Meet the (new) blogger!
New Year, new blogger! Say whaaat?
That’s right, friends! This year, I have the pleasure of sharing this platform with one of my dearest friends. She’s a lover of SFF fiction and a fellow Switch gamer with a big heart for astrophysics.
Our mutual friends can probably guess who she is by now, but if you still have no idea, please give a warm welcome to…
Mackenzie!
You may recognize her as the @bookish_black_hole on Instagram with her bright and beautiful photos:
She isn’t just one of the coolest people on bookstagram, but she’s also one of the kindest. I’m very excited for you all to meet her, so without further ado, here she is!
Hello blog world! I’m Mackenzie, and Shari was nice enough to invite me to co-blog with her here on Colour Me Read! I thought I’d do a little get to know me post to get things started (which tbh has made me get to know myself better because I have never thought about some of these questions haha). Sooo, here we gooooooooooo!
The basics:
- My name is Mackenzie (duh, as I’ve already said that in the beginning of this post)
- I’m studying to get my PhD in astrophysics! I’ve just earned my master’s degree in May 2018 so now I’m on to the thesis part.
- I grew up in southern California and will always be a California girl at heart, but I currently live in New Jersey.
- My favorites: tv show = Fringe; color = black or turquoise; food = mac and cheese or ice cream or noodles; season = summer
- My main hobby other than reading is rock climbing! I go 2-3 times per week.
What did I read in 2018?
Top 5 books of 2018 (as requested by Kori):
- Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor
- Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
- The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
- The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb
- Monstress ,Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu
- (and because I’m awful at picking things, honorable mention to Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi and Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes)
Favorite book covers of books I read:
A new favorite author I discovered:
Either Sarah Beth Durst or S.A. Chakraborty! I read the first two books of Durst’s Queens of Renthia series and they were so good! I still need to read the third. And S.A. Chakraborty’s debut novel, The City of Brass, came out this year and I looooved it. As you can see it didn’t make my top 5 but it’s in my top 10!
Book I read that I am most likely to reread next year:
Ahhh probably Muse of Nightmares!! I’m still amazed at how good it was. I’d love to reread both Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares next year. Maybe an audio reread?? I’ve heard the narrator is really good.
New fictional crush from something I read this year:
I don’t know if this is new because I read Vicious last year or the year before or something but oh my god Vengeful just upped my love for Victor Vale by like…. x1000. My precious baby!!! If you haven’t read these then ahh please do! They’re both so so amazing. Like X-men, but SO much better.
Series I completed reading:
- The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb
- The Girl From Everywhere duology by Heidi Heilig
- Strange the Dreamer duology by Laini Taylor
- Hidden Sea Tales (trilogy) by A.M. Dellamonica
- Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Fun questions!!!
If you were on YouTube right now, what would you be watching?
My roommate has been really into showing me hilarious Vines lately haha (I know Vine is dead but it’s the internet, everything on here lasts forever). Or I’d probably be watching this livestream of a Bon Iver concert because it is beauuutiful and I keep coming back to watch it over and over.
Would you rather be the first person to explore a planet or be the inventor of a drug that cures a deadly disease?
This is a hard one!! I think ultimately I’d pick the second (invent a curing drug) because it would help save so many people. I think exploring a planet would be cooler for me personally but I can’t justify not saving as many people as I could just for personal fun haha.
What piece of tech do you hope is invented in your lifetime?
Teleportation for sure!!!! I love to travel and this would make it so much easier. Also, then it wouldn’t be a problem if I overslept and still had to make it somewhere on time.
What’s your favorite meme?
If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life what would it be?
I’m gonna cheat here and say noodles broadly – because there are so many types and because I looooove noodles. Ramen, pho, stir fry, etc. yummmm
Would you rather randomly time travel +/- 20 years every time you fart or teleport to a different place on earth (on land, not water) every time you sneeze?
This question made me crack up. Definitely the teleporting every time I sneeze because 1. as I said I love travel and 2. it’s easier to control your sneezes haha.
If you could spend a day with any character in their own book/universe who would it be?
This is a character/book series that not many people have heard of, but I’d like to spend the day with Twig in the world of The Edge Chronicles series. The world looks SO cool! And there are flying ships! And all the different species/beings are really cool. I will admit it has a lot to do with the flying ships, and the art style of the illustrator. Here are some of the illustrations just to show you how cool the world is.
Nice to “meet” you, Mackenzie! Excited to see what you’d bring to Colour Me Read ^___^
Thank you so much Rae!! 🙂 <3
Ahhhh, Mackenzie!!! I’m so excited to see you both working together. Can’t wait to see what posts you come up with! 💕
Also, re the narrator for Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares, his name is Steve West and he’s… all right, I guess? 🤔 (JUST KIDDING, I’m in love with his voice 💁🏻♀️😂)
Thank you so much Steph!!!!!
Also yes omg I forgot his name but I know everyone RAVES about him!!! I’ll definitely have to reread via audio then…. 😂
Let me know what you think! 😏🙊
Hi Mackenzie!
Your love for Victor has me excited to see what else you bring to the blog! ;D
Hehe thank you! How could anyone not love Victor, I mean really! 😂
I’m so excited that you’ll be blogging together! 💚
I completely agree about teleportation. Although I’m always early to things, so I’d use it to visit family and friends. 😂 And for travel, of course.
yay thank you so much!
also yes my family lives across the country from me so it’d be perfect for visiting them!