Notable Quotable #120

My grandmother lives alone. she is very old, very happy and very Catholic. Once, i was told that after having her first thirteen children she took a little break for three years until her village priest told her to get on with her “duty as a woman” while she was still good.

Susceptible by Geneviève Castrée (writer and artist), pg. 9

Notable Quotable # 119

We signed our CDs, of course, and shirts and posters too – usually with a black or silver Sharpie. But we also signed: phone cases, sneakers, reading glasses, Bibles, passports (You know this is illegal, right?), purses, faces (please don’t get that tattooed), armpits, puppets, babies (please don’t get that tattooed, either), feet, shot glasses, teakettles, security blankets, breasts, and once, a guy’s penis (it was not erect).
And one time, in Santa Barbara, Brian signed a girl’s anus.
Everyone was impressed.
I asked him to please throw that particular Sharpie in the trash.

The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer, pg. 101

Notable Quotable # 118

“Perhaps,” she said. “Perhaps. Birds sing in the trees, find their food, mate, build nests. They don’t know anything else.” She looked up at him, drawing the cloth slowly from side to side across the back of her neck. “It’s a narrow life for birds. But you catch one and put it in a cage and you’ll soon find out whether it values what’s it’s lost.”

Shardik by Richard Adams, pg 373

Notable Quotable # 117

The old man is… If your principal and your sternest grandparent had a child born on the last day of summer before school starts, and that child grows up in the moment you realise you’ve been caught filching a cookie from the jar. In other words, he exists simply to remind you of all the bad things you’ve ever done, all the things you’ve ever failed at and all the mistakes you will ever make.

The Silver Dream by Neil Gaiman, Michael Reaves and Mallory Reaves, pg. 27

Notable Quotable # 116

The evening sun had rolled down and blown out in a bloody wad and the white, full moon had rolled up like an enormous ball of tightly wrapped twine.

“Deadman’s Road” by Joe R. Lansdale (opening sentence), The Living Dead by Various, pg. 299

Book Polygamist 2014 in review

Happy New Year Bookbaggers!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,900 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

I was a fab year and I hope this year will be even better!

Keep your eyes peeled for the 2014 Book Polygamist Awards and Top 10 lists soon 🙂

A Very Book Polygamist Xmas Farewell!

Merry Xmas my Xenial, Xenodochial Bookbaggers!

It seems every time I write a full post I start off by apologising for being absent since the last post, and this is no exception! I’ve been putting up Notable Quotables when I can so I didn’t go completely AWOL, but I’m still aware that my last “real” post was on the 10th of October when I filled you in on Secret Shame September…a challenge that has fallen into a bit of a hole and morphed into Secret Shame September-October-November-December-Oh-God-At-Least-Let-Me-Finish-It-By-The-End-Of-The-Year.

Since then quite a bit has happened – namely it was my birthday on the 22nd of October, so I was spoilt rotten by friends and family and gifted many a good book, or book-related thingamabob as well as plenty of exciting non-book-related thingamabobs; followed shortly by Halloween when Sarah and I were treated to a wonderfully spooky movie night at Scott’s and gifted Halloweeny comics; and last, but certainly not least, there was a major change to my job role (in a good way guys!) which has been a lot of work and adjustment.

Many times I tried to start sorting all the pictures I took of my bday and Halloween goodies to share in a post, and I just never got there. For one thing, work has been so busy with the year wrapping up and the changes that I wasn’t able to do little bits of a post when it was quiet, like I have done in the past, and once I got home I was too tired and lazy to attempt reviving my Zombie Laptop once more and stare at a computer screen again.

This year seems to be the hardest one I’ve had balancing blogging and the rest of my life – the average number of posts each month are smaller than previous years and this is the first year where I didn’t post a single thing during not one month, but two (September and November). This isn’t really a surprise since my work situation has come leaps and bounds since I started Book Polygamist – at its inception I was still studying and dreaming of one day working in a library and now I’m working full-time in a job I absolutely adore, which is always challenging me in new exciting ways. A few times this year I have even considered stopping Book Polygamist, or going on a long-term hiatus, but I couldn’t bring myself to quit something I have loved so much.

For most of you out in the blogosphere I am a complete stranger, but a few Bookbaggers who I called friends first will know that I have a habit of starting creative projects, getting really into it for a while and then letting it fall by the wayside until it’s just another abandoned project gathering dust in my mind, or in a pile of sad sketchbooks (if Sarah is reading this, the Daily Confusions of Owl comic may spring to mind :P). This is a personality trait I have been trying to “fix” in the last few years as it often has affected long-term study or work too, and I think sticking with the blog even when It’s hard to juggle has really helped.

Tomorrow is my last day of work until mid-January next year, and while in past years I have done a post near the end making promises about ample blogging over the Christmas break, or what is in store in the new year, I’ve decided not to do that this time. The truth is I’m not ready to say goodbye to Book Polygamist yet, but I’m not sure how much I will be able to do it next year. Also, as it’s gone along I have realised while in essence I definitely have a “book blog” I don’t enjoy writing reviews and I have other interests that I would like to share, or I have enjoyed sharing before – stuff like my love of comedy and going to live shows, my fascination with the origins of the English language and it’s roots in other languages, and my other more bizarre interests like taking photos of dead animals I find on the side of the road, or taxidermy which I would really love to try next year.

Some of these changes in content may mean I lose some followers, or I may gain a new sub-set of followers. Really, this blog has never been about followers and hits – I am definitely a small fish compared to a lot of book bloggers who have been around as long as me, or even ones who are just starting out and even if I only had a couple of good friends reading it, I think I’d still continue because first and foremost it’s for me.

So, after that slight baring of my soul I think I’ll end with some fun things and we’ll see what next year brings 🙂

Firstly, I recently stumbled upon a Book Vlogger called Little Book Owl, who many of you probably already know and love, while perusing an interesting post on Book Riot – A Beginner’s Guide to BookTube. She stood out to me because of her channel name of course, but I was also interested that she’s Australian when a good chunk of YouTube Vloggers I’ve encountered are American (no offence intended followers from the good ole US of A, but it’s somewhat refreshing and comforting to hear an accent similar to my own).

Then I watched this video of hers On Reading Multiple Books at Once and was like “YES. This girl totally gets it!”. She is even currently reading a book I have also been neglecting – The Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher. Plus the opening sequences of her videos are super pretty.

This video review of Jen Campbell‘s Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops (which I read earlier in the year as part of the Short and Sweet challenge) and the sequel More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops, was also very funny:

Which brings me to a funny video made by Library staff at Nashville Library that I think a workmate put me onto. It’s parody of “All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor (i’m guessing not many people will actually need that Wiki link, but I don’t listen to a lot of pop music and I had to look it up to make sure I got the song they’re parodying right…so you never know), and is one of those adorably awkward videos by library staff where they fully own their adorable awkwardness – puppets and all:

Which brings me to this beautiful stop-motion animation of books in a bookshop, which I watched a while back but watched again today and gosh, it’s just so freakin’ magical and impressive I had to share:

And lastly, because it’s coming towards that time of year again:

Oooooo creepy sticky-mouthed beasties at the North Pole with the Doctor and Father Christmas/Santa Claus teaming up? Yes please 😀

While the outlook for Book Polygamist in 2015 may not be clear, I do promise that I won’t just disappear (uh oh – inadvertent rhyme at this time of year can be dangerous – I could be drawn into some awful Christmas special!). I at least want to do the Top 10 Books I Read in 2014, Top 10 Graphic Novels I Read in 2014 and The 2014 Book Polygamist Awards because despite being somewhat lax in blogging, this year has been a ripper for the quantity and quality of books I’ve read.

I wish you all a safe and happy festive season, whatever the festivity you celebrate. And even if you don’t celebrate anything I hope you read some good books,

And if you’re going away, that packing all the books go smoothly.

If your plans deviate from reading, I hope you have fun

….but not too much fun that you shoot yourself in the foot (literally or figuratively).

Stay awesome Bookbaggers new and old and I will stumble across your screens again in the new year!

Notable Quotable # 115

“Thou art Christian?” Pan pronounced the word with such contempt that the flock stopped dancing and glared at Alobar, the bees buzzed angrily at him, and a passing butterfly shat upon him with remarkable accuracy.

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, pg. 48

Notable Quotable # 114

The sky was a velvety black paw pressing on the white landscape with a feline delicacy, stars flying like sparks from its fur. The cry of an owl, brooding over its ruby appetites, cut through the frigid air like a vibrating pin. Then, all was silent except for the soft crunch, like ants chewing wax, of his boots upon the snow.