Happy St Patrick’s Day everyone!! I sat through a lecture at uni today which, ironically, was about the the Easter Rising (google it), sitting next to a girl fully decked out in every item of green she could possibly have stuck to her body. I found the whole situation hilarious.

I hope everyone’s having a fabulous day whether you celebrate or not – I’m half Irish myself, so in total that makes me half Irish, half English, and half Australian. *serious nodding*. I thought I’d be kind and give you a brief history of what the day is actually about if you don’t know:

• Saint Patrick’s Day is a cultural and religious celebration that happens annually on 17 March to mark the death date of the most commonly-recognised patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick.
• It is believed St. Patrick, a Roman-Britain-born Christian missionary, was born in the late fourth century and is credited with bringing Christianity to the Irish people.
• Most people, whether they are Irish or not, wear green on this day. One of the Irish traditions is to pinch anyone who is not wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day.
• Corned beef and cabbage are traditional foods eaten on this holiday.
• The shamrock’s association with St. Patrick’s Day comes from the popular myth that says St. Patrick used the three leaves of the plant to explain Catholicism’s holy trinity to the Irish.
• St Patrick is supposed to have chased all the snakes out of Ireland (commonly accepted as a symbolic meaning for Satan).

ANYWAY. On to the tag.

The St Patrick’s Day book tag was created by Embuhlee and Shivii and I saw it over on The Orangutang Librarian and despite not being tagged myself I’ve decided to do it anyway because book tags are fun, particularly Irish ones.

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End of the rainbow: What book did you have a hard time tracking down a copy of?

Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Technically speaking I was never actively looking for this seeing as I had no idea it was a book prior to coming across it, but I’m counting this because I’d never seen the book anywhere. I mean, Disney made the Tarzan story so popular yet if it wasn’t for me strolling around the dark corners of tiny independent bookstores, I’d’ve never have found this.

Pot of gold: When you found that book, was it worth the quest?

Yes it absolutely was! Tarzan is my favourite Disney story so you should’ve seen my face when I found that book. I was like discovering that there is in fact another world entirely made out of chocolate and yes of course you can go there.

Celebrating a rich heritage: Name a book that contained a well-developed culture.

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez

I decided to go with this book because it’s really quite unique. It’s all about an American who is living in Afghanistan and she runs a coffee shop. It’s a very tragic setting, being rife with war, and the way that the world is portrayed in this book is beautifully raw and powerful.

Shamrock Shakes: what’s your favorite food to snack on while reading?

Tea-Dunked Biscuits

Because life doesn’t get much better than that. Obviously this comes with an occupational hazard of leaving the biscuit in for too long and having to live with the fact that you have mushy stuff at the bottom of the tea that you might accidentally swallow in the next mouthful . . .

Leprechaun: do you own a rare/collector’s copy of a book?

The Celebrated Cases of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I featured this book a couple of weeks back, it’s my Dad’s copy of Sherlock and it’s leather bound and really unique. It’s published by Octopus and they have actually done several other ‘classics’ in this edition but from as far as I can tell they’re not the easiest things to get your hands on now.

Four Leaf Clover: Name a book you thought would be ‘just another generic book’, but turned out to be something great.

The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough

This book has a stunning cover and a very intriguing description. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it, however, but I was so surprised by how unique it was and I loved it completely. It was definitely a book left of centre to the norm.

Irish Whiskey: what’s your favourite tradition of St. Patty’s Day?

I don’t do much to celebrate the day so unfortunately I don’t have much of a tradition at all. Maybe I should start one.

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 If you want to do this tag then DO IT!

Tag your it!

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~~ Kirstie ~~

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