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~ photo by believer9 via Flickr

This spring has been the season for tagging and nominations from fellow bloggers. It’s such an honor to be noticed and acknowledged! I feel like I’ve been temporarily crowned Queen of the Playground while getting to hold the esteemed golden statue of Kermit the Frog. Or something equally awesome like that. So thank you to everyone who stops by to read my ramblings, sits down in the kasbah for a chat and thinks enough of my blog to tag and nominate me.

As I’ve been running around the playground of the blogosphere, I’ve been meeting some wonderful people, people like my blogging friend, Alina Sayre, who has tagged me in a book-themed interview. Now that I’m “it”, I must answer some book-related questions about myself and then run off to tag other bloggers. Here are the rules:

1. Post the rules.

2. Answer the questions.

3. Pass the questions on to eleven people by tagging and linking to them.

4. Let them know you’ve tagged them.
The questions are as follows:
1. If you could live in a fictional world, where would that be?
I think I would live in the world of Harry Potter. There are SO many things I could do with a wand and a spell book.
2. Fiction or non-fiction?
Fiction. That said, I am not opposed to reading some intriguing non-fiction, especially memoirs.
3. Do you read in noisy or quiet places?
I prefer to do my reading either in a coffee shop with the background noise of coffee-making and other people’s conversations or in bed just before going to sleep. So, I guess my answer is both.
4. Do reviews influence your choice of reads?
Sometimes. Depends on who the reviewer is and what I think of their opinion. But if I want to read a book, I’m going to read it regardless of what others think.
5. Audio books or paperbacks?
Both! I am ALWAYS listening to an audio book in my car. It’s the only way to get from point A to B for me. Plus, there are SO many books that I want to read that this gives me a way to squeak in another one during an otherwise boring commute. And I’ll always love to hold a book in my hands, real or on my kindle. The more books in my life, the better!
6.What was the first book you remember reading?
Danny and the Dinosaur – I loved this book and must have read it at least a thousand times. It’s probably what subliminally inspired my fascination with becoming a paleontologist when I was in first grade. Isn’t paleontologist such a cool word? I thought so, too.
7. Favorite author? 
Jeez, this is a difficult one for me since there are so many great ones. I guess if I was held captive on top of the play structure here on my virtual playground and I was being forced to pick one, I would say right now my favorite author is Melina Marchetta.
8. Classic or Modern Novels?
Again with the difficult questions! I truly can’t pick one over the other. Both are held in high esteem with me.
9. Have you ever met your favorite author?
Sadly, I have not.
10. Book groups or solitary reading?
Both. I’ve been in a book group for about seven years now and thoroughly enjoy getting together with those ladies every month. I also enjoy hunkering down with a good book all on my own.
11. If you could read only one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I would be asking what I did to deserve such a terrible fate. Then I would subversively refuse to be hindered in such a vile way. Since I am good at scaling down the sides of buildings, I would escape the confines of such hellishness and hide in a library where I would build an army of Book Fiends whose sole purpose is to abolish such nonsense.
And now it is my turn to leave home base and tag 11 other people:
I invite you all to come play on the playground. No pressure, though. Come play, if you’d like. I’ll save you a popsicle while you think on it…
And, as if being tagged to play wasn’t enough fun, I’ve been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by Hannah Karena Jones over at her fabulous blog, The Writer’s Waiting Room. Many thanks to Hannah for thinking of me!
The rules of accepting the nomination are as follows:
  1. Thank the person who nominated me.
  2. Include a link to his/her blog.
  3. Nominate fifteen blogs I enjoy and follow.
  4. Lastly, tell you seven things about myself.
Here is a partial list to start off the nominations because I am reserving the right to make further nominations at a later time. I don’t want to overwhelm my fellow bloggers with the flurry of tags, taps, and nominations that have been going around. If I’ve nominated you and you’ve already received it, I apologize.
Do me a solid and take a trip over to their blogs to see why I’m nominating them!
And now for the seven things about myself that you didn’t know and probably don’t need to know, but will soon know if you keep reading this:
1. I was VERY into the Little House on the Prairie books and t.v. show as a kid. When I was in 5th grade, my two best friends and I convinced our teacher to let the class have an “old-fashioned school day” just like Laura Ingalls would have experienced. My mom even made me an outfit just like Laura’s to wear. (Yes, I was a very lucky girl to have so many adults indulge me this way.) The things I remember the most about that day were my teacher dressing up, reading Edgar Allen Poe to us, and conducting the day very much like a one room school house from the 1800’s.
2. I wish I had an amazing, hauntingly beautiful singing voice. Trust me when I say you do not want to know what kind of voice I really do have.
3. I would like to learn to speak at least 4 different languages. So far, I can only speak 1 3/4 languages.
4. I believe that the universe gives us what we need when we need it. Unfortunately, I am incredibly impatient with this schedule.
5. I also believe different people come into our lives at key times to teach us different lessons, and that will continue to happen as long as needed until you’ve learned the lesson. Then, you either have an amazing set of friends or a whole lot of enemies. Or perhaps a little of both.
6. When I was in 4th grade, there was this boy who apparently had a crush on me and would display this affection by following me around on the playground to tease me. Because I was at the age when boys had cooties and were to be avoided like the plague, this was incredibly annoying to me. One day at recess I had decided I could take no more. When he approached me that day, teasing and taunting me for the billionth time, I grabbed the front of his shirt and pushed him into a tree while yelling at him to stop. I guess I didn’t know my own strength because he ended up going home early that day because of a cut on his scalp that wouldn’t stop bleeding. Oops. (*grins sheepishly*) On the bright side, the teasing stopped and he left me alone for the rest of the school year.
7. At one time I had a motorcycle endorsement on my driver’s license.
Thanks, again, to Alina and Hannah for thinking of me!