The wonderful NicoleLynn @ PopCrunchBoom!Books nominated me for the Liebster award and I'm so happy and thankful! I was nominated in March and I'm so slow at getting these things done, but... I did it!
If you haven't yet, go take a look at her blog!
The purpose of the Liebster award is to highlight new blogs you follow and love.

Here are the rules:

1. Acknowledge the blog that nominated you and display the award in your blog post.
2. Answer 11 questions from the blog that nominated you.
3. Give 11 random facts about yourself.
4. Nominate 5-11 blogs you think are deserving of the award. The blogs must have less than 200 followers.
5. Let the blogs know that you have nominated them.
6. Give the blogs you nominated 11 questions to answer.

My answers to Nicole's questions:

1. What is your fondest childhood memory of reading?
   Getting the final three books of Darren Shan for Christmas, and basically ignoring everyone for the rest of the day because those books were too awesome!
2. What are your favorite things to do outside of blogging?
   I sing all the time! I love musicals. And I play the guitar.  I've recently gotten back to song-writing - so that's a few things :) 
3. Why did you start blogging and why this blog?
   I've always loved talking books with people but sometimes that's really hard to accomplish IRL. And also, I don't really like being stuck in social situations for long periods of time... So I guess blogging provides a nice balance of social/solitary existence?
4. What place would you most like to read about in a book? (as in setting within a book)
   Ancient Rome? Ancient anything, really. I'm technically an archaeology student, and my department has so many people interested in the Romans, and Romano-British archaeology, so I think reading about those kind of areas and periods of time is pretty interesting.
5. Library, purchase or both?
   Preferably both..? I love love love owning books. It's such a nice feeling. But if a book I want to read is horror/suspense I probably won't want to reread it so I tend to go the library instead.
6. Do you have an instant-buy author?
   David Mitchell. Every word he has ever written is basically magic. Also Patrick Rothfuss. Jenny Lawson - the Bloggess - she's hilarious! Umm. And right now, I think I'd like to add V.E. Schwab to the list as well.
7. What are some of your favorite blogs?
   Alexa Loves Books. She's such a sweetheart and she has good taste in fandoms.
   The Novel Hermit. Cee is awesome and supports all my stupid decisions so naturally her blog is one of my faves.
   Paper Fury! I love all of Cait's discussion posts so much. Also, she loves dragons..
8. Name something on your bucketlist or a goal you have.
   To get a PhD, maybe? I thought I wanted to do one straight after my master's but now I really want a break from all the research. But in a year or two I might reconsider - because Doctor Annika sounds good, right?
9. Have you thought about vlogging as well as blogging?
   I have! Idly. Sadly, I'm slightly frightened of cameras and being caught on film, so probably never going to happen ;)
10. Name a must-have song on your playlist.
    Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy. Also everything from Hamilton.
11. Who’s your biggest inspiration and why?
    Can I say my mum? Because she's just the sweetest, most caring, most wonderful person in the world <3 (Just don't tell her I said that.)

11 random facts about me:

1. I like bad puns but I'm usually too shy to use them in real life.
2. I dig archaeology (see what I did there?)
3. I always have a bottle of wine at home.
4. My godson just turned 9. He's almost as tall as I am!
5. I pretend like I'm really tough, but seriously: I cry at the drop of a hat.
6. My BFF is awesome, so I'm awesome by association.
7. I'm so bad at adulting that I would probably eat chocolate or ice cream for dinner if I didn't live in a flat with other people. [Thank you for judging me, flatmates! You're keeping me healthy(ish)!]
8. I don't like drinking water.
9. I'm pale, abhor sunlight, and don't like having my photo taken = basically a vampire. I promise I don't sparkle.
10. It really bothers me when people are typing on their phones during lectures! Can you not put down your phone for one hour? Seriously. I have a friend who does this and it makes me so mad. Like so mad I want to punch something (someone.)
11. I kind of hide the amount of books I buy from my mum and anyone who might judge. I feel like they would worry ;) [this may be why this blog is called Hiding Books...?]

My nominations go to:

• Katelynn and Kassandra @ Books & Bottles
• Ezrah @ I Heart Romance & YA
• Geraldine @ Corralling Books 
• Lucie @ Tea, Books & Fun
• Kristen @ Metaphors and Moonlight
• Bryce @ novelstosong
• Tanya and Gina @ T & G Book Boutique
• Molly @ Molly's Book Nook

I tried to look up your follower counts, but obviously that's tricky in some cases what with email subscriptions and everything. But you are all awesome so if you fancy it, do the tag!

And finally, here are my questions for the nominees:

1. Do you have any nicknames? If you do, where did it come from?
2. What is the best thing about blogging? Is there anything you dislike about it?
3. Name a favourite book from your childhood.
4. What is your favourite genre to read?
5. Do you have any amazing quotes from books you'd like to share?
6. What is the best book that you've read in 2016 so far?
7. Hardback or paperback? Why?
8. Favourite snack to have while reading? (this is obviously the most important question of all)
9. What hobbies do you have apart from blogging?
10. How do you arrange your bookshelf? By title? By colour? By the third letter of the author's first name?
11. If you could live anywhere you wanted, where would it be?

Thanks for wading through all my weirdness! If you're up for it, tell me a random fact about you! Or answer some of the questions from this post in the comments!

Hello lovelies! Two really lovely book bloggers, Molly @ Molly's Book Nook and Geraldine @ Corralling Books did this tag (really, go check out their posts, they're awesome!) and basically I'm pretending that they both tagged me although they didn't. Let's all pretend, please.
[edit: the wonderful Marie @ Drizzle & Hurricane Books did actually tag me for this! {yes, for realsies! I didn't even resort to blackmail or anything}]

VITAL STATS

Name: Annika

Nicknames: Mostly ridiculous ones friends come up with when I complain I don't have a nickname. Grannika is one of my favourites. I made a reference to Titus Andromedon yesterday and my BFF ran away with it. Titika and Annikus were what she came up with, but then we figured Annikomedon makes me sound like a komodo dragon. So anyway. Crazy nicknames? Check.

Birthday: 31 July! 

Star Sign: The lion one, you know, Leo.

Occupation: Master's student. Does that count? No? I'm never going to do anything useful with my life? NOOO

APPEARANCE:

Hair colour: Ginger. Proud of it. (we do have souls!)

Hair length: Short-ish? Like a lob? A long bob? You know what I mean? I hope you do because I really don't.

Eye colour: Blue

Best Feature: You're asking me? Ask someone else, anyone else.

Braces: Nope. I was so afraid of the dentist when I was little that I probably would've died.

Piercings: Ears.

Tattoos: I do have one, actually! It's tiny though. I took it when I was in Romania for a summer.

Right or Left: Right! Actually, left too. For playing chords on the guitar. Let's pretend I'm ambidextrous.

FIRSTS

Best Friend: Elisa! We met at uni. Singing Broken hearted hoover fixer sucker guy in the library > instant friendship. (okay, I was 20 by that point, but it counts as a first!)

Award: I feel like I've never received any? WAIT NO - I once *almost* won the alcoholic of the year award. I was the runner up, and it's an awesome award, so does that count?

Sport: Hahahaha no.

Real Holiday: Like a beach and summer kind of holiday? Probably Croatia a few years back. We took a coach and it took over 24 hours to get there. We drove through France, Switzerland, Italy, and Slovenia to get there, and the first time we were asked for passports was when we entered Croatia. Insane, right?!

Concert: Umm. I haven't been to any big ones. Mainly just little gigs in pubs. I last went to see Amber Run in Nottingham and they were amazing!

FAVOURITES

Film: Walking on Sunshine. It's the worst musical ever. It's so bad it's good.

TV Show: Once Upon A Time, Castle, Doctor Who, IT Crowd... I could keep going.

Colour: Blue, Green, Purple... All colours?

Song: Well, at the moment, I keep singing/rapping Satisfied from Hamilton (seriously, I'm so obsessed, and I swear, I know the entire rap part of it word for word).

Restaurant: Slug & Lettuce. Also there's a lovely place called Mexigo where I used to live and I miss the burrito bowls so much!

Books: the good kind...? Pride & Prejudice? The Name of the Wind? any David Mitchell book? At the moment I'm also in love with When We Collided. Should I carry on?

Shoes: Boots. Preferably black.

CURRENTLY

Feeling: Confused. WHO AM I?!

Single or Taken: Single. And happy, and no I don't want to go out with your friend ;)

Eating: I have tea? Does that count?

Thinking About: I'm drawing a blank here. I'm not thinking? Oh, no, I know! Dragons.

Watching: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. I'm almost to the end of season 2 now!

Wearing: Leggings and my Hangover Hoodie. It's my uniform, *and* my pyjamas.

FUTURE:

Want Children: I have two younger sisters that I looked after when I was growing up, so I'm kind of ambivalent for now.

Want to be Married: If someone comes along, sure. Why not?

Careers in Mind: I'm a grad student. Please don't.

Where You Want To Live: I guess, somewhere new? Maybe Scotland? Or maybe move back south? I have no idea, but I need to move somewhere in September when my lease runs out. Exciting times.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN…

God: Nope, kind of grew up atheist.

Miracles: Sure. The non-magical kind.

Love at First Sight: Not really, no.

Ghosts: Eeehh.

Aliens: As in life somewhere out there? Yeah, I think that's kind of likely.

Soul Mates: Maybe? I'd have to find proof.

Heaven: I guess not? I'd actually hate to think of anything eternal.

Hell: Same as above.

Kissing on the First Date: Why not? If you want to go for it. I know I have. So I won't judge!

Yourself: I try!

Those were some tricky questions!

And okay, so I answered with a lot of maybes and question marks. Oops.
Well, that's me.
I would like to tag all of you - can I do that? If you're up for it, do the tag and then let me know so I can get to know you better, too!

If you made it all the way through that massive post - wow! Look at you! You're pretty awesome. I'm sending you a virtual hug right now! Do we have anything in common? I would love to know!

This is my first post that is part of the Get Up Offa That Slump Blogging Extravaganza (don't you just love that name?!) hosted by Rachel @  Beauty and the Bookshelf. It starts today (Wednesday 9th March) and runs for the next three weeks, until the end of the month. You can take part on your blog, instagram, booktube - it's up to you.

Check the details on the introductory post and get involved!

If you don't feel like you can cope with insanity today, you may want to skip this post ;) It's okay - I'll love you anyway.

[Me]: I feel ridiculous asking you questions I know the answers to.

[Me]: You are ridiculous. But do you know the answers? I might surprise you.