Updates About Me

Vocal only provides us with a certain amount of words in which we can tell each other about ourselves. I've decided to sit here and type out a bit about myself for those interested. I've been meaning to do this for a while but there are a few things that I found out about myself recently that I think is quite interesting to share with you. (Yes, I found this stuff out recently even though apparently, some of these things have been floating around the internet for a few years now).

I have come to terms with the fact that perhaps I can call myself a small-time public figure now even though many people don't know and will probably never know who I am and will perhaps never meet me in person. However, that does not mean dear reader, I would like to keep you in the dark about myself. I have not a lot to hide. In fact, I'm not interesting enough to have anything to hide.

I am a very boring person.

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The Booker Prize Website

Recently, I received the shock of my life when I learnt from someone else that I appear on the Booker Prize Website just beneath the Los Angeles Times on the critics' section for Percival Everett's The Trees. It was a book that was shortlisted a few years back and yet, I have absolutely no idea how I completely missed this because I've actually been on that page before and just didn't make it down to the critics' section.

You can check out the webpage here...

And of course, my review...

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Damnable Tales

This folk horror anthology is amongst one of my favourites. Richly illustrated, brilliantly curated, I could not stop gushing about it when I read it for the first time. I now appear on Amazon and the Blackwell's Publishing Website as one of the primary reviewers. You can take a look at that here...

And of course, my review...

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Apart from some appearances online with authors often featuring me on their websites (e.g Alison Macleod's page for her novel Tenderness features the subheading from my review), there are probably a few more things you would like to know about me that you may not know already...

Here's some fun facts!

1. I collect copies of my favourite book: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and have done so for almost two decades. I've collected maybe around 250-300 different copies which is always fun. They have different introductions by different authors, some feature annotations and some feature illustrations. Afterwords are great to read too and one of them is a comic book version!
2. I'm a big true-crime podcast fan. I tend to listen more to podcasts than I do to music, but of course - I need to have enough Bob Dylan to keep me functioning as well. My favourite in this department are: Casefile, Heart Starts Pounding and Conspiracy Theories.
3. I of course, enjoy baking and cooking things I find in magazines or even making my own recipes up. This has really expanded my vision of food. In the recent couple of years I have tried to improve my health as it was not great a bit of time ago. It's not great now but at least I'm eating better.
4. Even though I enjoy baking, I don't actually like eating a lot of baked goods. I'm not a big fan of cake or biscuits and I genuinely dislike pastry to the point that it makes me feel sick. However, I enjoy feeding people and so, that's the main thing.
5. I enjoy Disney-themed things. I may be in my 30s, but I have Disney bedsheets and Winnie the Pooh memorabilia, with a lot of other Disney stuff. My previous apartment was Disney-themed with vintage posters and everything. Do not let anyone take away your sense of whimsy. (I wouldn't call myself a Disney adult since I have no desire to visit the parks, but I do enjoy the innocence of it all. And it feels pretty inoffensive.)
6. People often seem to think I'm a child because I'm small (between 5ft 1 and 5ft 2 ish) and I look fairly young. In my 20s I was thrilled by this, but in my 30s it becomes a bit weird when you have to explain yourself. My voice is also quite quiet and soft which doesn't help. However, it doesn't bother me. It does however, make more sense when you think that I may be seen in a Mickey Mouse t-shirt here and there. But alas, I wear shirts featuring The Rocky Horror Picture Show more often than not and thus end up looking like an edgy teenager as opposed to a fully grown adult.

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Hopefully this has been enlightening.

But I think I've run out of things to say about myself.