BOOK BLOGGER BLIND DATE | Featuring Beth from ReadingEveryNight!

Hi everyone, happy Tuesday!  Many moons ago, the lovely Jillian @ Rant And Rave About Books created a fun bookish meme where we were “set up” with another book blogger who had similar tastes and were in different countries (see original post here).  I was fortunate enough to get paired with the absolutely charming Beth from Reading Every Night.  Since she’s across the pond in England, we did have some time difference delays but it all worked out remarkably well!

Beth is a book blogger that I’ve admired for quite awhile.  She is such active, kind, and supportive member in this book blogging community.  In fact, several months ago I made a Blogger Appreciation post and she was one of the bloggers I had included and many people agreed with me in the comments.  She’s an absolute treasure and it was such a privilege and an amazing experience getting to know her.

We decided to play “Would You Rather“, which consisted of us going back and forth with multiple scenarios – both book and non book related.  She definitely made me laugh multiple times and cringe at some of her tough questions.  In my post, the focus is all on her answers.  So if you’d like to see how it went, read on!

(PS SORRY WEIRD FORMATTING GUYS, MY WORDPRESS IS EXPLODING, I’LL REVISE WHEN IT’S NOT)

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QUESTION 1:  Would you prefer an epic romance with your favorite fictional character or an epic adventure?  IF you choose a character, who?

Beth: Oh my god asking me to choose my favourite character! How to even begin?!

Well OK, it would definitely be the Rampion crew from The Lunar Chronicles, and if I had to choose only one it would be Carswell Thorne.

I’d definitely say epic adventure as well. Thorne has a spaceship and he’ll always have some kind of wild scheme up his sleeve so it would be so much fun to be part of one of those. I’d probably end up getting arrested or something when it all goes wrong but I’d hope Thorne would have some kind of escape plan in place! 😀

QUESTION 2: Would you rather read 100 extremely cringeworthy/tacky romance scenes in a row or 100 extremely sad scenes?  (A scene can be from a paragraph to an entire chapter).

Beth: This question really made me think, because if sad scenes are written well they can be really amazing to read, but I think 100 is a little too many, I’d just be a mess of tears by the end. So I’m gonna go with the tacky romance scenes, after all I am a romantic person at heart 🙂

QUESTION 3:  I feel like you’ve read Maria V Snyder’s Poison Study series, so choose which scenario you’d rather participate in:

You’re Yelena and Janco tells you he has started his own brewing company and wants you to try out several “tested” brews.  How do you think it’s go?  Do you trust him?  Remember, he could totally be pranking you and you could very well end up with a hairy chest or something.

OR

Celaena from (Throne of Glass series) just stormed back to her apartment, angry, and has decided to use you for knife throwing practice.  She’ll likely tie you up on one of those medieval spinning circle things and see how close she can get the knives to your body.  Oh, she’s also drunk. Oh, she also just had a big fight with Rowan.  

Beth: I have read the Poison Study series, it’s one of my favourites as well (I feel like I say that about a lot of books but in reality I do have a LOT of favourite series!)

I’d also definitely have to choose the Janco situation as well. As hairy as his potions may be hopefully they won’t kill me. And I wouldn’t want to cross Celaena on a good day, let alone one where she’s drunk, angry and pissed off at Ronan. I wouldn’t last five seconds against her. The way I see it I’ve got more chance surviving Janco than I have Celaena.

QUESTION 4: Non-book related: would you rather sponge bath an old man (who you didn’t know) or clean up horse poop in a stable.  

Beth: Definitely the horse poop (and there’a sentance I never though I’d say in my lifetime!) I used to ride horses when I was youjnger so I feel cleaning horse poop from the stables would be something I’d have had to do anyway if I’d have carried on. Plus I’m a bit wary of touching people I don’t know really well.

QUESTION 5: Would you rather find out magic is real (and you can use it!) or have a super power?

Beth: Definitely that magic was real. In my mind magic being real opens up so many more possiblities; are dragons real also, and all the fairytale creatures that you think of when you think magic, I don’t know byt that possibility would be there. Also there’s so much more you could do with magic than with a superpower. Peter Parker has the abilities of a spider but in comparison Harry Potter can do so much more.

QUESTION 6: Would you rather live somewhere you didn’t speak the language forever (but could visit anywhere) or be completely banned from being in the UK?

Beth:  Ohh, this is a tough one, but I think I’m gonna have to go with live somewhere you didn’t speak the language forever (but could visit anywhere). My love of travelling is too deep-set and I think there are definite ways around the language barrier I could work with. Plus my family could come and visit me so it’s not like I’d never see them by leaving the UK either. Win, win situation! 😀

QUESTION 7: Would you rather have an hour long talk with V Schwab or get free books by her for the rest of your life?

Beth: I’m gonna say an hour talk with V.E. Schwab. I think that would be amazing because I’d have so many questions I’d want to ask about her writing and her books; and, well, I’d still be able to buy her books wouldn’t I?

She’s actually going to be at YALC next weekend which I am going to, and she has a couple of panels which I am definitely going to go to so this question is pretty much a real life scenario! I’m going to go to an hours talk with V.E. Schwab and obviously I’m going to buy all her books for the rest of my life 😀

QUESTION 8: Would you rather bring back a character from “book death” or kill off your most hated character.  If you choose to bring someone back, who and why? (SPOILER WARNING: RAVEN CYCLE SERIES) 

Beth: I would definitely choose to bring a character back from the death, as to who there are so so many I would want to pick, so much death in YA fantasy/dystopian books, but I’d have to go with…

Fair warning; if you haven’t read The Raven Cycle series and plan to this will contain spoilers!!!

…Noah from The Raven Cycle series. His death was just so tragic and after being trapped in a loop as a ghost I think he’d really make the most of a second chance. He definitely deserves one, and deserves much more than he got in the book. There are two other characters; one from Cinder and one from Nevernight who would be my second and third picks if I got them 🙂

QUESTION 9: Would you rather enter a dark cave to slay a dragon or fight an evil witch who eats children. 🙂

Beth: Given that I’m not a child anymore I would definitely choose to fight a witch who eats children rather than the dragon in a dark cave. I feel I’d have a much better chance at survival that way!

QUESTION 10: Would you rather walk through the desert for two days without water or fly to Mars?

Beth: I’d be able to return if I flew to Mars right? Either way I think my answer has to be fly to Mars, my inner adventurer cannot be turned from biggest adventure of the two!

QUESTION 11: Would you rather live in an area where it only had daylight or in a place where it was only night?

Beth: I am a massive night owl so I’m going to have to say somewhere it’s always night. There’s just something about nighttime that so peaceful you know! Plus I always get too hot and uncomfortable in the summer so let’s get rid of that altogether! 😀

QUESTION 12: Would you rather never need sleep or never have to drink water? 😉

Beth: Never have to drink water. As you can probably tell I’m not a massive fan of water, I already don’t drink enough of it, and I don’t think there’s any way I would ever give up sleep!

QUESTION 13: Would you rather have 10 kids or 10 cats? 🙂

Beth: I don’t ever see myself having kids so I’m going to go with 10 cats. They’ve got to be easier to take care of, and I have a bad habit of killing even potted plants so cats would have a much better chance of surviving under my care.

QUESTION 14: (Since I’ve begun to read ADSOM by Schwab), would you rather: face Holland while he’s trying to extract information from you (that you don’t have, by the way) OR would you rather face the twins of the White Castle after disrespecting them and not bowing? (SEMI-SPOILERY)

Beth: I would have to go with facing Holland while he’s trying to extract information I don’t have. Granted Holland is a very scary person but the White Twins are even more terrifying. Also I’m 99% sure that what they did to the person who disrespected them in the book by not bowing (I think you must have gotten to that part at least) is way worse than anything Holland could do to me!

QUESTION 15: Would you rather read only reviews of popular books or only reviews of unknown arcs? 

Beth: I think only reviews of popular books. I tend to use my own opinions for unknown ARCs – based on the cover or the blurb – whether I’m going to enjoy or not but for popular books I like to read a variety of reviews, both good and bad, for popular books just because I feel I can sometimes get too blinded by the hype or the famous author if I don’t.

QUESTION 16: Would you rather have a retreat and meet all your blogger friends or keep the friendships strictly online?

Beth: I’d say I’d love to meet everyone in real life, as fun as it is talking to people online and through the comments on WordPress it can’t compare to sitting down with someone and having a real life, back-and-forth conversation you know.

LAST QUESTION: You’ve recently found out your favorite author has lost all of their senses (GOD FORBID) while they’re just starting to write the final book of an epic series that you and many others LOVE (muahahahahahaha).  

One night, you wake up hearing their thoughts in your head, asking you to help them finish the story.  As a twist, the only way you can finish the story is if you actually go INTO the fantasy world and live it as the MC.  The story will write itself into their magical journal as you go along the epic adventure (similar to Tom Riddle’s diary in HP2).

Would you rather get up and leave everything behind forever to complete this quest, or would you rather let the story never be published?

Beth: I feel like you left the hardest question for last as well! See the leave everything behind forever part has me a little stumped, as much as I love travelling I love coming back home again and seeing my family, plus there’s less chance of my dying at home as well. However I think when it comes down to it I’d have to say go into the fantasy world and finish the quest. Honestly I don’t think I’d be able to resist the adventure and, well, I’d hope that as the final book in whatever series I was going into I’d survive whatever the author dreamt up! Plus I wouldn’t be able to leave my favourite series unfinished either! 🙂

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Whew, That’s it everybody!  Isn’t she a doll?  I hope you thoroughly enjoyed reading Beth’s answers!  Be sure to send some love her way either on her blog or in the comments down below!