Vishwa@ Panic at the Bookstore
10. Sarah@ Between the Pages
11. Ariana@ The Quirky Book Nerd

If I’ve missed that you’ve done the award many times before, or don’t participate in awards please just consider it an honorable mention 🙂

My Questions: Feel free to pick and choose between these questions and the ones I answered if you like.

1. If you could speak another language what would it be and why?
2. Name your favorite hobby outside of reading/watching anime. When did you start it?
3. Which fictional character(s) (game, movie, TV show, book) would you most what to meet in real life?
4. What is the best novel, manga, and/or comic you’ve read so far this year?
5. If you could live in a book, TV show, or movie what would it be?
6. What is the best TV show and/or anime series you’ve seen this year?
7. How would you survive a zombie apocalypse?
8. What movie, book, anime, game, and/or TV show are you most anticipating the release for?
9. If you could pick any animal in the world (fictional or otherwise) to temporarily change into for a day what would it be and why?
10. What is your favorite dessert of all time?
11. Name the top 5 places you most wish to travel to in the future (fictional or otherwise). 

THE LIEBSTER AWARD

Here are the rules for the Liebster award:

• Thank the person who nominated you and answer the eleven questions they have written for you
• Nominate 11 people and give them 11 different questions to answer

---

I want to extend an incredibly belated THANK YOU to Michel  at the Raistlin0903 Blog for nominating me for The Liebster Award! Even though this response to the nomination is incredibly late, if you have not checked out Michel’s post, please do! While you’re over there don’t forget to follow his Blog because he consistently puts up great content! 

The Q’s and A’s:

What is your favorite game genre?

I don’t play many games, truthfully it’s pretty rare that I’m playing a game. If I have to pick a game genre though, it would be action/adventure.

What is your favorite book genre?

Nope! I refuse to answer this question! I automatically veto the requirement to answer this blasphemous question lol. I am WAYYYY TOO INDECISIVE to ever be able to pick just one book genre! I can narrow it down to my favorite genres though, so I will just do that. My favorite genres are Fantasy and Science Fiction-and if I go with the very, incredibly broad understanding of Fantasy and Science Fiction I can shove quite a few sub-genres into that answer for both novels, comics/graphic novels and manga. 

What region do you prefer for comics? ( Asia, America, Europe?)

I’m just going to change ‘region’ to ‘regions’ because I honestly can’t choose between American comics/graphic novels and Japanese manga. I love them both equally; however, I have been reading much more manga in recent years than comics.

Why did you start blogging?

I don’t really know how to say/type this in a way that won’t end up sounding like a strange pity party lol. The honest truth is that I didn’t have anyone to talk to about books. I don’t have any bookish friends (except 1) and so there was no one for me to rave about an amazing book I had just read to, or anyone for me to recommend some of my favorite reads to, or to have bookish conversations where I could gush about the books I’d just bought, or that could understand the struggles of reorganizing your bookcases without giving you judgemental looks. Blogging about books is an opportunity to get to interact with like minded people who are interested in similar things to me that I can talk to in a safe space where my seemingly weird bookish habits are not judged. It’s gives me the ability to speak freely and honestly about books while being able to maintain a level of anonymity if I choose to.

What is the trashiest game you played, or book/comic you ever read? 

BL (Boy Love)/Yaoi manga…I do not even have to think very hard about this question. I am unashamed of my love of BL, although the genre is incredibly problematic for a plethora of reasons, I still love its trashy goodness!

Have you ever tried surströmming and if not, how do you think it tastes? Have you ever tried   mämmi?

I have tried neither of these foods. I do like fish…and culturally fermented/salted fish is a staple part of my diet, especially while I was growing up. So, it’s possible that I would like surströmming if I got to cook it how I would normally cook sardine, mackerel, cod, or herring. I’m almost certain that I would enjoy mämmi based solely on the fact that it is a desert lol.

What is the most disgusting (tasting, looking and/or smelling) national delicacy you know of (where you live?)

I live in Canada and we are known for our absolute infatuation with Tim Hortons. Yes, I’m aware that a particular restaurant can’t be considered a national delicacy, but Timmy’s is such a hallowed and beloved place that everything there might as well be a Canadian national delicacy. Tim Hortons is a coffee shop franchise that is incredibly popular here. You can get hot and cold beverages, donuts, pastries, and various sandwiches there…and I love Tim Hortons. BUT…ughhhhhh I CAN NOT STAND HONEY CRULLERS! It’s a donut (I think?!?) and it has a glaze, I’m fine with the first two components…yay for sugar coated carbs, but the inside of it turns my insides. The inside of one of those wretched things is moist, and not in a good way. The texture makes me feel like I’m eating soggy something…I can’t even think of anything to compare it to. Moral of the story-it’s disgusting!

What is the funniest word you have heard (and if not in English what does it mean?) 

I recently watched the live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast last week Wednesday so of course I have got to pick expectorate/expectorating.

Please share one personal thing about you. Why that one in particular?

Hmmm…a personal thing about me…let’s see…I like reading? Question didn’t say that it had to be something personal that other people didn’t already know, so…yup that’s my answer. I chose this particular personal thing to share because I don’t necessarily like to get personal…and that was the most impersonal personal thing I could think of!

In the console war, where do you stand? 

Uhhh, what’s a console? Okay, I’m not that gaming illiterate but I don’t really have a stand on any side of the console war because I don’t really play games. I will choose Play Station because it’s the system that I’ve had the most experience with…and although it’s not mine, there is one in my house.

Which Anime series have you watched that really had you on the edge of your seat? (And if you don’t watch/like Anime, which tv series) 

The most recent anime series that had me on the edge of my seat while watching it  would have to be Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World.

I really tried to make sure that all the Blogs that I nominate had not previously been nominated for The Liebster Award. So hopefully this will be your first time doing this and you won’t have to hate me for having to do it again 🙂

Here are my 11 Nominees:

IgnitedMoth

Orang-utan Librarian 

Dinosaurs, Donkeys and MS

A Court of Coffee and Books

Let’s Talk Anime

Lives In Stone (I’m so sorry…I completely forgot that you don’t participate in Awards! Please just consider this an Honorable Mention!)

Milliebot Reads

Jeana’s Book Nook

Elemental Quill

Geybie’s Book Blog

Twin Reads

And here are the 11 questions to answer: 

1. What is your favorite type of Blog to read?
2. What is your favorite aspect of blogging?
3. What is your guilty pleasure?
4. What’s your preferred or most used Social Media outlet?
5. Which of these-Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or Desert- is your favorite type of food, and is there any particular dish that is your favorite from those categories?
6. What is you favorite type of series to binge watch? (Or a series that you have recently binge watched)
7. Where would you want to go on a dream vacation?
8. Is there anything that you collect? If not, is there anything that you used to collect or that you would like to start collecting in the future?
9. Where do you prefer to find book/anime/movie/game recommendations?
10. Give a random fact about yourself.
11. What is a book/anime/movie/game that you wish everyone would read/watch/play at least once?

THE BLOGGER RECOGNITION AWARD!!

The Rules

• Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog
• Give a brief story of how your blog started
• Give two pieces of advice for new bloggers
• Select up to 15 other blogs you want to give the award to

Words cannot describe (hence all the gifs) how happy I was when I saw I’d been nominated for this award. Really though I’ve had a pretty hectic few weeks, especially this week past, and have just barely been able to keep up with the blog and social media- exhibit A= The missing/late reviews, visits to fellow bloggers’ sites, and a few late responses to comments on the blog. Gotta give a huge thank you to all my followers for sticking through it all with me, and for your patience! Really appreciate it! There’s been a lot going on, namely a lot of overtime and back to back work shifts in the double digits (nearly spent my whole day off sleeping), so Raistlin0903‘s news that he had nominated my blog last week really made my day when I noticed it on my way back to hell on earth-

ahem…

I mean work.

So to get back on track I’d like to give a really huge thank you to Raistlin0903 for taking the time to read my reviews, let alone being the one to grant me my first blogger reward- correction rewards…as I learned last week this actually wasn’t the first time he’s recommended me…

So this will be the first of two blog posts (the next scheduled for next week) in response to both of Raistlin0903‘s nominations.

If you don’t already know Raistlin0903 is a fellow blogger on wordpress who writes some truly amazing reviews on books, movies, anime, board games, and various TV series. I’ve discovered a couple really good shows through his blog posts and comments, and have added even more to my to-watch/read list. To top it off I’ve got to mention the fact I give credit to the way he appreciates his followers. Keep up the good work! (click his name highlighted in blue to view his site please, thanks!)

As for how the blog got started…well…I can’t actually remember it too clearly lol, as it had actually started up 2 or 3 years ago, promptly died without a single post being made or thought up, then revived about 5 months ago. But from what I can remember it came about with two very introverted book loving best friends trying to figure out a way to do something with all the book love we had other then meet up to gush/vent about our latest reads. And so, basically, once upon a time there were two there were two ordinary book stalking best friends until something extraordinary happened. Sure these two majestic, and handsome people read all the time as children, but then, suddenly, they ended up reading some amazing young adult books and something within them changed. They became magical, flying unicorns. That’s right, these two ordinary, unnervingly strange people unleashed the magical powers of book reading. Sure this magical power resulted in their mutual derangement, but in return they got to become a singular magical unicorn. Grateful for this wondrous gift, the 2-in-1 unicorn then made it a life mission to anonymously write reviews on the great books discovered through relentless book stalking and exploration. And that is, as far as I can remember, the story behind the start of this blog.

Now, to come back down from that momentary lapse in sanity, for the two pieces of advice…this is all still pretty new to me so it’s pretty hard to find something to say when I still know so little myself lol. So I’ll just mention a couple things I’ve noticed along the way and I myself am working at improving:

• I’ve gotta copy Raistlin0903 on this one since it really is such a vital and important part of being a blogger: Don’t neglect your followers. It really is amazing to have people out there willing to check out the stuff you have to say, let alone take the time to comment on it, so please respect that. 
• Don’t sweat the small stuff. A major reason it took so long to actually get this blog going was due to a ton of unnecessary worrying about how to do this and that, and to be honest, insecurities about whether or not people would even be interested in what I said. To learn as you go, and to make mistakes along the way is more than okay, it’s normal and necessary for growth. So if you make a mistake (like a  few week late posts *cough*)  that’s fine. Take note of it and devise a way to do better next time.

Wow, this post has became wayy longer than I’d initially intended lol. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this! Lastly but certainly not least- for various reasons (the common one being they are all great blogs you should check out of course =), and listed in no particular order…

Honorable Mentions:

1. DoddyAboutBooks
2. Berryville Book Buzz
3. Lives In Stone
4. The Book Heathen
5. Elemental Quill
6. The Orang-Utan Librarian
7. Let’s Talk Anime
8. Milliebot Reads
9. Kirsty’s Book Reviews
10. The Book of Meghan
11. Heartstring Eulogies
12. EmmaTheLittleBookWorm
13. Media Shadow Reads
14. AnimeFiendBlog
15.  Raistlin090 (though, seeing as how you’ve already been nominated and answered the questions, there’s no need for you to do it again. I just couldn’t make this list without mentioning your blog =)

– I’ll try contacting each nominee throughout this week and next!