Poirot’s at the door: Liebster Award Post!

A huge thank you to Debra from Cultivating Time for nominating me, it’s an honor!! I’m so excited, and I had a lot of fun answering your questions!!

A little bit about the Liebster award (from Cultivating Time):

The idea of the award is to is to recognize and promote new up and coming blogs of a good standard with less than 200 followers (on WordPress).

And, to the questions!!

If you could visit a fictional world from a book or a film, where would you go?

Probably the dystopian society in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I absolutely loved this book when I read it last year; it is definitely the best dystopian story I have read. You’ll find me sipping coffee while having an incredible conversation about defining true happiness with Mustafa Mond.

You have to change your first name, what will you call yourself?

Probably Rose? It’s a variation of my first name.

There’s a knock at the door, your heart skips a beat and your stomach is all a quiver – who is at the door?

It’s Hercule Poirot, of course! I’m the Watson to his Sherlock and he’s come to pick me up to solve another grand mystery 🙂

You can spend the day with any man or woman from history, who will you choose and why?

Wow, this is a hard one. It’s between Voltaire, Mary Wollstonecraft, Adam Smith, Blaise Pascal, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, and Alice Paul. I’m not sure if this is cheating but I really can’t decide. Can I choose all of them? Best day ever!

What one question will you definitely ask them?

To Agatha Christie: Where do you get your inspiration? Which character who you have written do you believe is most like yourself? Why did you disappear?

          To Voltaire: Is full freedom of thought possible in today’s day and age? Do you think social media and the internet are invisible forces that shape thought?

To Mary Wollstonecraft: How should we approach educating women in developing countries?

To Blaise Pascal: How do you integrate your views on religion and logic in daily life?

To Erasmus: What is your favorite Norther Renaissance painting? How did monastery life change your views on religion and the church as a whole?

To Eleanor Roosevelt: How would you attack racism in the penal system today?

To Alice Paul: Do you believe feminine militancy is the way to achieve gender equality in the modern day and age?

To Jane Austen: What is the best memory that you have with your sister? How would you have dealt with the dancing situation in Pride and Prejudice? Which of your characters most reflects you?

To Adam Smith: Assuming you’ve had time to explore the modern world, do you still believe in enlightened self interest? How do you think enlightened self interest intertwines with human greed and maldistribution of wealth? And your opinion of NAFTA?

You have to change your hair color, it has to be one of the colors of the rainbow. What color will you choose?

I would have to say turquoise. Go big or go home.

Which song represents your personality?

Indian Summer, The Doors

I’m coming for dinner, what’s on the menu?

It’s always breakfast for dinner! I can make you a gourmet omelette with a lovely side salad and 2 pieces of toast.

What smell do you love?

Old books, rain, hair after a shower, candles

You are stranded in a lifeboat in the ocean, like in Life of Pi – which animal will you share your boat with and why?

Hmmm. Probably a seagull. I’d put a message in a bottle and hope that it reaches someone quickly.

My blog is called Cultivating Time – what quote or saying about time do you like?

This is from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, one of the most beautiful war memoirs I’ve ever read. I think it wonderfully exemplifies the relationship between stories and time:

“Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can’t remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.”

 

11 Things About Me

1. My love for reading began with Roald Dahl’s Matilda
2. I participate in public forum debate
3. I would never vote for Donald Trump
4. I love to travel! My favorite trips have been to Italy (Florence, Rome, Venice), China (Xian, Beijing), and Costa Rica.
5. I love to code- in Java (Trying to learn Swift)
6. I can get interested in anything very quickly
7. Currently listening to I Am A Rock by Simon and Garfunkel
8. My love for vocabulary was a direct cause of the SAT (at least it was good for one reason)
9. I am a Sherlockian (Yes, I watched the Christmas Special)
10. I am a romantic 🙂
11. My favorite book in the genre classic literature is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

11 New Questions

1. What role has reading played in shaping your daily lifestyle?
2. What was your most transformative read in 2015?
3. If you could travel to any time period, which would you travel to? Why?
4. What social issues are you most concerned about? (name 3)
5. What was your favorite class in college/high school? (Not a general subject)
6. Name three things that make you happy.
7. Put together a 4 song soundtrack for one of your favorite books.
8. If you could travel to any place (real/fictional) where would you travel to?
9. Name one New Year’s Resolution for 2016.
10. You are going on a dangerous and thrilling adventure in a location of your choosing. Choose a 5 person crew to accompany you consisting of characters from different books.
11. Name 3 qualities that make the perfect heroine in a novel.

The Nominations

1. alyssathebookgeek
2. Building Diverse Bookshelves
3. Justine, From Here To There
4. The Bikini Bookworm
5. Just One More Page

For new bloggers:

For anyone new to the Liebster Award this is how it works (copied from Cultivating Time) –

• In a post – answer the questions that your nominator posted for his/her nominees.
• Share 11 random facts about yourself.
• Make up 11 new fun questions for your nominees.
• Give some love back to your nominator , include a link back to their blog and their post.
• You must nominate 5-11 bloggers.