The Liebster Award

Anna at A Wondrous Bookshelf has been kind enough to nominate my blog for the Liebster Award. Honestly I do not know the merits, if any, that she has seen to grant me this distinction, but in any case I am very much grateful. Apparently the Liebster award is a chain award that was created by bloggers and is a tradition to make new friends in the blogging community. I’m not much in favour of these chains but I would make an exception in this case. I kindly request my blog readers to refrain to nominate The Game’s Afoot from this type of blog chains in the future.

Here’s how it works:

– Link back to the person who nominated you (done)

– Give 11 random facts about yourself (see below)

– Answer 11 questions from your nominator (see below)

– Nominate 11 new and obscure bloggers (any blogger included in my blog roll on the right hand side of my blog can participate voluntarily. I don’t want anybody to feel obliged to participate)

– Come up with 11 questions for them to answer (see below)

– Inform your nominees (If you want to participate just say you have been nominated by Jose Ignacio at The Game’s Afoot)

11 Random Facts:

1. My first name is José because the doctor who attended my mother in childbirth was called José.

2. I was born with the umbilical cord around my neck and the doctor out of fear that I had to die without being baptised, gave me his name and he baptised me.

3. The name, chosen by my parents would have been Francisco Javier.

4. When, later on, I was Christianised in my parish, my father added Ignacio to my name, since he studied with the Jesuit fathers. 

5. The formula used in my second Baptism was: In the event you had not been baptised.

6. My father, following an ancient tradition in his family, also added several other names to José Ignacio.  

7. I was baptised with a total of nine names. Pablo Picasso, by the way had eight. The Eight Names of Picasso by Rafael Alberti.

8.  Among my ancestors there is only one José and he was born in the UK. His name was Joseph Broadbent. He arrived in a convict ship to Australia  in the early nineteenth century.

9. When I was a child, my younger brothers used to call me ‘Chacho’ at home.

10. When I first visited Germany (West Germany at the time) I used to pronounce my name without accent and sounded as Hose, everyone thought my name was Trousers.

11. During most of my working life, I was called ‘Nacho’. I needed a wire name, José is too common in Spain and could lead to confusion with other colleagues.

 Questions from my nominator:

• Have you read any books recently by an author whose new to you?

Several. You can find here my latest post about new-to-me-authors. And more recently I’ve read my first book by James M. Cain and have discovered Hans Olav Lahlum and Kati Hiekkapelto.

• Is there a single item, a treasured possession that you never leave the house without?

For practical reasons my set of keys. I’m afraid I’m not a fetishist; but now that I think about it, maybe my mobile phone.

• The typical physical book vs ebook vs audio book debate, which do you prefer?

I’ve turned myself into a fervent e-book reader and, maybe, into a compulsive buyer of e-books

• What is one place you’ve always wanted to travel to? (This can either be a fictional or non-fictional place)

Ushuaia (Argentina)

• Favourite quote from a book you’ve read recently

“There are a good many people who at some point in their lives have experienced something so painful and traumatic that they never get over it. They become human flies and spend more or less the rest of their life circling around what happened.” (From The Human Flies by Hans Olav Lahlum).

• Which book genre do you prefer above all others?

Without hesitation crime and mystery fiction with a touch of ‘noir’.

• Which author would be your best friend?

As someone said, if I enjoy an author I’d rather have no knowledge of his private life.

• If you could pick an era to live in which one would you choose?

The Age of Enlightenment.

• Do you have any bookish habits?

I start reading from the first page and, generally, I don’t usually combine two readings at the same time

• How do you organize your books?

I don’t organise them. 

• Who is your favourite book character and why?

Once I did mention Bari’s lawyer Guido Guerrieri by Italian author Gianrico Carofiglio, and I’ll stick with him. To elaborate further you can read my review of A Walk in the Dark, here. 

My 11 questions:

Copy and paste the same questions as above.