Celebrating 3 Years Of Blogging With A Long Q&A (Including My Thoughts On BTS, Favourite Posts I’ve Written And More)

Happy birthday to my blog! I’m gonna make this intro as short as possible, this post is over 5k words long and I am so sorry. You may need to grab a warm beverage and snacks of your choice, as I’m gonna be chatting about a variety of topics. We’ve got bookish questions, general/lifestyle questions and blogging questions and they’re split into those sections. I hope this post helps y’all learn a bit more about me and satisfies your curiosity hehe. 

disclaimer: this post is the result of probably over 24 hours of work, I rewrote so many of my answers because I wasn’t happy with them. I battled with the formatting and HTML and I really, really hope you enjoy this post. From the bottom of my heart because I’ve spent so long on it *sobs* 

I’m just gonna go ahead and shout out Sophia @ Bookwyrming Thoughts, she’s one of my closest blogging friends and I mention her several times in this post. So hi please go check out her blog. She’s an amazing bean and I will protecc her always. Soph thank you for coming into my life and making it 1000x better.

Bookish Questions

What Book Genre Would You Like To Read More Of?

Fantasy and sci-fi. I own a lot of fantasy/sci-fi books but I just…don’t normally gravitate towards them mostly because my brain has not been down to digest a new magic system and world. I’ve been reading a lot of Urban Fantasy these past few months but it’d be nice to get through the fantasy books I own.

Do You Make A Reading Schedule Or Have A Set Time To Read Everyday, Or Are You Someone Who Reads Throughout The Day?

Typically I tend to read in the afternoons/evenings though recently I’ve been reading late at night because I’ve been struggling to sleep. Other than that I don’t have any schedule or routine around reading. I also tend to devour books in one sitting, unless I’m struggling connecting to the book for some reason.

What Your Favourite Book Of All Time?

Chicagoland Vampires by Chloe Neill is one of my favourite series of all time, it’s an Adult Urban Fantasy series that I erm started reading at like 12? It was the series which kept me company throughout secondary school and I adore the characters.

There’s something about this series where I could pick up any book from it, and feel like I’m returning home. It’s that type of series for me. I just love it when you find books, series that feel like home, it’s such a special feeling.

If You Could Read 1 Book For The Rest Of Your Life What Would It Be?

This is a very mean question. ONLY ONE?! So many of my favourite books are series and I can’t just have the middle book in the series to feed me for the rest of my life. I’m going to say probably either Chicagoland Vampires by Chloe Neill (yep the entire 13 book series because its a series and I refuse to pick a book) or Guild Codex: Spellbound by Annette Marie (it will be 8 books when the last one comes out later this year, and yes I choose all 8 because I can’t survive off of just one book in a series.)

If You Could Be On An Island With Any Book Character, Who Would It Be??

At the time of writing this post, I’m currently reading The Bone Witch, for the reason I’m going to say Tea. I’d love to just be on an island with her and maybe listen to her talk about her life, share her memories with me. I don’t know…I’m 99 pages in at the moment ok and procrastinating because I know stuffs going to go down *wails*

Favourite Heroine?

I was about to say I don’t have one. That’s a teeny tiny lie. I do. I have three current favourites at the moment, which surprises no one that it’s the number 3 at this point. Can you tell I really love the number 3? Anyway, Merit from Chicagoland Vampires is one of my all time favourites. She’s sassy but she’s also a complex character who’s growing continuously throughout the 13 books and I adore her so much. The other two are Tori from Guild Codex: Spellbound and Robin from Guild Codex: Demonized. Will I ever shut up about these three series? Maybe…one day.

Tori is sassy and she doesn’t take crap from anyone, she also has a tendency to just dive right into things and get in over her head. Her hearts always been in the right place though and she’s a human among Mythics (mythics being people with magic). Robin is pretty much Tori’s opposite, she’s very quiet and shy but she’s a huge reader and she happens to have magic as well as a demon. So whilst Tori is human in this magical world, Robin isn’t and I really liked how both their series entangle and you get to see both of them grow. 

If You Had To Choose 1 Author To Write A Book With You As A Character, Who Would You Choose To Write It?

Annette Marie? Probably. That would be an interesting book though, the character definitely shouldn’t have any concept of time because I don’t haha. But yeah probably Annette Marie simply because I really love her writing, I would have said Chloe Neill but we share our first name and it’s weird writing about a character that shares your name xD

A Book You Really Enjoyed/Loved In The Past But Now Think It’s Trash/Problematic?

Many. There are so many. I think my answer though is Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas. As much I loved the first 6 books in the series, it goes from Young Adult content to more…New Adult/Adult content later on in the series with the inclusion of sex scenes. There’s also the fact that one of the main POC characters get’s killed off to help push the MC’s character arc, when I very first read the books I didn’t see these problems. I’d not yet entered the book community online, or been made aware of diverse books, why they’re so important etc. 

SJM’s books are not diverse, they’re as white as the UK editions of ToG and that’s the tea, if you can’t acknowledge that then I don’t know what to tell you. I also believe one of the characters in her ACOTAR series is bi and let me just tell you, the way that was handled was awful. In general her books are white and you can bet your life that each female character will get with a male character. LGBTQIA+ representation doesn’t really exist in her books, it’s hinted at and dealt with badly, so badly I’d forgotten all about it because I remember feeling icky after reading it.

Don’t read these books if you’ve not already. I promise you, you’re not missing out on anything, instead you should go read some diverse books!

If You Could Visit Any One City In The World, Which Would It Be And Why? (One Real And One Fictional)?

Aaah choices, you expect me to choose?! Real city either Ottawa or Seoul. Ottawa is a city in Canada, Ontario and as someone who really hopes to move to Canada one day to live. I’d love to see Ottawa. I’m generally a country gal over cities, they drain me quickly because of all the hubbub. Seoul I’ve seen in some YouTuber’s vlogs and I’d love to just go explore the city. Also I’m pretty sure it has a huge library in the shopping mall? (it’s Starfield Library and it’s breathtaking) Anyway recently my wanderlust started to wake up, I hope one day I’ll be able to travel to places and maybe tie in meeting some of my online friends along the way. We’ll see since ha I have social anxiety and travelling alone whilst I love it, also makes my anxiety flare because I have to talk to people in social situations all by my lonesome.

General/Lifestyle Questions

What Kind Of Music Have You Been Enjoying Lately?

K-Pop and country. I go through phases, last year I was in a huge rock/country phase and since the end of last year to now I’ve been listening to a lot of K-Pop. As I’m sure many of you know, I am an Atiny, I stan Ateez and they’re the group which finally got me into K-Pop. I am of course open to you shoving recs at me but erm please be aware I may totally forget and it take me like 6 months or more to get to it. yes thats what happened with Ateez, Soph threw two of their songs at me in early 2019 and I was like oh cool…then managed to FORGET all about them until October where I remembered them and looked them up on my own and now here I am

Below I’ve included the first 16 songs on my August playlist and linked to YouTube videos in case you want to check any of them out!

Tracklist

One Day At A Time by Ateez

Inception by Ateez

Fever

Thanxx by Ateez

Good Lil Boy by Ateez

To The Beat by Ateez

Come Back Home by Oneus

Never Ending Story by Stray Kids

The Day by Iz

Phobia by Stray Kids

Don’t Want To Admit by Bang Chan (SKZ)

Winter Flower by Younha ft RM from BTS

Louder Than Bombs by BTS

Baby by The Rose

Sunshine by Stray Kids

Puma by TXT

I will say that I discovered The Day by Iz through the K-Pop radio I have, I was listening to one of the stations and the song came on. It just…captured my attention. It’s a really nice song, I love Ateez so obviously all their songs are there. My favourites from their new album though are Fever, One Day At A Time and Inception. Oneus also had a comeback, their concept is erm…very up my alley as it’s supernatural themed hehe. The song’s also a bop. Oh look there’s some BTS songs too, I do listen to BTS songs…they’re good songs ^.^

How Do You Take Your Cuppa?

This may be one of my favourite questions ever so thank you Sam! For those of who don’t know, I live in the UK, England and our typical type of tea is milk tea. I have recently been able to step out of my comfort zone and try other types of teas and I can’t wait to continue that at some point.

Anyway my current favourite type of tea is Lady Grey, it’s a milk tea although I’m sure you could drink it without milk added, it’s a citrus flavoured tea. It smells divine and I love the taste of it.

• pop the kettle on (make sure to fill it up if need be)
• place a Lady Grey tea bag in one of my mugs
• wait for the kettle to boil (depending on what mood I’m in, I may wash up or put dishes away if there’s any left, or I’ll empty the bins…OR I just go on my phone xD)
• pour the boiling water onto the tea bag, now with the Lady Grey I like to pour it directly onto the tea leaves inside the bag to help get the flavouring out quicker xD 
• leave to brew for 2-5 minutes depending on how patient I feel like being 
• tea bag goes into the bin and the milk gets poured in 
• cuppa is doneeee

The process differs slightly depending on the type of tea, generally speaking I don’t take sugar in tea and Lady Grey is one of the few teas I don’t mind having strong. 

What Goal Do You Hope To Accomplish By The End Of The Year?

Be at beginners level of understanding Korean. That would be nice. I’m not sure if I’ve ever really spoken about this on my blog but I’ve always loved and appreciated languages. I studied French in school for 9 years and German for 4 years, yet I somehow picked up German quicker and easier than French. The way we were taught it in school drained my love for languages. Now that I’ve rediscovered my love for learning them and for learning in general, school really takes the fun out of learning, when they throw exam after exam at you >.>

Partially my interest in learning Korean stems from Ateez, the other part is just I wanted to get back into learning a language. Instead of you know…French or German, languages that I already have some knowledge on, I figured I’d go for Korean as I have no knowledge on it. However I am somewhat immersing myself in it more than I ever did with French/German. In the sense I listen to K-Pop and watch some K-Drama which helps with the learning process. As a side note I think it’s beautiful that certain phrases/words don’t have an exact translation into another language. All languages, except English, are beautiful and that’s today’s tea.

Opinions On BTS?

Gah how many times will I rewrite my answer? Who knows. My current opinions on BTS are as follows, they’re a really hard working group (like most kpop groups) and most of their songs are pleasant for my ears. Some of their songs are catchy like Boy With Luv, ON and Not Today…and Mic Drop. sksksks for someone who’s not a fan I know a lot of songs whoops I’m not an Army by any means, I don’t know who is who in the group, slight lie. I blame Ateez and a few YouTubers for this, I know some of their names. I couldn’t match the people with the names though. 

A year ago I’d have probably told you I felt like they were overrated/overhyped but thankfully we grow as a person and whilst I’m still very wary of them. Mostly of Army’s, I would not be opposed to a certain someone plopping themselves into my dms to get me to watch BTS related things. hi caitlin this is you, only caitlin is allowed to throw bts at me, anyone else does it I’ll screech at you xD

Also fun fact for anyone who wants one, Ateez have covered both Boy With Luv and ON, which is mainly how come I listened to the songs and was like…oh…they’re ok xD I used to play Boy With Luv on loop for weeks, I’d just be dancing around the house to it singing along. So it’s highly possible I will fall…but Ateez are my ults ❤

Why Do You Love Ateez?

The way I’ve rewritten this answer several times already, trying to find the words to explain, the amount of love I have for this group. For these 8 boys. I don’t think any answer I write will do my love justice but I’m going to attempt haha.

I mentioned in my BTS answer that they were a reason why I avoided K-Pop for so long…well Ateez kind of just walked into my life early in 2019 and left an impression. So much so I remembered that 6+ months later in October 2019 which is when I googled them myself and ended up stanning them. It wasn’t their looks that caught my eye ok maybe a wee bit was looks but like I appreciate how they’re all adorable to my eyes it was their stage presence. The other groups I’d seen MV’s of, they just didn’t have that same stage presence for me and watching Ateez perform it’s just…look I rewatch videos of their performances and still don’t get tired of it. 

They have such a powerful stage presence, their songs are all bops and I’ve yet to hear a song I don’t like from them. Their personalities are a flipping hoot, the amount of times I’ve watched random Ateez videos to cheer me up these past months *sobs* I adore them for their music, for their personalities and for how much they love their fandom too. I also love the friendships they share with each other, it just makes my heart swell ok and no I don’t romantically ship any of them together. Please that’s just weird and I hate it when people do that to other artists/idols. Only type of ship I do is friendships xD

Anywayyyy if you’re looking for a new group to stan, go listen to some of their songs. I personally still really love Aurora, Promise, Say My Name which are from their older albums. HOWEVER I love Fever, Inception and One Day At A Time from their new album. (that reminds me, they write a song in each album for Atiny, to remind us that they’re there for us. We’re largely an International fanbase still and they learned and wrote a song for us in English. *sniffles*)

I just remembered another reason, their concept. I know all groups have different concepts for their comebacks but I love that Ateez’s concept is to do with parallel worlds and how even though the Treasure era is over so to speak as we’re in the Fever era. We’re still learning more about their concept and I don’t know my brain just appreciates that there’s this puzzle and it’s a fun puzzle haha.

That was rather long but yeah, I love Ateez a lot and I know not everyone will, that’s totally ok. I’m just grateful to have become an Atiny and I’ll be cheering them on, under my pile of books as I do my best to help them win awards etc. 

What’s The Biggest Life Lesson You’ve Learned So Far?

Gah this is such a good question which is giving me a headache because I don’t know which one to share. I’ve rewritten this answer so many times, I just…I have a lot of lessons to share although I will probably share most of them on a post later this year.

If you have to sacrifice parts of yourself, for your friends to like you and accept you, then they’re not worth your time, energy or loyalty.

I can’t stress this enough. Don’t settle for friends because it’s your comfort zone and they’re all you know. There is a whole flipping world out there, full of beautiful people who will treat you like you deserve to be treated. Who won’t ask you to sacrifice parts of yourself, there are people who will help you grow. I mentioned this in a recent post of mine but surround yourself with people who allow you to grow and flourish. Both online and offline. It’s so, so important and I wish I’d done that more in school. I wish I’d spent more time with certain friends than with others.

Related Blog Post: How I Curate My Social Media Feeds And Tips For How You Can Too!

Movie Recommendations?

I don’t really watch movies. By this I mean I don’t remember the last time I watched a movie…I can’t stay focused long enough. we’ll ignore that I can focus for an hour on an episode of a drama because it’s different ok

Yeah no I got nothing so instead I’ll just kindly point y’all over to watch Thumping Spike on YouTube, it’s a K-Drama and I binged it in like 6/7 hours last week I think? It’s about volleyball, it’s pretty light and fluffy and the episodes are short which is why I may have erm…binged as fast. That the most recent thing I’ve watched. No movies 😦

K-Pop Groups You’re Interested In Aside From Ateez?

KARD

I’m pretty sure Soph threw KARD recs at me which I would have ignored at the start. I was too focused on Ateez ok xD Anyway I found KARD again this year when I was googling to see if there were mixed groups. I clicked onto KARD and I’ll admit I purely clicked Red Moon because it had moon in the title. That being said, I really fell for their music, their choreo as well and, Jiwoo is my bias. If I could I’d list like all their songs, I really love their music ok *sobs*

Stray Kids

Ahahaha please someone save me before I become a Stay. Anyway I knew who Stray Kids were before I’d listened to any of their music. First song of theirs I remember is My Pace and erm hi Felix smacked me in the heart. Anyhoooo enough about that here are a few of my fav songs from them.

Oneus

I’d discovered Oneus around the same sort of time as Ateez, Valkyrie I think was their first song I heard either Valkyrie or Twilight. I have noticed their concepts seem to be more…supernatural based which as a huge urban fantasy/paranormal fan I adore. Their new song for their comeback is an absolute bop which I enjoy. 

TXT (Tomorrow x Together)

Like with Oneus, I actually listened to TXT last year around the same time I got into K-Pop and became an Atiny, Run Away was the first song of theirs I listened to and it was just…so catchy. They’ve recently had a comeback and Puma is also a really catchy song haha.

Most Absurd Thing You’ve Done For Ateez?

I think buying 5 of their albums within a week of stanning them is pretty absurd and totally unlike me as a person. Usually I wait and think about the purchases I’m about to make but I just…couldn’t wait. I bought 5 albums when I’d only stanned them for a week, for all I knew I could’ve stopped stanning by December xD Thankfully that hasn’t happened and I do intend to buy their other albums so I can collect them as it makes me very happy. 

Honourable mention to that time I stayed up late at night during their Wonderland era to vote for them but we didn’t end up winning any awards 😦 Shoutout to all the Atiny though who’ve been streaming on Genie for us to get digital downloads this comeback. I’ve been streaming on YouTube mostly haha.

If Purple Wasn’t A Colour, What Would Your Favourite Colour Be?

This question hurts my soul a lot. I would say purple is more than just my favourite colour, it’s the colour that I resonate with on a deeper level, like if I were to become a colour I would be purple. That being said I also resonate with various shades of blue because it reminds me of the ocean. So I think an ocean blue would be my favourite colour if purple ceased to exist.

Blog Questions

Any Plans Or Goals For Your Blog’s Third Year?

Uhm…I’m not sure to be honest. It’d be wild if we were to hit 1k followers in my 3rd year of blogging but it’s not a goal. I think my goal is to ensure the content I’m posting is quality content and not just content for the sake of content. sksksksksk thank you brain for a discussion post idea 

Broadly speaking, whilst I was on my hiatus I did a lot of thinking, a lot of consuming content. Reflecting on my own content, what I put out there in the digital world. It’s caused me to re-evaluate the content I’m creating across my platforms, how can I improve this, how can I create content that will enhance other people’s lives. For me, that looks different on each platform as each platform works differently.

At the end of the day, there’s a common thread, which links them all and they’re my core values, beliefs and what I want to put out into the world. Emphasis on growth, positive energy, learning, books, lifestyle, creativity, nature all connect them. Nature in particular connects all my platforms because I’m a big lover of nature. So my plans and goals are to start that shift into making my content align with me, my values and to ensure my platforms content does the same thing.

What Post Are You Most Proud Of And Why?

I think this honour goes to the Island Adventures series. As I’m writing this my brains gently scolding me for procrastinating working on the series… It’s just hard at times to find the motivation, to create this wonderfully complex interactive story, when it doesn’t do too well engagement wise. That being said I am looking forward to properly fleshing out the plot line, the characters and it’s told in third person which is a time. I’m not used to writing in third person but it works well.

If any of you want to read the opening part, leave a comment, share with you friends it’d mean the world to me. I try my best to create fun and original series on my blog, series that are relatable for you guys and Island Adventures is perhaps going to be one of my favourite series to work on. When I get the energy to work on it xD

Related Blog Post: Island Adventures: Welcome To The Island & Choose The First Adventure!

What Is Your Favourite Post You’ve Ever Written?

I genuinely don’t know. I have posts I like, some I’m proud of but I don’t really have favourites. Ooops? I think if I were to pick a post, then it’d be a tie between some of my more recent posts. Mostly because of the formatting, layout and the energy and love I put into them.

My post where I shared tips for book blogging on free WordPress, I created this post because I wished I’d had something like that, when I first started. There’s a lot of good book blogging/blogging advice out there, however a lot of it tends to revolve around self hosted blogs, blogger and not really highlight how you can still create a wonderful blog for free. I used to think I couldn’t have cute boxes in my posts because I needed CSS for that…you don’t. As you can see, I’m on a free plan and my formatting is pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.

One of the posts I posted earlier this week is actually dear to my heart, where I share how I cleansed my social media and tips for how you all can too! I wasn’t actually sure about posting it, I started writing it back in my hiatus and I was struggling a lot with self doubt and impostor syndrome. I nearly scrapped the entire post several times. I’m so happy I didn’t though because so many of you seem to really love the post which makes me so happy!

I have a blog post planned for later on this year, it’s combining books and Ateez, two of my favourite things so I think when I finish that post. That will probably become my favourite post hehe.

Related Blog Post: Tips For Book Blogging On Free WordPress & How I Curate My Social Media Feeds And Tips For How You Can Too!

What Is Your Favourite Part Of Blogging?

Honourable mention to formatting, which has strangely become a fun aspect to blogging for me, I think it’s mostly because I love how the formatting looks hehe. My favourite part of blogging is without a doubt the people, my fellow bloggers, their posts. Look I’ve mentioned this so many times but I have so much love to give to people, I just really love this community, all the friends I’ve made too. I hope one day I’m able to meet some of my friends in real life…one day. Nothing makes my heart soar more than the idea of meeting my friends in a cafe where we work on blog posts together, chat and have the time of our lives being our unapologetic selves.

Related Blog Post/s: 2020 Book Blogger Awards Nominees this is the link to the spreadsheet Marie and May created, full of all the nominees for these awards, that’s 492 blogs. Please, please make sure you check out the spreadsheet! I’m still working my way through all the blogs and so far I’ve discovered some amazing blogs thanks to these awards!

I Understand Your Love For Discussion Posts, So Do You Have Any Tips To Bloggers Who Want To Do Them More?

Ooooo I love this question! Discussion posts are very time consuming and draining to write, it doesn’t matter whether they come to you easier or not, I still find them super tiring to write. I do it out of love though.

• blog hop: I get inspiration from other bloggers, sometimes it can be a word/phrase or a general concept which I like. When I do this you’ll find that I link back to the post that inspired me. I do this to give credit to where I found inspiration and also so that anyone reading my post, can check out the other person’s post. 
• write things down: the amount of times I’ve had ideas pop up when I’m on walks, in the car, at work, showering DOING ANYTHING is vast. Not all of them make the cut though, some I just look at later and go “clearly I was too sleep to be coherent”. Others I can make into a post and some I’m saving…for possible ventures later. 
• don’t be afraid to use discussion idea posts: these are really helpful posts and if you’re struggling for topics, highly recommend using them. You can do a simple search for them and then I recommend bookmarking them or saving the links somewhere, so you can refer back to them later. 
• write the post: whatever post you’re wanting to write, just start drafting it right now. It won’t draft itself and you can’t do anything with a blank document/page. Focus on getting the first draft done then go back through and begin fine tuning things, like rewriting sections as needed, chopping paragraphs/words out etc. The hardest thing is starting a post, once you get in a flow it’ll be easier and you’ll get the hang of it. If you’re struggling with structure I recommend mind mapping out your post and the main points you want to make, then turn those points into subheadings. It’s how I approach structuring mine and really helps hehe.

I may have to sleep for an entire week to recover, holy smokes *cries*. This post took hours, I mean I easily spent over 24 hours on this post spread out over the week. It’s the longest post by far and if you read it all…I adore you and I hope you enjoyed it and learned something new about me/found something helpful!

Feel free to chat with me below in the comments on any of my answers to the questions I gave. Can we tell I have no energy left to create questions xD A HUGE thank you to everyone who asked me questions, you’re all legends and I hope my answers satisfied your curiosity 😉 Love you all and I hope you enjoyed this super, duper long Q&A ❤

Advertisement