Love-a-Thon Questionnaire

I missed Book Blogger Appreciation Week last week and I was super annoyed about it, so when I saw that Love-a-Thon was happening this weekend (hosted by Alexa, Cee, Hazel and Mel) I decided to sign up. This post is late because I hopped on the bandwagon just before the twitter chat this morning and haven't had time to write it til now, but here is my questionnaire for those who are new or just need a reminder!

1. What's your name? 

It's actually Rebekah and in real life everyone calls me that or Bekah - only family call me Bex, but somehow I just decided I was going to be Bex on the internet which meant it took me about a year of Hanna and Laura calling me it before I started to actually respond.

2. Where in the world are you blogging from?

I'm on the coast of Kent, UK

3. How Did you Get into Blogging in the first place?

This is pretty well documented here on the blog, but basically I started the blog because I'd just moved away from all my family and friends and wasn't working a lot and needed a way to keep track of the stuff I was reading. 

4. How Did You Come up with Your Blog Name?

I have this brilliant armchair which we bought for 99p off eBay and it's pretty much famous with my family and friends because it's super comfortable and amazing and it was the only decent piece of furniture we had when we first moved down here so I used to spend a lot of time sitting in it. Also from our old flat you could see the sea, and thus, An Armchair by the Sea.

5. What Genre Do you Read and Review Most on Your Blog?

Hmmmm *consults review archive* contemporary fiction or graphic novels, I would say. 

6. What Other Types of Posts do you Do on Your Blog, apart from reviews?

I don't really do reviews anymore as such. I more just kind of talk about books in an unstructured kind of way...  I also post quite a few life related posts, and I'm doing a weekly series on indie publishers at the moment featuring a different publisher each week, which you can check out here if you so desire. 

7. Best Blogging Experience So Far?

This is definitely a tie between going up to Leeds to meet Ellie and Charlotte for the first time (and see Hanna and Laura again) and the London Bookshop Crawl the other week. Both were awesome bookish experiences during which I met fantastic people and bought way too many books, and both were entirely enabled by blogging. 

8. Favourite thing about the blogging community?

How ready people are to sympathise or send virtual hugs, thoughts, prayers etc to people they don't know all that well in times of need. Yes it can be bitchy and dramatic at times, but on the whole the majority of people I've met through blogging are pretty awesome. 

9. Name the 5 books you're most excited for this 2016!

I don't ordinarily do a whole lot of anticipating, unless Scarlett Thomas or Rainbow Rowell has a new book coming.. I'm sure there are things but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

10. Name the 5 books you want to read that you didn't get to in 2015

My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem... Ummm... There's a lot of stuff I see in hardback and I'm like 'oooooh' but then I remember I dislike hardbacks so I think I'll wait til they come out in paperback and theeeeen I forget to add them to my wishlist and forget what they were until years later when I'll discover them in a charity shop. Basically I'm the worst at keeping up with what's happening in the world of books. 

11. What's an underrated book or series that you think everyone should read?

Sounds weird to pick a Giller longlisted title for this question, but If I Fall, If I Die by Michael Christie was one of my favourite reads of 2015 and I've heard exactly nobody else mention it at all. Read it, read it, it's so good!

12. Which book boy or girl would be your BFF?

Honestly? Probably Cath from Fangirl. We both worry waaaay too much about ridiculous stuff, I feel like we'd bond over it. 

13. Which book boy or girl would be your boyfriend?

Can I have Chaol please? *fights everyone*

14. Who would you recruit for your apocalypse squad?

Hmmmm... I have to say The Comedian from Watchmen. Also Jaim Grymauch from Ravenheart, but now I feel like I'm just picking muscle men... Tiffany Aching of Wee Free Men fame, and probably September from Catherynne M. Valente's Fairyland series, because they're both brilliant with the making the best of a bad situation. 

15. Apart from reading, what are your other hobbies and interests?

Other hobbies?! Don't be silly. 

I knit. I'm also going to learn to crochet this year. I play piano and guitar, and I like singing. Walking is good, particularly in the countryside or near the sea, and I really enjoy discovering new places. I love planning trips, particularly epic round -the -world ones I'm never going to take. I also love organising ridiculous and seemingly impossible events such as the Ninja Book Swap and the London Bookshop Crawl. I'm the only person in the world who doesn't have Netflix but I'm majorly into Once Upon a Time and my sister also got me into Grimm - I love and adore all things fairytale and folklore. Huge fan of Friends and Gilmore Girls. Feminism. Feminism is a thing that I think is important, and I aspire to dreams of self-sufficiency. I grow lots of fruit and veg in my garden. I also enjoy coming up with harebrained schemes to set the world to right. Guerilla kindness operative and attempted letter writer.

16. Apart from book shopping, what else do you like shopping for?

Not much really. I'm really not a big shopper besides books. I do quite enjoy buying craft supplies and gardening stuff if I'm in the right mood but that's about it. 

17. At a party, the DJ suddenly changes the song – and it’s your song. What song would be playing?

Sweet Child o' Mine by Guns n Roses. I don't know quite how this became my song but I've loved it ecstatically since I was about 16 and it's the only song that's got through horrible situations with me without reminding me of the horrible situations. I still love it. 

18. Pick out either a book you want turned into a film/TV show, or a film/TV show you want turned into a book.

I really want a film of The Night Circus, but only if they're going to do it properly. 

19. What would your dream library look like? 



20. Author you want to meet and sit down to tea with?

I'd have said none because I get ridiculously tongue tied, but having briefly met her last year I'd go with Scarlett Thomas. I think we'd have things to say. 

So that's me! Hopefully I'll get some time to check out everyone else's posts and say hi!