Getting to Know Me – A Canadian, Korean-drama-loving, Introverted Bibliophile

As soon as I heard about this blog hop, I knew I had to sign up. This blog hop was hosted by the lovely ladies at Cuddlebuggery!

I’m very new to the book blogger community, and I’ve spent the past few months getting to know some of my favorite authors – which has been equal parts amazing and hilarious (I had no idea about Lauren DeStefano and her cats) – but now I want you guys to get to know me!

Basics facts about me: I’m in my undergraduate year of university, studying a double major in English and Criminology; I’m a proud Canadian (who literally says ‘eh’ once every four to eight sentences); I love love love costume dramas (Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell have my favourite adaptations), and you’ll often find me yelling at a Korean drama (they’re seriously awesome).

I’ve loved books since I was a kid and I found out you could check out FIFTY books at a time from the library. Of course my eight-year-old self couldn’t read that many books before the return date (I had a strictly enforced bedtime), but just the idea of it and carrying stacks of books blew my mind. My favourite book is Flowers in the Attic by V.C Andrews. This book was tragic and creepy and just downright fantastic, I tell my friends to read it and then slip it under their pillows when they refuse (just kidding, mostly). This book though kept me reading when I was younger, and it’s more than likely the reason I still love to read and write. I find myself coming back to it again and again.

Personality-wise, I’m a very introverted person, and this is something that really hard for me sometimes. It’s hard for me to make friends because I worry about what to say, smiling, not being creepy, not seeming uninterested, and all this translates into me not really talking much to strangers. I don’t like being around crowds of people where I’m expected to interact with many of them – crowds where I can be anonymous are awesome. I have this oxymoron feeling about my introversion – like I’ll be sitting on a bus, and as it fills up I’ll want people to sit beside me (like yay, you chose me!), but simultaneously, I don’t want to sit beside people because I worry about having to converse, the volume of my music, brushing against their arm, so on and so on.

I’m pretty okay with my introversion, but it does get to me at times when people treat it with disdain, or when my mom tells me I used to be such a vibrant person. Don’t get me wrong – I talk a lot and I love to laugh, just with people I’m comfortable with. I like to get a feel for a person before approaching them, but these days, where friendships form in a snap, I get left behind a lot. Thankfully, I have four roommates (three of which share my brand of introversion), and we spend a lot of time together drinking wine, groaning about schoolwork and yelling at our Korean dramas.

I often like to spend time alone, but the blogging community has really opened me up and I’m so excited to meet the authors and bloggers who make it so darn interesting. It’s like a whole new world.

Now for the fun part: giveaway!

I’m giving away two books that I read this year: my arc copy of Falling into Place by Amy Zhang and The Only Thing to Fear by Caroline Tung Richmond. Both are these are books I really enjoyed reading, and I was lucky enough to get two copies of both! Unfortunately, this giveaway is only open to Canadian residents (sorry!). 

 Click to enter: a Rafflecopter giveaway

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