Since Paper Fury posted 21 things you probably don’t know about her, I ended up doing a response. With 25 items because I’m 25.
- I’m Welsh. It actively pains me when people go “oh cool, you’re English!” when they find out I live in the UK. No.
- I have a sister. She’s a brat.
- I have five library cards. Two from the same library. I’m sneaky, me.
- I’m on a library committee. I’m in charge of book acquisitions!
- I haven’t read all the Harry Potter books. Sorry?
- My favourite animals are hedgehogs, hippos and giraffes. Don’t make me choose.
- I barely speak any of my partner’s native language. I can say thank you in a shop. That’s about it.
- I didn’t learn to read until I was nearly seven. Everyone assumes otherwise, but nope. I just wasn’t interested.
- I love King Arthur. See also #1. I wrote three of four of my MA essays on Arthurian texts, plus my dissertation.
- I have a BA and MA in English Literature… And I did very well in them, thank you.
- …But now I’m doing a course in Natural Sciences to prepare for medschool. Neurology, maybe? Genetics?
- I can sleep on a motorbike. Not as the rider, obviously; as the pillion passenger. I have a rally medal, and all I did was hold onto my dad and snooze for 36 hours.
- I’m a transcriptionist and copy writer. Neither of these things pay very well.
- I’m a volunteer at an eye clinic, a library, a forum, Lightspeed’s slush pile, and an occasional volunteer for Cancer Research UK and Tenovus. None of these things pay at all.
- I like chicken on my pizza. My partner thinks this makes me practically heathen.
- I like cold pizza the next morning. My sister is positive this makes me a heathen.
- I read in the bath. And I’ve only ever dropped one book in.
- I don’t get the ereaders vs. dead tree books debate. Both! Why not both?
- I know the stock at my local bookshops better than they do. And yet they won’t employ me. Sigh.
- When I really love a character, it sometimes means I can never consume more of their canon because I get too anxious. Castiel, bb. Why. And I worry this is going to happen with Steve Rogers/Captain America, because his next film is Civil War. Gaaah.
- I have no gallbladder. Had it out two years ago because it was full of stones.
- I once read The Lord of the Rings in 24 hours. That included sleep.
- I averaged buying more than a book a day in 2013. And I wasn’t far off in 2014. Oops.
- I had to pry open the back of my ereader to swap in a bigger SD card. I wrote a guide about it. Then they promptly stopped selling that type of ereader. Huff.
- I can’t back down from a dare. Like, my dad dared me to read War and Peace in a week. So I did it in five days. Or my sister said I wouldn’t dare suck spilt vodka out of the carpet. So I did. But I blame that on the previously imbibed vodka, too. Regardless, no one ever lets me forget it, so I’m trying to be proud of it. Or something.
You probably know most of these things about me, actually.
heh. I didn’t learn to read or write until like 3rd grade. I violently opposed it. But come on… Chicken on pizza? That’s just crazy! 😛
The theory is that the books on offer just bored me, but I was most resistant!
Only as long as there’s BBQ sauce too…
I KNOW THEM ALL KNOW AND JUST REPLIED TO THEM ON MY BLOG BUT IMMA REPLY TO THEM HERE TOO.
I think you are really really smart and obviously an incredibly fast reader. LOTR and War and Peace just FLOOR ME. omg how is that possible?!!
I live in New South Wales in Australia….so does that make me Welsh-ish too?!!
Oh my! You know all my secrets!
Obsession? A life spent mostly between the covers of books? Also stubbornness.
Hahaha maybe?!
I know what you mean about getting anxious about a character’s canon- I stopped midway through Supernatural because of that exact reason! Also, I’ve been wikipedia-ing Arthurian legends which has had me like, damn. They’re really awesome. Are there any REALLY core texts I should read if I’m interested?
Hmmm, that’s a really difficult question to answer. It depends on what period of Arthuriana you’re interested in. I like both the medieval and the modern stuff, so what interests me is not necessarily of interest to you — narrow it down for me? I wrote my dissertation on this stuff, as I said, so I could easily overwhelm you with a massive list…
A beginner’s guide 🙂
Eek, still difficult. Well, with medieval texts, I recommend Simon Armitage’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight — it’s pretty fun, and captures a lot of the linguistic play without ever sounding too technical or boring. Modern stuff, probably T.H. White’s The Once and Future King would be the classic choice. If you’re into more fantasy/romance stuff, I’ve quite enjoyed Sarah Zettel’s books, though they’re focused on the knights of Arthur’s court and their wives/wives to be more than anything. Mercedes Lackey had a book about Gwenhwyfar, which was pretty fun.
The big super feminist pagan classic is The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I loathe it (and the author, who abused her children and allowed others to as well), but people often call it their favourite, so I feel bound to mention it in passing! It was really, really influential, too. I’ve had to read it twice for academic work. *makes face*
Wow, that’s fantastic! Thank you so much!
I spent three years in the USA being told “Wales is part of England. I’m Irish.” AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
Yes. Very argh. Very very argh.
I’m with you on 7 (embarrassingly!). My wife is Indonesian and yet my language skills are barely beginner level. What does your partner speak?
Her native language is Dutch (Flemish), although she speaks English like a native and French pretty well too. Puts me to shame!