Milestones, awards, and in defence of books

I have recently been nominated for two awards, and passed several milestones (which my readers may recall seem to come in bursts). I recently passed 200 followers, 500 likes, and 3,000 views-all of these are amazing, and thank you to everyone who helped me pass those.

Ritu from But I Smile Anyway…  nominated me for the Encouraging Thunder award, and Lauren from driftinglexi nominated me for the Very Inspiring Blogger award. Both these nominations are very kind, and I appreciate them both hugely.

The Very Inspiring Blogger award, which seems very delicate. Image from driftinglexi

Encouraging Thunder award: the rules

“What you can do with Encouraging Thunder award?

• Post it on your blog or social media account
• Grant others with the award

What you can’t do with Encouraging Thunder award?

• Abuse or misuse the logo
• Claim that it’s your own handmade logo

What you should do after receiving Encouraging Thunder award:

• Enjoy the award
• At least gives thanks via comments and likes and or mentioning the person who give the award.
• Mention your purpose in blogging or joining the social media”

My blogging purpose? That’s an interesting question. I know who I want to read my blog, but the thing that makes me blog to start with? Hmm. I think I want to share my enjoyment (amongst other feelings) of books, nothing can create emotion as well as a book-in many respects it is better than a film. You can make your own pictures, the characters are just how you want, and you invest time-this investment is so much more than with films, it’s more than a couple of hours’ worth of idle screen watching (which is undeniably good for passing the time, and can be very enjoyable). And to return to the original question, I feel that the community is brilliant-friendly and hospitable, and ever supportive even to small time bloggers such as myself.

Very Inspiring Blogger award: the rules

• Thank the person who nominated you.
• Add the logo to your post.
• Nominate 10 other bloggers you think are inspiring.
• Answer the questions given to you.
• Give five new questions for your nominees to answer.

The questions

1. Who is your biggest role model?

Fictional or real (see, that’s the problem with asking that to book bloggers)? Fictionally, some of the people who I have admired for a considerable length of time include Harry Potter, Dumbledore, Gandalf, Watson… I think it’s important that a character isn’t perfect, because the thing with which a reader connects is the imperfections, the flaws in characters, their mistakes, and how they deal with those. In real life, a fair amount of my family, alongside people such as Churchill-they were by no means perfect (Churchill made several major mistakes), but they did what needed doing to the best of their ability (you may be sensing a flawed hero theme here…).
2. Where do you mostly get inspiration for your blog from?

This is along the lines as the Encouraging Thunder, so please see there.
3. What is your favourite song?

It depends on my mood, but Adele, Best Day of My Life, and several instrumental songs from films are up there.
4. What is your favourite colour?

Blue/green.

Blue green (turquoise). Image from http://www.colorhexa.com

5. Who was the last person you hugged?

Probably one of my parents.

My questions to nominees:

1. What is your favourite book?
2. Who is your favourite fictional character?
3. Which country would you love to visit (that you haven’t already been to)?
4. What is your favourite colour?
5. What’s your favourite song?

(I know I used a couple of Lauren’s questions, but they were very good questions!)

Thank you very much to both Ritu and Lauren. Ritu’s site contains witty anecdotes, thought provoking quotes, and cat photos (there’s also a whole load of other great content, and I’d also like to congratulate Ritu for putting my milestone to shame, by just about reaching 30,000 views). Lauren’s site contains in depth and clear book reviews, and her nail painting is close to inspiring me to paint mine in the same style! I haven’t added the award logos due to space issues.

My nominees for the Encouraging Thunder award are:

*Curtis Bausse

*Notes from the UK

*La vie est trop courte pour boire du mauvais vin

My nominees for the Very Inspiring Blogger award are:

*BookMuffin

*Knowhere photography

*Sheldon Kleeman Artworks

*The Mexi Movie

*Mathemagical Site

Apologies if I missed out nominating you, if you would like the award, please take it. Congratulations!