Mystery Blogger Award

I was nominated by the fabulously eloquent Rachel of pace, amore, libri for the Mystery Blogger Award – thanks Rachel! If you like literary fiction, general fiction, and/or hist fic and aren’t following Rachel already, you’re definitely missing out. Also she has incredibly photogenic cats.

The Rules:
Put the award logo/image in your post.
List all the rules.
Thank whoever nominated you and leave a link to their blog.
Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.
Nominate 10-20 people and notify them.
Link back to the creator of the award.
Ask nominees any 5 questions of your choice, with a weird or funny question.
Share the link to your best/favourite post of yours.

3 Things About Me:
1. Most of the music I listen to is cast recordings and musical theatre songs, and I am such a sucker for a baritone. I have tenor favs too – I was indoctrinated into love of Colm Wilkinson young through both the Canadian cast album of Phantom of the Opera and through Les Miserables and my love only grew when I saw him live (he’s a senior citizen but hugely funny, still has the voice, and puts on a fabulous show!). I would also watch or listen to just about anything for Jeremy Jordan and his combination of charisma with those glorious note he hits, but my ultimate love is baritones. Small wonder that one of my favourite songs is the baritone duet, “Lily’s Eyes” from The Secret Garden!

2. Horror is my one automatic nope genre, both in film and in books. I don’t mind a good thriller or a work of suspense, but I don’t like to be scared and I can’t deal with gore so I avoid horror like the plague!

3. I’m not a naturally neat person. I really wish I was. I wish that a bit of mess bugged me and switched something into gear in my brain to make me tidy up, but sadly that’s not me. I’m not the girl who apologizes for having 5 dirty dishes in her sink, I’m the girl who was up frantically cleaning at 12 am the day before friends or family come to visit so the apartment resembles other people’s normal levels of tidiness.

Rachel’s Questions:

1.What’s your favorite book-to-film adaptation and why?
I have to go with Lord of the Rings. I have minor quibbles with the movies (mostly Faramir, and even those are helped by the extended versions somewhat, and the sheer amount of fighting in The Two Towers getting a little boring after a bit), but in general what a feat adapting these huge, dense, classic books to film and doing so in a way that is exciting, that keeps with the spirit of Tolkien’s novels, and that feels real. I LOVE these movies, and I think they were so well cast. The films move me and make me want to fall into Middle Earth, or at least Rivendell and Hobbiton, and live there.

2. If you had to live in another country for a year, where would you choose?
I would 100% live in the UK for a year. I actually sort of tried this a few months after graduating university by enrolling in the SWAP program, where basically the program helps you with things like getting a working VISA for a year and offers some resources for housing etc. The plan was to go to the Republic of Ireland for up to a year and then to the U.K. Except I went in early 2009 when the financial crisis was causing all kinds of havoc. I did have friends I met in the program who stayed and found jobs and lived in Ireland, but generally it was much harder to find employment than I had been told, and I this was my first time away from home so I was already nervous. In the end I decided to use the money I had saved to travel and see what I wanted to see instead of worrying about whether or not I could get a job. I do sometimes wonder what it would have been like if I had stuck it out and tried to live and work in a foreign country, but my seven week traveling spree was the right decision for me at the time. I love London especially though, the mix of culture (The West End! Museums!) and history, and architecture, (and a better transit system!) and a country that isn’t too different from my own really appeals to me and it would be really cool to live there.

3. What’s your favorite board game/card game?
My great sadness is that because I am an introvert, someone more comfortable in small gatherings of a few people or one-on-one, game playing opportunities are few and far-between. I love playing games though. In high school we played Asshole (also known as President) the card game at lunch for months on end, I also liked Signal. My favourite game has to be Ticket to Ride though. I LOVE that game and I’m so sad that I never have anyone who will play with me!

4. Describe your ideal breakfast in detail.
As someone who loves fruit and pastries, breakfast is my favourite meal of the day! I love eggs benedict, I love french toast, and I love breakfast pastries. I think my ideal breakfast would probably be a buffet so I could have small amounts of multiple dishes. There would be some fresh fruit, especially strawberries and mango slices, some scrambled eggs, perhaps with feta, parsley, and cherry tomatoes, breakfast potatoes of course, danishes and/or muffins, and french toast. The scones benedict with tea at Alice’s Tea Cup in New York would also work!

5. Which fictional character do you most relate to and why?
I always have such trouble with this question! I think it’s partly because characters by their very nature generally have to be more ambitious, decisive, take charge than I am or they wouldn’t be very interesting to read about. I think that’s why I relate to two of Brian Fuller’s protagonists, Jaye Tyler from Wonderfalls and George Lass from Dead Like Me. Both characters are independent, sarcastic, fairly introverted, and are generally unambitious, forced into action by the universe.

My Questions:

1. What other languages do you speak, and which language(s) would you like to learn?
2. What would your ideal home library look like?
3. Describe your favourite tea or coffee mug.
4. Which author, living or dead, would you most like to meet and why?
5. What’s your unpopular food opinion?

Tagging:
Aditi @ Readers Rule
Luna @ BookishLuna
Elise @ The Bookish Actress
Emily @ Embuhleeliest
Cate @ Shelf Pickings

As always, if you don’t do tags, have already done this one, or are just plain not interested, please feel free to ignore!

And if you weren’t tagged but would like to do my questions, please do and link back to me so I can read your answers!