Get To Know Me

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Hello Hello! How are you all?

I’ve seen a couple of other new book bloggers do posts like this one and I thought it would be a really fun way for you all to get to know me! Thank you to everyone who asked me questions on Twitter and I hope you all like learning a bit more about me!

What are your 3 Favourite Books?

This one is going to be tricky to answer because I have A LOT of favourite books. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo is definitely one of them, I remember reading it for a class in school when I was about 15. I was the only one who liked it, come to think of it, I was maybe the only one who actually read it. But I love all the Les Misérables adaptations I’ve watched as well. It gives me all the feels, I can only recommend it, it is beautiful, symbolic, meaningful and YOU JUST HAVE TO READ IT! Please?

Another one of my all-time favourites is probably The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I read this around the time the film was popular but never actually got to the film. I just get this book, I don’t know how to explain it, but I read it at a time in my life when I think I needed it, and the underlying message was comforting to my 13-year-old self and has stayed in my heart ever since. It’s a brilliant book for a lost teen or even a lost adult who just needs to know that they are not alone and that we all need a little help sometimes.

Lastly, I think I would say is We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Again, this was just one of those reads that left me with a hole in my heart after I turned the last page. I remember reading it when I was about 15 I think and I ranted and raved about it for ages. It was the first Goodreads review that I wrote WELL, and it was around the same time that the desire to become an author bloomed in my mind. This book is so profound and dense that it left my mind churning for so long and even though I haven’t reread it in about 2 years, I could probably quote it from start to finish.

Talking about reread, these are all due to be reread! Who wants to buddy read, lol?

Was there a specific book that got you into reading?

I’m not sure it was a specific book that got me into reading or if it was my mum. She instilled a love of words and books into me from a very young age, our favourite book is still Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram, and she has been known to read it to me as a grownup when I’ve been stressed or scared, don’t judge! She always read books for school with me when I was young and bonded over our joint struggle of learning French as a second language, but as I grew up, I just devoured any book I could get my hands on. So, I wouldn’t say a book got me into reading, more the memory of my mum and I reading together or her reading to me.

What is your favourite book and why?

This goes back to the first question and did you see how much I struggled with my top 3? I think I would have to say We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, for all the reasons above but mainly because I think it was one of the first books I read with an actual plot twist that blew my mind. I don’t know about you, but I get so engrossed in some books that when something bad happens, I actually feel the characters’ pain, I know it’s weird, but this book left me in pieces and absolutely sobbing my eyes out, but I wouldn’t have it any other way, I adored it and still do!

Besides reading, what are your other hobbies/ favourite things to do?

Lately, I’ve discovered a passion for bullet journaling and I can spend hours making sure a spread looks right. I love how even though I can’t draw for the life of me, bullet journaling helps me express my creativity without my bullet journal looking like a 3-year-old drew in it. It’s really helped me improve my lettering and it is so calming!

I also really like taking pictures, I used to take a lot more pictures when I was younger, but since finishing high-school and going to university, I just haven’t had the time and this is where Instagram really appealed to me because I could take a couple of pictures a week and post them when I liked. Unfortunately, since I’m abroad right now, I haven’t got any of my camera equipment so my photos are not as “aesthetic” as usual, but as soon as I get back you’ll be seeing a lot more flat-lays from me.

WRITING! I love writing! I’ve always loved writing and even when I was a baby I apparently always had a pen in my hand, I even used to rewrite books I was reading into notebooks (don’t ask me why but I filled quite a few notebooks that way). I just turn into a different person when I’m writing a story and I love that feeling I get of a “thing” pouring out of my brain and going down on paper, it sounds weird when I put it like that, lol! I really started entertaining the idea of becoming an author around the age of 15, and in my English class in high school, I loved when my teacher would give us writing homework because I just had a blast. The thing I loved the most about writing back then was the expression on my parents’ faces when they read my homework, and also, when the teacher quite embarrassingly always printed out my work to give an example to the other students (cringe). I’m in the process of writing my first novel right now, I started one two years ago but gave up because it wasn’t the right story for me, but now I’m onto something good so keep your eyes peeled for my name 😊.

Why do you blog? Tell me what made you want to blog and why you’re determined to see it through.

Have you understood why I blog yet? I am an absolute chatterbox and I cannot shut up for the life of me. I realised after a few months on Bookstagram that Goodreads reviews and Instagram captions were just not enough for me and I needed more room and freedom to ramble about all these books I read. So, I suppose you could say that I blog because I love writing about the books I enjoy but also because blogging gives me the feeling that I’m sharing the love of books a lot more than any other platform. I love the freedom you get from blogging, you are the one making the rules of how much you can write. I don’t like having my thoughts restricted because of a number of characters, so blogging really appealed to my inner chatterbox and writer.

I think that I saw so many bloggers write awesome posts that had absolutely nothing in common with what I was seeing on Goodreads and I really wanted to be a part of that, to get my words and thoughts out there in a different setting. Also, I’m determined to keep blogging because I’ve only been doing this just over a week and I’m having the time of my life, it’s strange to say, but I feel as though I have found my calling and I just want to keep up this feel-good feeling and spread the love of books even more. And also, you are all so awesome so I want to keep talking to you and making new friends!

What is your favourite book you remember from your childhood?

Guess How Much I Love You from Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram. I just love this book so much.

Do you have any blogging goals?

I’m not really sure about this one. I mean, sure, I want to be good at blogging but I think that one of my main goals is to just keep it up and even if things get hard, to just push through and keep going! I think blogging will also help and push me to read more books, and also give me the motivation I need to finish writing my book, so I’m looking forward to seeing if that is what happens!

Favourite author?

You’re breaking my heart with all these favourite questions, I love so many! If I have to say the first that comes into mind, it would be Guillaume Musso. He is a French author and I have read all of his books, except the one he published this past year, I’m saving that one for when I get back home to France. I think that when I started reading his books, it was also the moment when I found a new passion for reading and I let go of all the stigma around “reading is not cool” that there was at my school and within my friend circles. I found one of his books in the school library and in France, especially in school libraries, you don’t find YA or Fantasy, you just have all the textbooks, a million different dictionaries, encyclopedias, all you ever need to know about French culture, civilisation, cuisine, language, grammar, verb tenses, and the list goes on, classic French books, boring scholarship books, but you won’t ever (unless you are the luckiest person alive) find a GOOD BOOK! So I nearly died when I found this book, started reading it, and actually loved it! So much so that I think it’s the only book I have ever borrowed from a library!

All of his books are French but you can find them quite easily in English and other languages because he is one of the top French authors! His first books are better than his lasts ones but he still remains one of my favourite authors. If I had to recommend one of his books it would be La Fille de Papier (Girl on Paper), it was the first one I read by him and remains my favourite, if you know anything about me and have paid attention to this post and read this book, you’ll work out why I love it so much!

Who‘s your favourite fictional character?

Oh god…. Please send help! I have no idea… Can I say a couple? I think I would have to say: Jean Val Jean, Harry Potter (obvious right?), Feyre Archeron, Juliet Ashton (The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, yes, this is a recommendation, go read it), Marguerite Cain (Firebird series), Todd Hewitt (Chaos Walking series)… okay, I’ll stop talking now!

What was your favourite book of 2019?

Now, this one is easy. It took me about 2 hours to work this out when I was doing last year’s bullet journal wrap up spreads but it’s A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, I LOVED IT SO MUCH.

Are you a physical/e-/audiobook girl?

I’ve never read an audiobook, I read quite a lot of ebooks and I enjoy them, but in my mind, there is nothing like a physical book. There is just something about turning physical pages, seeing how many pages you’ve read or have got left, smelling the pages, yep, physical book girl!

Would you consider booktubing?

Yes! I’ve thought about this for a while now, but I think that I might eventually have a YouTube channel alongside my blog because I really like watching BookTube videos and I think that once I get past the fear, uncertainty, and stress, I’d really enjoy it making them myself, and being able to ramble about books even more. I just have to prepare myself mentally and work out how things actually work. I’m not sure I’m ready just yet, but I think it’s a strong possibility in the future.

What’s your favourite genre?

FANTASY all the way! Love it! I love fantasy because it’s usually quite fast-paced, I find the characters more diverse and denser and I just love all the intrigues and political themes, the betrayal, the hate to love/enemies to lovers tropes you find in a lot of fantasy. I think I just generally love fantasy so much because of all the magic and supernatural elements. I think I might have been a witch in a former life, I still believe that I can move things with my mind like Prue in Charmed and I hope that one day, I’ll go into the garage to look through some boxes and find a long lost family heirloom, a wand or some magical book and turn into a wizard! Yeah, I love fantasy!

Do you have a genre you’ve never tried? And do you want to try it?

I’ve tried quite a lot of genres, when I started reading a lot more when I was a teenager, my reading was quite varied and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to work out what I like and dislike in a book. I’ve read one Stephen King book and it scared the life out of me and have never, ever picked up another horror book other than that one, so I’d have to say horror. And no, I don’t want to try it again, I couldn’t sleep for two days after I finished it.

What got you into blogging?

For this question, it’s not a what, but a who. The person who encouraged me and pushed me to consider blogging as an option was Noly from The Artsy Reader. We started talking in August of last year and we have spoken, I think, nearly every single day since. I fell in love with her blog and told her it would be something I would consider and she has been so supportive and lovely! I also don’t think I would ever have considered blogging if I hadn’t made a bookish account on Twitter because the blogger community is a lot stronger on Twitter than on Instagram I feel, so also Twitter, but 100% Noly! Thank you for being an amazing friend and the best moral support ever! If you ever need blogging advice or just a general pick-me-up, she is your go-to girl! PS, she is also giving me lots of advice and support for my book.

What’s been the hardest part of your blogging journey so far? What’s been the best part?

You’re going to laugh at this one, but the hardest part was actually setting up the blog, it took me so long to actually pick a theme, I think I previewed about 16 different themes over 2 days and nearly cried when I finally found one that I liked! Also, working out how to set up the menus and the sub-menus was just awful and if Noly hadn’t been there to help me I think I would have given up! If you want to start a blog, keep in mind that even though WordPress is supposedly “easy”, I struggled, so badly, so find a kind blogger to help and answer your questions if you are a computer numpty like me.

The best part about my blogging journey has 100% been the community and all the wonderful and amazing bloggers that I now get to call my friends! I’ve met so many absolutely incredible people this past week, and keep meeting more and more every day! There is so much love and friendliness in this community that you can’t help but feel welcome. I can’t believe how warm and friendly people are and how much my confidence has blossomed thanks to all of you, you know who you are, and you are awesome.

That’s all for now, I hoped you enjoyed reading all about me, see you soon,

Ellie xx