Thank you to The Chocolate Lady’s Book Reviews (TCL) who nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award!

The Rules:

Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their page so others can see how amazing they are, too!

List the rules in the post and the badge somewhere on your website.

Answer the 11 questions you got asked.

Nominate 11 new bloggers for this award and let them know.

Ask the nominees 11 new questions!

My Answers:

1. If you had to pick one author as your #1 favourite, who would it be; and what book of theirs would you recommend others read first?

What a hard question! Like all avid readers, there is no one favourite author. However, let’s go with Isabel Allende and her most recent release, A Long Petal of the Sea.

2. What genre do you refuse to read, and why?

Romance. I can’t stand it. No matter what the plot and what happens in between, I’m just not interested in reading books where the ultimate goal in life still remains being paired up to ‘live happily ever after’.

3. Do you think you spend too much time blogging or not enough time blogging?

This changes all the time. Sometimes too much, of late, nowhere near enough!

4. When you’re reading a book and you suddenly realize you don’t like it, what makes you decide you can’t read further, if at all?

I’ve only recently just started not finishing a book. In the past, I’d just keep on skimming through. I think the stopping point is how distracted I allow myself to be while reading. If I’m not liking a book, I’ll just keep finding other things to give my attention to. That’s usually a sign to give it up.

5. Is there a nickname, persona or “handle” that you use online, and if so, what’s the story behind it?

Over on Twitter, I am ‘Tess Smith Writes’. The Theresa was too long for Twitter, so I went with Tess, which was the childhood name I went by with my immediate family on my father’s side. In fact, they all still call me that! A lot of people in the book universe now call me either Tess or Theresa. I’m happy with both.

6. What is the one food could you could eat every single day and never tire of eating it?

Chocolate covered liquorice.

7. If you could build your dream home in your dream type of location, where would it be (meaning by the sea, in the middle of a bustling city, high up in the mountains, or where ever)?

No idea. I like being close to cities, not far from the ocean, with mountains in the background. I also like old houses more than new! Although, I have always wanted to live in Italy, just for a little while, so maybe in an old Italian villa somewhere in southern Italy.

8. What makes you angrier than anything else, and what do you do to express or repress your anger?

Goodness, there’s not just one thing that lights my fuse – I wish! In the book universe, one thing that makes me a bit cross is people who jump on book bashing bandwagons when they haven’t even read the book they’re bashing. I just find that quite ignorant and ill informed. Read the book first, then express an opinion. I try not to weigh into discussions I see online like this. You never change people’s mind, better to just keep on scrolling past!

9. When you were 10, what did you want to be when you grew up (did you succeed, and if not, are you happy or unhappy about that)?

I had no career aspirations at 10. In fact, I enrolled in a double degree at university straight from high school because I wanted to have the flexibility of three majors – because I had no idea what I wanted to do even then! I wish I had been more decided. Given my time again, I would have just studied Speech Therapy.

10. If you could choose any destination to visit anywhere in the world when this virus ends, where would you decide to go, and why?

There’s lots of places I want to go, but top of the list is London. I went there when I was 10, and while I remember it well, I want to go back as an adult.

11. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like answering these types of questions?

I don’t mind answering questions like these, let’s say 8 for answering, but making up a new set for others? Not so much! So, on that note, I’m going to ‘break’ the rules and only do half the meme, stopping short of nominating 11 bloggers and asking 11 new questions. Although, if you’d like to answer these, just link back to this post as well as The Chocolate Lady’s Book Reviews, because she created this list!