amberdreams: (Bum)
amberdreams ([personal profile] amberdreams) wrote2014-12-15 07:24 pm

December talking meme - 14th &15th Dec

Oops I missed a day again! So this is a twofer.

First yesterday's for matchboximpala - What stresses you out?


Stress is an odd concept - I usually think that I get more annoyed by things than 'stressed' as such, though there are certain things that I get really nervous about. So maybe I'll go with those. Giving presentations, or any kind of situation where I feel I have to perform in some way, these make me very nervous. I'll get all fluttery and sweaty and shaky, and stutter or babble a lot. I am absolutely awful at formal job interviews for this reason. When I'm in a state about it, I can't find the right words and I can't remember things, so I come across badly. That is the main one, I think - my bête noire.

And today's is for tifaching - Were you into scary books as a child? Any particular genre that was your favorite?

I never liked scary. Yeah yeah I know, what am I doing in this fandom then? Fortunately, I don't actually find SPN that scary, never did - there isn't enough suspense and build up for it to really frighten, as far as I'm concerned. I was, however, thoroughly terrified by the Black Riders in the first book of the Lord of the Rings when I first read it when I was eleven. I remember being so scared but having to keep reading (I was in bed reading by the landing light with my bedroom door open because I should have been sleeping). I just couldn't stop until the Hobbits were safe. Another book that scared the wits out of me was Alan Garner's Elidor - there's a sequence in it where one of the characters is in their bedroom and a damp patch or discolouration in the wallpaper starts to form into a figure from the other world, about to step through - wowser that was utterly chilling and had me avoiding staring at any weird patterns on walls for ages after.

My favourite genre. Mmm well, I started with fairy stories and moved to fantasies like Narnia and LOTR and the Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Then I started reading historical fiction thanks to a wonderful junior school teacher when I was nine - Rosemary Sutcliffe and Henry Treece were my favourites but I read plenty of others. Jean Plaidy, Anya Seton, Ronald Welch. When I wasn't reading historical or fantasy I'd be reading school stories. I did love the Chalet School books but wasn't keen on reading about girls so I moved to Frank Richards and Greyfriars because they had much better stories and hey, guess what? - hurt!heroes popped up fairly regularly.

Basically, as long as the story wasn't about every day 'normal' life, I loved it. Still do. P
lus ça change!

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