Happy Fourth of Advent, everyone!
Yes, I realize it’s not Friday, but I’m posting anyway 😁 Thanks to evil COVID, which is still very successfully destroying all of my travel plans, I’ve had a bit of spare time on my hands, and I thought, Why not channel that into getting caught up on my tag backlog? As if that is ever going to happen, Naemi, but I suppose a girl can dream 😂… Especially since Betty’s Read-Write Contest, which she was kind enough to nominate me for on her blog The Box of Wonder!, closes tomorrow. Whoops… I swear I never intend to leave things until last minute, but it somehow always happens! 😫
Anyway, Betty, please don’t think me getting to this so late has anything to do with me not liking your awesome contest, but blame it on my general scatter-brainedness! And to make up for my tardiness, let’s get straight into it!
The Read-Write Contest
The Rules
- Thank the person who nominated you/who’s blog you found this on, give them some fun book-character name (like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, etc.).
- If you have a blog, list down the rules in a post; if not, contact/email the creator.
- Add the logo of this competition below.
- Link back to the original post and the post of the one who nominated you.
- Answer the given questions!
- Write a story with just 5 lines
(5 because there are 5 letters in “story”, hehe)(You will be given points based on the story you write!) - Make sure your story is suitable for all ages or your entry will be disqualified.
- After the story, share a cool fact you read! Mention the source too! (OPTIONAL)
- This competition ends on 20th December 2021, winners will be announced on 1st January 2022.
- Nominate some regular commenters of your blog to show them how much it means! Also nominate your friends! The questions are fixed, so you don’t need to make new ones!
Let’s get started!
Betty, I dub thee…
… Batty Penderwick. I mean, Betty’s pretty close to Batty, and I just love spreading love for the Penderwicks, okay? 🥰 They might just be the best fictional family ever created, so you should totally read about them!
The Questions
1. Do you like to read? Which book made you like reading?
No, I don’t. I have a book blog because I hate reading so much and want to complain about it to other people.
What sort of question is this?? OF COURSE I LIKE READING, GUYS!! And as far as I can recall, I’ve always liked it. There is no particular book that got me into reading; I’ve always been an antisocial weirdo who loves burying herself in books.
If you don’t believe me, here is an excerpt from one of our family photo albums as proof. Granted, I might not have fully understood that books were for reading and not eating back then, and my physicist parents had some very strange ideas about what counted as suitable reading material for a six-month-old, but hey, it’s the thought that counts! 🤷♀️
2. Which book are you currently reading?
I’m currently reading two.
The first one is The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin, the second book in the Broken Earth trilogy. It’s so much fun being back in this weird sci-fi/fantasy world, and although I still barely know what is going on, I am thoroughly enjoying myself!
The other is Les six compagnons de la Croix-Rousse by Paul-Jacques Bonzon, which is the first book in a French children’s mystery series. Pauline over at Pow’s Book Nook mentioned she had really loved these as a child, so I thought they might be perfect for practicing my dwindling French skills 😄
3. Which book would you recommend to non-booklovers?
That thoroughly depends on the non-booklover in question. Reading is so subjective! If you don’t like reading, you probably just haven’t found the book that is the right fit for you yet, so I’d recommend choosing something that relates to interests you have.
Like, when I was studying abroad in Virginia, I tutored this second-grader through a library program, and the book that finally managed to spark his interest in reading was this one:
I didn’t think it was particularly enthralling, but he loved dinosaurs and legos, so it was the perfect fit for him!
4. Which book character describes you best?
There’s some interesting local history of witchcraft here, too. I’ve rewritten my whole History of Magic essay to include some of the things I’ve found out. I hope it’s not too long – it’s two rolls of parchment more than Professor Binns asked for.
– Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban –
I don’t know. Like any basic book nerd and overachieving student, I relate a lot to Hermione Granger – and also Minerva McGonagall – from Harry Potter. Skye Penderwick (The Penderwicks) and Lex Riggs (The Last Time We Say Goodbye) share my obsession with passion for math. Cath Avery (Fangirl) is very much like me when I’m forced into unknown social situations, though I usually do a better job of hiding my terror than she does.
Basically, I’m the weird nerdy character whose only chance of survival would be to live in a contemporary story. Put me in a dystopian fantasy world and I’m dead, because I literally have no survival or athletic skills whatsoever.
5. Which kind of book do you hate a lot and why? (Please don’t spread hate!)
Of course I’m going to spread hate here, Betty, what did you think I was going to do? You can’t ask this type of question and expect me not to rant 😈😇
**cackles evilly**
First of all, I think my most hated type of book ever is the sequel/spin-off that was written simply for monetary gain and tries its best to destroy everything that was introduced in the original story. I’m not going to name any names here, but the most prominent example has a yellow cover and its title ends in the words Cursed Child 😤
Then, I really hate those racist classics with heavily convoluted writing that somehow make it into the required reading canon year after year, even though all they manage to accomplish is destroying entire generations’ love for literature. You know, those books that old white men love to defend on Goodreads, saying that anyone who doesn’t appreciate them just doesn’t understand them. I understand enough to know that books like Heart of Darkness and The Cosmic Race are utter garbage, thank you very much!
And finally, I hate books that focus so much on action or “romance” that they completely forget about developing their characters. I am not going to care about all that warfare and betrayal and smut if I don’t get any of the characters’ thoughts on what is going on in their lives! And there is nothing that will infuriate me more than bland cardboard cutout characters that are annoyingly perfect, never tell anyone their plans, and are apparently desired by every single creature in the universe! **cough** Aelin **cough** Darrow **cough**
My Five-Line Masterpiece (which totally is a masterpiece, just so you know)
It was December, and David watched a thin sheet of snow creep across the windowsill until his breath fogged the glass so much that it was hard to see anymore. The telephone had been silent for the past hour – David wasn’t completely sure how much time an hour was, but that’s how long Matteo said it had been – and when it finally rang, David jerked back so hard that his nose drew a long squiggly line against the pane.
Their dad picked up the receiver, hmming and nodding for so long that David’s hand was starting to grow numb from how tightly Matteo was gripping it.
“Mom’s gonna be okay,” their dad whispered, tears in his eyes.
Matteo started to cry.
#Totally not me using super long sentences to max out on the five line thing 😁
A Cool Fact
In a regular German sentence that does not stress any of the information it contains, the dative object always precedes the accusative object if the accusative object is a noun. If the accusative object is a pronoun, however, the order of the objects must be reversed. For example:
Er gab dem Mädchen das Buch.
= He gave the book to the girl.
Literally: He (nominative case) gave the girl (dative case) the book (accusative case).
Er gab es dem Mädchen.
= He gave it to the girl.
Literally: He (nominative case) gave it (accusative case) the girl (dative case).
Isn’t that fascinating? 🤗 I learnt about it while reading a book on German-English grammar contrasts that provide the most difficulty for foreign language learners while I was studying for my exams last summer, and my mind was blown. I’ve been applying this rule subconsciously my whole life and never even knew it existed! 🤯
Does your native language do anything similar? I am so curious!
Also, I’m very sorry to anyone out there trying to learn German 😂
My Nominees
I nominate any one of you reading this who wants to embrace the challenge of completing this contest within less than 24 hours 😅
I know, I’m a terrible procrastinator for failing to post my own version in a timely manner 🙈
But I hope you’ll forgive me, considering my awesome answers 🙃
Anyway, that was it for today! I hope you enjoyed my take on these questions, and let me know how you would have answered them down below 😊 I’m particularly interested in any cool facts you might know!
A Book Owl's Corner 
Nice story Naemi! 💖🙂
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Thanks, Srishti! 💙 I’m glad you liked it!
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🤗
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Aaah, I loved reading your answers so much!! CURSED CHILD, YES! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH JOY IT GAVE MY EVIL HEART READING ALL THAT YOU SAID ABOUT IT MWUHAHAHAHA
Nice story, Naemi, I LOVED THIS POST!
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Thanks, Anoushka! Ahhhh, it always makes my evil heart so happy to see other people hating on Cursed Child as well! 😈😂🙂 Seriously, that book is awfulness personfied, and I just don’t understand how any Harry Potter fan could NOT hate it!! 😤
And I’m glad you liked the story 💙
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You really took full advantage of those five lines 😂 But great story!
I’m glad you’re enjoying The Obelisk Gate 😊 It was probably my least favorite in the trilogy but since you liked the first one so much, I don’t see why you wouldn’t love this as well.
I also didn’t know that specific German rule but I tell myself I would follow it anyway. I mean, I know you love to move words to the end of the sentence so that’s often my go-to solution, but I also think “Er gab dem Mädchen es” sounds a bit wrong. But would it then be correct if ‘es’ was stressed?
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Let’s just say I didn’t select that Hermione quote randomly 😁 In school, word count restrictions were always the bane of my existence, so fitting that story into five lines almost killed me!
And from what I’ve read so far, I actually also like The Fifth Season a lot more – but I’m still really enjoying The Obelisk Gate because it sounds like I’m finally about to get answers! I need to know whether or not all of my weird moon theories are correct!
As to the German, you are now seriously making me question my native speaker skills, because even though it sounds logical that you should be able to move the “es” to the end of the sentence if you wanted to stress it, I just can’t think of a single instance where anyone would say that 😅 Maybe the problem is that as soon as you stress it, you would use a stronger pronoun as well? You can definitely say “Er gab dem Mädchen das” if you want to stress the object that was given… However, now that I think about it, it is sometimes possible to reverse the order of dative and accusative pronouns in answers to questions whose subject you want to stress. Like: “Wer gab dem Mädchen das Buch?” – “Er (stressed) gab ihr es.” The more natural world order would still be “Er gab es ihr”, but that is literally the only case I can currently think of where the other pronoun order doesn’t sound completely unnatural. And I also have a suspicion that this might only work when both objects are pronouns… Maybe as soon as the accusative one is a real noun, it’s automatically so stressed that it has to go in the back?? I honestly have no clue what the rule is, so I am for sure going to go on a googling spree now 😂
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It’s really difficult to know the rules of your own language because you just don’t use them 😂
I’m trying to compare with Danish because the word order can be pretty similar, and as far as I can tell, both words (buch and es) can be placed both in the middle (although you add “to”) and at the end and it doesn’t make a difference. Nothing is stressed necessarily. But then you mention “das” as an alternative which made me realize that the Danish words for “es” and “das” are the same so of course that allows me to place that word wherever I want basically. The same with the question example you mention, it’s doesn’t matter where I place it. But I’d love to know what you come up with in your googling 😄
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My googling actually only made me more confused 🤣 Apparently, the rule is this:
1) If both objects are nouns, the dative object generally comes before the accusative object. It is also possible to move the accusative object before the dative object if you want to stress one of the two (which depends on intonation), as long as the accusative object has a definite article (den/die/das). If the accusative object has an indefinite article (einen/eine/ein) the word order is fixed.
2) If one of the objects is a personal pronoun and the other a noun, the pronoun always has to come first. If the object is some other type of pronoun (like a demonstrative one, as in the example with “das”) this rule does not apply and the word order is variable, depending on what you want to stress.
3) If both objects are pronouns, the accusative pronoun must precede the dative pronoun. (At least according to the grammar rules I found. I am sure this is not necessarily the case after questions, but I was unable to find anything on that…)
Either way, I am absolutely horrified by how complicated the rule is and am so glad I don’t have to learn it 🤣 Though it’s really interesting hearing how things are in Danish – especially that you only have one word for “es/das”. I suppose “das” is kind of interesting now that I think about it, somewhere between English “it”/”es” and “that”/”dieses” 🤔 But then again, there’s nothing like other languages to make you question your own. I’ve been dabbling in Swedish Duolingo a little, and often, when translating from English, I’ll get the word order wrong, start complaining how utterly illogically Swedish does it, and then realize it has the exact same completely logical order we also use in German 😁
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Is there a competition for the world’s hardest language that German is determined to win? HOW is one supposed to remember all that when speaking?? 😰
It was actually through Duolingo that I noticed how similar the word order is in our languages because learning German through English has definitely also messed with me a few times 😄
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I’d say just go with your gut feeling and ignore the rule – chances are whatever you want to say is an exception anyway 😂
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oh my god, I hate reading too! What a waste of time right? ( writing those words physically hurt my soul) and ah you remind me a lot of Hermione and McGonagall 😂😂 Cursed Child was just completely a money grab 😕 Great post, I loved your story too!!
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I’m sure the whole bookish community agrees on reading being truly awful 🙂(And yes, writing that crushed my poor soul as well, so I feel you!)
But you saying that I remind you of Hermione and Professor McGonagall is honestly the best compliment ever! 💙 I’m not sure I could ever be as awesome as either of them, but it’s nice to think that I could get at least somewhat close 😊
And of course, I’m absolutely thrilled to see so much Cursed Child hatred in these comments 😂
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I hope you enjoy Les Six Compagnons!
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So far, I’m really liking it! And, more importantly, understanding it 🤣 It has just the right language level for me, so it really was the perfect recommendation! 😊
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That story was so deep 🤩.
The comment about the cursed child 🤣.
That German fact tho 🙂👍🏻.
Made so much sense, it did! 😃😃😃😃🙂
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I’m glad you think it’s deep, rather than hurriedly written down in about five minutes because I realized only had a day left to write this post in time 😉😂
Also, I never told you the complete title of the book, so I wasn’t spreading hate at all. Most definitely not 😇
And that German fact was super interesting! 🤗 I’m glad you appreciated it 😜
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The story was great, when I did the creative writing course and had to only do a few sentences, I too dragged them out and made very long sentences to be able to get the story done haha it’s the best way!
The Cursed Child comment though! That was amazing, I loved it haha
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That truly is the best tactic! 🤣 How are you supposed to write a good story in only five lines? Unfortunately, though, when I had to write stuff for classes, they usually gave us word count limits rather than line limits, so the long sentences didn’t really help me much 😪
Also, obviously, I’m thrilled my Cursed Child hatred is being appreciated 😁
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It was rare to get a line one most were word limits which was so hard because it was such a little word count allowed 😭
It’s great! It’s a lot of fun 😂
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Oh dear lord that story was loooong for a five line one! But it was nice!
And why do you even run a book blog? I mean, it’s such a complete waste of time- who should read when you can just watch the movie? (I cannot believe I just wrote these words out- curse me)
And cursed child was 🤮
Lovely post Naemi!
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If the limit is five lines, you have to make those five lines long 😁
But ahhhh, you wouldn’t believe how many people have actually said those exact words to me and meant them! 😭 How could anyone ever think watching the movie could replace reading the book??! 😳
Also, thank you for agreeing, Cursed Child was definitely 🤮 Or 💩 Or even worse…
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Of course of course!
How outrageous!
Yep true.
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I can’t believe I was forced to learn about grammar whilst reading this post but admittedly it was a cool fact.
Also the books you hate are very valid!
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I’m always happy to educate my followers 😁 Though I’m glad you appreciate the coolness of that fact as well as all of the books I hate! 🤣
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