「 ⋆ About Me ⋆ 」
At first, I was super indecisive about an ‘about me’ page. What would I even write? But since this blog is my safe space and its sole purpose is to bring me joy, I decided to write about almost everything that caught my interest over the years. And, of course, that to me are core parts of my personality.
For introduction, I'm bilingual. I speak English and Portuguese, but my biggest goal is to become a polyglot. I've always wanted to learn French and someday I will. I've been self-studying Japanese for a few months and it's really hard. I keep forgetting katakana all the time. However, Japanese is really fun and every time I learn something new I feel motivated to further my language education. The hardest part, of course, is to do it all by myself, without the assistance of a teacher. So I feel like a dog holding my own leash, indecisive about what step to take next.
– my nicknames: I personally love terms of endearment and I believe they are one of the most pure forms of affection. I had plenty over the years and I will share some of them. First the ones based on my own name, I had: Soph, So, SoSo, Soup, Fifi (I don’t like this one), and at some point during the pandemics, my online friends called me Hia, which was for me very alternative and cool. Moving on to other things I’ve been called: Sophie, Sunny, Sunshine (by my friends throughout the years), Sun (by my mom’s friend), Little sun and Little flower (by my mom and my grandma). And last but not least, for a short period of time in my adolescence, I had wanted to be called Charlie.
「 ⋆ favorite books ⋆ 」
– Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
One of the reasons why I love this book series is that we get to read the main character growing up and living different stages of her life. Anne is an easily relatable character for me because the first time I read the first book I was a child and she felt like a friend and in the second time I was an adult and being able to read about her again it was like coming home. I never met a character that made me feel more understood than she does. She has such a whimsical way of seeing the world, of being optimist through hard times. I think that is beautiful! My favorite book is the third one, called ‘Anne of the island’, for the reason of being such a lovely depiction of girlhood. There’s so many things that I share in common with Anne, like our passion for writing, accidental skill for teaching (I guess?), connection with simple things in life such as the sun, the trees and flowers, the sea breeze and so on. But what I love the most about her, it’s that she is a child full of daydreams, delusions and unbelievable bad ideas that never for one second determine that she is undeserving of love for being who she is and therefore imperfect. She teaches readers to embrace happiness and never lose hope of better things to come. More importantly, she grows into her own person, but never loses the inner brilliant child that she once was. In her mature side I still see the little Anne from the first book. What an aspiring character, indeed.
– The folk of the air by Holly Black
This book series was actually my second experience with faerie books and what can I say? I loved it. One of my favorite aspects that I think adds a lot to character dynamics is the fact that faeries can’t lie. It’s just such a nice detail when most faeries are really mischievous and manipulative, making in this context them little beasts with insane ability to bend words to their will all the time. I love the fluid way the author wrote the book, truly poetic. Jude is an incredible main character and the differences between her and her twin sister Taryn makes everything better. She lives in a world that she doesn’t belong to, but that still represents all she knows and at the end, this world, their world, is as much hers as is the faeries’. Her wit combined with her resilience are traits that make it impossible not to root for her. About Cardan, oh my, he’s so relatable at times and also in my opinion impossible not to love as you get to know him more. His hidden feelings behind masks as his way to cope are nothing compared to his true self that we are finally able to see once the cracks slowly appear. I’m feral for these two. Also I dedicated the Taylor Swift’s album “Reputation” to them, just because it matches them so well.
– Percy Jackson and the olympians by Rick Riordan
The day was january 11th of 2016 and my life was forever changed. I was twelve and Percy was too, we were destined to be best friends. (Actually, looking for this information in one of my old diaries, I, two months later, had written about how much I would like to have a blog and here we are, almost 10 years later!). This book series was one of my biggest motivators to initiate a reading habit. And also installed in me a love for magical systems and magical powers in general. I have to say that I kind of geek out on Greek mythology at the time in a very childish way. Percy was one of the first male main characters that I read about and he’s very funny and entertaining in his ways. I was a child that felt sometimes out of place and reading the books that I read I realised that it was okay to be different and more importantly to be myself. I, of course, had a fascination with percabeth, my first book ship?? (one can only guess). They were absolutely everything to me. Still are. There’s so many books and characters and interesting things about this universe that it’s impossible to mention all. Lastly, I’m from cabin 7, a true Apollo’s daughter, heart and soul.
– The hunger games by Suzanne Collins
About this one, I was kind of late to the party. I will explain why. The books were all released. The movies? Everybody had already watched them but I. I had heard so much about it and with no doubt I got curious, but for some reason it never seemed my turn to experience this masterpiece. Until one day my mom bought me the trilogy and I devoured every page. Do not ask me how I had been able to escape spoilers for so many years. Yet, the first time I read these books I was flabbergasted with so many plot twists. Suzanne is really good at her job. Katniss being an unreliable narrator, an unwilling and accidental rebel symbol, a form of representation that no matter what you do or how hard you try we can’t prevent all losses from happening. And at the end of the day, it’s not about who to blame but the inevitable circumstances we live in. Gorgeous! Plus I love kind characters that prevail in their goodness even after facing tough times, and yes, I’m talking about the one and only, book boyfriend of a generation, Peeta Mellark.
