#and i also remember reading henry and mudge a lot

[augustinapril]

thinking about the books I read as a kid is simultaneously wonderful but also so painful

[confetti-cat]

Hi hi! I've never played an ask game before; is there a limit to the number of asks you can send? I'd like to know these: 10, 15, 16, 20, 21. Thank you!

Hello and welcome! I'm honored to be a part of your first ask game! Nope, I've never heard that there's a limit—Tumblr etiquette would suggest that anywhere from 1-6 is a good range so the post doesn't get too long, but that's totally up to the asker. Thanks for sending! 💖

10. name a song with impeccable vibes.

I already used My Love Has Gone Across the Sea for my recommended instrumental track, but I love it a lot and will use it here too. It has some awesome fantasy/"love creates joy amidst sadness" vibes that I think are really cool. Another one—that I'm thinking of after answering the last set of asks—that has absolutely fantastic vibes is the Mithril Disco Phial music from LEGO Lord of the Rings. It's the music that plays when you use the mithril disco phial, the best video game item ever created. It makes everyone around your character dance so hard they can't attack you. 10/10, super great.

15. tell me about a childhood memory you’ll never forget.

When I was younger, my family traveled to Central America and was considering moving there. (We didn't end up doing so, but it was a very cool experience!) While we were there, we visited a small zoo. The regulations for having a zoo there seemed less stringent than they are here in the US—i.e., most of the animals were just in enclosures with one layer of regular wire fence. I saw a tapir browsing for leaves near the front of its pen, so I walked over, crouched down, and held out my hand to see if it would sniff it through the fence. It actually walked up to me, put its huge tapir elephant nose through the fence, and licked my hand a few times. I thought that was so cool.

16. what is the first “big kid book” aka chapter book, that you remember reading after learning how to read?

Answered previously! Another early one I remember was the Henry and Mudge books, about a boy and his mastiff. There was one about "a happy cat that was always purring, whose fur looked like mashed prunes" that stuck with me for how striking that imagery was. 😂

20. if you had to pick a country to live in outside of your own, which would it be?

I've always thought it would be super cool to live in Iceland or New Zealand—they're both beautiful places in environments I haven't experienced before. Pros of Iceland include: volcanoes, glaciers, and the possibility of riding an Icelandic horse at a tölt (a special gait) - pros of New Zealand includes general beautiful farmland, being slightly less rugged, and, of course, Hobbiton! (And at least two mutuals! As opposed to Iceland, which I don't think I know anyone from.) Also up there are Ireland or Israel. Travel has never been something I felt drawn to do much, but I'd like to visit those places at least for a while!

21. tell me about your pet(s)! (if you have one of course. can also be a past pet, or family pet.)

I have two sweet, fluffy Ragdoll cats, many assorted chickens, and a few dairy cows! I've always loved animals and enjoy living on a farm.

[brigitttt]

📚 for the book asks, how about 27 & 47? (bon voyage!)

ahh thank you lttrs! from this ask game:

27. What was the first book you remember reading as a kid?

Okay so I only remembered vibes (sprouts? dogs?) but thankfully my mum let me know the actual book series name: Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant. I thought it might have been one of my brother's books that he took home from school that I stole to read because I was 3 and a maniac, but apparently it was a gift from my grandmother. Young boy and his dog, admiring flowers in the yard, but the dog eats them instead, "causing great consternation". The lessons I learned from this book as a child is that if you pretend you are a dog illegally eating flowers then it's much more satisfying to eat your alfalfa and bean sprouts etc.

The other answer is probably something that started out being read to me until I grabbed the book and read aloud (instead of falling asleep): Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, a series from the 1930s about children's sailing adventures in the Lake District.

47. What are the last three books you read?

First is Thud! by Terry Pratchett; a re-read of a beloved story, so excellent as are all of his books. Particularly good for thinking about history, and who is telling it, and board games that connect us.

Second is Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton; of course I've seen the movie but I've never actually read the book before! And I really liked it! It has much more detail into the science and technology, such as it was at the time, than the movie ever goes into. And also a lot more people become dinosaur food.

Third is Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh; a classic murder mystery from 1945 Aotearoa/New Zealand about small-town personalities and also maybe wartime weapons secrets. This was an author (one of many) that my mum recommended, and I enjoyed it so much that I got another one of her books for my to-read pile. Apparently Marsh is very into the theatre, and it really comes out in some of her other books.