Get To Know Me post: some favorite TV shows & the future of this feature

Hey guys :)

Since Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer had to cut back on blogging a bit and will only be doing the Know Me Better meme sporadically, I've decided that I will do my own version for the time being. To be honest, I've been planning a different Sunday feature for months now but I never seem to get around to the bits like making a banner (bad photo skills, terrified of copyright issues) and writing an intro post. And just now with having to move and all that (just yesterday my dad & sister carted three big boxes of books and CDs and DVDs out of my room to store at the family house... it felt like defeat, like there's no way I'll find a new apartment in time) I'm just not in the right frame of mind to write a topic about something I'm as passionate about as I am about the content of that feature and make it good.

So instead, the awesome Micheline from Lunar Rainbows had the idea that I could do a post or series of posts about favorite stuff. And well... since I talk about books alll the time on here and because many favorite lists like book boyfriends or whatnot can be found among my Top Ten Tuesday posts, I'd like to branch out a bit to other things in life. I guess it will mostly be nerdery like TV shows or movies or bands but maybe I could also do photo posts of cities / countries I've been to or would like to go to one day. You guys seemed to like that post about Barcelona I did in late January. I'd try to keep them a bit bookish too, if possible (I love visiting foreign book stores).
If there's any topic you'd like me to talk about or questions you'd like me to answer or whatever, just tell me in the comments or send me a tweet :)

So... for today  I think I'll talk a bit about favorite TV shows. Why? Because last night and this morning I finally started catching up on the new season of Game of Thrones. And I realized that 1) damn do I love this show and 2) damn who was that guy again and what did he do? Yeah... loads of characters. And I like to keep track of even the minor ones so I don't miss all the underlying complications and implied threats etc. But honestly I think the series is fantastic. The intro alone is epic. So many strong women characters! You have admire even the evil ones...

I don't own this image. I just thought Arya looked fab.

And of course the setting and the clothes are so realistic! And the dialogue. Not to forget the cinematic aspects of how it's all made, the angles from which they film, the switching from one setting point to another... my sister could tell you more about that, she studies film. But even I notice stuff like that because we discussed it in my English classes (film adaptations of novels) and I always appreciate great storytelling, no matter whether it's a book or film or music or just someone sitting there and really telling you the story.
Since we're talking favorites: hard to pick here, but I think Arya, John Snow, and Daenerys Targaryen (mother of dragons!). I also like how Sansa evolved! And Tyrion sort of grew on me.

Again, I don't own.

Another HBO series I love is True Blood. I wasn't a huge fan of season 4, but season 5 was a lot better again. And nope, I don't just watch it for the blood and gore and sex. I think they negotiate a lot of issues in that series that are interesting from a theoretic/critical point of view. I actually wrote a paper about season 1 once using Julia Kristeva's idea of the abject, the semiotic, the symbolic, boundary transgression etc. Can't go into too much detail here. And of course again, the way the series is made is great! I also like how it veered away from the books and is doing its own thing. And well... there's Eric ^^' I hated him at the beginning. I truly did. Then I started hating Bill and appreciating Eric. And... now I'll shut up and re-watch some favorite scenes :P

This post is getting rather long... another series I love is Vampire Diaries, but DO NOT TELL ME ABOUT IT because I'm awfully behind and I don't want to hear about any spoilers!! Why I love it: great characters, great acting, Damon Salvatore, and they cram stuff that would take other shows a season to sort out into one episode. Also, it's hard to say who's really the bad guy.

I'd love to watch a lot more series but it takes so much time and I can never stay caught up. I haven't seen any Bones past season 5, even though I love the show. I haven't started American Horror Story, or Misfits, or Revenge, or watched more of Supernatural (yet to start season 3) or 2 Broke Girls (my sister made me watch a few episodes and we laughed our asses off together). I try to watch Grimm on Mondays when it's on German TV.

Find this pic here. And read the manga, it's gorgeous :)

I also used to watch a lot of Anime, but again I'm behind. In the case of Bleach, I'm behind more than a year. Some animes I've seen all episodes of and love are Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler <333), Vampire Knight, Wolf's Rain, Death Note (watched nearly all... in 2009. But I bought all the mangas). I also liked D. Gray Man and Hellsing (only the OVAs, not the 12 or so episode version). I watched a lot more anime but I don't remember all of them at the moment. When I was a kid I loved Sailor Moon, Pokémon (until they kept inventing too many new ones that were less awesome), Digimon (up to the end of season 3), Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, Mila Superstar (you know, that volley ball playing girl), and a really old show from the 90s that would translate to Planet of the Dinosaurs. It was about a bunch of kids from the marine club of their school getting into a storm with their ship and being spirited away to a medieval-ish world where humans co-existed with dinosaurs.



Sorry for another terribly long post... can't believe I confessed to all the anime :P
Do we have any beloved series in common? Did I list any you hate? Let's battle it out discuss ;)
Also, if you have ideas for future topics in this feature, let me know! Same if you're also doing something Know Me Better-ish on your blog! Leave a link, I'd love to check it out :)

"Know Me Better"-meme: let's give this a try...

Hey guys! I've been thinking about making a post about who I am / what I do apart from blogging for a while, but I've always been reluctant because... I don't know, what if no one cares? What if I make a post saying 'ask me questions and I'll pick some to answer' and I get zero comments... it'd be embarrassing. Also, I want the focus of this blog to be books and not me.

On the other hand, I feel like I haven't connected to the rest of the community to the extent that I'd like to, and maybe sharing a little might help with that and start a conversation.

So I've decided to occasionally take part in the new meme Kathy from I Am A Reader Not A Writer created where bloggers can answer 5 questions she usually asks in her author interviews.

Today's questions are:

10 words that describe yourself?
Favorite TV Shows?
If you could take over the world, would you?
Who was the first boy you kissed?
How do you unwind?

10 words that describe yourself?
Hm... I guess I'm made of contradictions, so: book-crazy, sarcastic, kind, fearful, non-judgemental, lazy, busy, loyal, distant, brainy. Not sure this really captures the core of my personality but yeah...

Favorite TV Shows?
This changes a bit depending what's on, but: Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Game of Thrones, Supernatural (only seen the first two seasons so far), Criminal Minds, Bones (seen up to season 5)... I think I'm forgetting some. I've been meaning to get into Carnivale, Revenge, American Horror Story, Downtown Abby, but there's no time.
There was also a time when I watched lots of anime. I really like Vampire Knight, Kuroshitsuji, Death Note, Bleach (not the fillers), 07 Ghost, the Hellsing OVAs, Wolf's Rain, and probably lots more that slip my mind right now. When I was a kid I was a huge Pokémon fan, but then they started making too many...
If you have suggestions for what I could watch to get into anime again, bring them on ;)

If you could take over the world, would you?
Haha, no way XD I have no interest in ordering others around, I'm lazy and disorganized, I don't like being the one in power (I'm not a mindless follower either. I'd be the right hand woman or something). I also don't want to spend my life expecting to be stabbed in the back. Nor do I think I know what's right for other people/the world. To each their own.

Who was the first boy you kissed?
My first boyfriend, about a week after I turned 17. He lived 2.5 hours away and I was spending some days with him at his family's house over the winter holidays because usually we could only see each other every second weekend. I think it was even on the eve of Valentine's Day! We'd just finished watching The Crow, the credits were rolling, and it was really late and we were lying on his bed staring at the screen. I was so nervous I didn't really get to enjoy it all that much and it was sort of... less... than I had hoped.

How do you unwind?
I'm a very boring person. I don't really go out much, also because I can never do it on Fridays because I have to get up at 7 a.m. Saturday morning to go to work (I tutor groups of kids on Saturdays for an organization, and I have a different job in addition to my English Lit studies during the week).
So I basically just read a lot, hang around on the internet, maybe watch TV (rare), go for coffee with my writing, a book, or a friend, sometimes visit my family, listen to music and go to concerts (I love metalcore and... you know... other genres where bands scream at you, you get awesome guitar solos, and people mosh instead of girly-scream at the lead singer).


This all came out a little more rambly than I had thought ^^'' Dunno what you guys think of it, but feel free to tell me. Is this what you expected of me, or were there some surprises? Anything we have in common? Also, if you made a post for this meme feel free to leave a link :)