Welcome Ladies, Gentlemen and super-intelligent cats who secretly surf the web while their owner is at work, to the 3rd Annual Book Polygamist Awards!
Since 2011 the Awards have been publicly aired on my humble little blog, rather than the bottomless pit of Facebook, or the relative privacy of my book journal, and as long as Book Polygamist sticks around each year I will share my quirky Awards with you, my precious few Bookbaggers 🙂
Like last year and the year before the Awards will be broken up into two categories: the Annual Awards, which are the same each year, and the Special Awards, which change with the calibre of books read and any patterns I notice.
This year, since I read more comics/graphic novels than ever before there will be some Awards specifically for the format i.e. Best Inside Art.
So without further ado I present: The 2013 Book Polygamist Awards!!!
Annual Awards
Shortest Read (Book):
The Amber Amulet by Craig Silvey – approximately 1 hour
Honorable Mentions:
The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman – approximately 2 hours
Married With Zombies by Jesse Petersen – 6 days
Longest Read:
Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe – 1 year, 1 month and 1 day!!!
Honorable Mentions:
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller – 43 weeks, 6 days!!
Kraken by China Miéville – 30 weeks, 3 days!
Most Books/Graphic Novels Read by a Single Author:
Neil Gaiman – 2 books (Anansi Boys and Neverwhere) and 6 Graphic Novels (The Sandman Vol # 1, #2, #3 and # 4; Death: The High Cost of Living; and The Books of Magic)
Honorable Mentions:
Stacia Kane – 5 (Unholy Ghosts; Unholy Magic; City of Ghosts; Sacrificial Magic; Chasing Magic)
Gail Carriger – 5 (Changeless; Blameless; Heartless; Soulless Vol #1; Etiquette and Espionage)
Best “New” Author Award:
Every year I try to discover authors I’ve never read before (in addition to my old favourites and follow-ups to “new” authors from previous years) and then I compile a list of ones I want to read more from, and pick one from the bunch that’s the stand-out. It’s always a tricky process because I find so many great authors that are new to me, but usually I just weigh-up the impact they made on me with the amount of work they have that I can continue on with, plus take into account how new they are to writing, and how unknown they were to me (and sometimes others) before I discovered their work. In the case of the winner for this year I had never heard of them before picking up the first book, and since then their series was one of the highlights of my reading year and has become a bit of an obsession for me and my best friend, Sarah 🙂
Stacia Kane (Unholy Ghosts; Unholy Magic; City of Ghosts; Sacrificial Magic; Chasing Magic)
Honorable Mentions:
China Miéville (Kraken)
Max Brooks (World War Z)
Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey)
Special Awards
The Best End to a Series Award:
House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones
Honorable Mention:
Chasing Magic by Stacia Kane
This is a cheeky honorable mention because it’s not actually the end of the series, but at the time of reading it I did think it was the end, and it was a fucking awesome end! Lucky for me and Sarah the next book is due to be published at some point 😀
The Best Start to a Series Award:
Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey Book 1) by Jasper Fforde
Honorable Mentions:
Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane
Married With Zombies by Jesse Petersen
The Sandman Volume 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman (writer), Sam Kieth (penciler),Malcolm Jones III (inker), Robbie Busch (colourist), Todd Klein (letterer)
FreakAngels #1 by Warren Ellis (writer) and Paul Duffield (artist)
The Longest and Strangest Title Award:
The Book of Human Insects by Osamu Tezuka
Honorable Mention:
Ball Peen Hammer by Adam Rapp (author) and George O’Connor (artist)
The Tick That Off The Bucket List Award:
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
in 2013 I continued the accidental tradition of reading a book from my Top 10 Classics I Want to Read list – in accidental order and all! – which definitely deserved another award! To continue this tradition I will have to read The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger this year so I better locate it quick smart 😛
The My Brain Hurts But I Love It! Award:
Kraken by China Miéville
As I said in my Top 10 Books I Read in 2013 list, this book was the literary equivalent of taking a trip and at times the language and sheer craziness of the world hurt my brain, but I loved every second of it! 😛
Honorable Mentions:
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Best Cover Art (Book):
The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman
Honorable Mentions:
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Kraken by China Miéville
The Amber Amulet by Craig Silvey
Best Cover Art (Graphic Novel):
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow – Wonderland
by Jeff Parker, Christos N. Gage (writers) Brian Ching (penciler), Jason Gorder (inker),
Michelle Madsen (colourist), David Mack (cover artist), and Joss Whedon (executive producer)
Honorable Mentions:
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity (The Unwritten, Volume # 1) by Mike Carey (writer), Peter Gross (artist), Chris Chuckry and Jeanne McGee(colourists) and Todd Klein (letterer)
Ball Peen Hammer by Adam Rapp (author) and George O’Connor (artist)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales by Joss Whedon, Jane Espenson, Becky Cloonan (writers)
Tim Sale,Doug Petrie, Leinil Francis Yu, Gene Colan and others (artists)
Best Inside Art (Graphic Novel):
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales by Joss Whedon, Jane Espenson, Becky Cloonan (writers)
Tim Sale,Doug Petrie, Leinil Francis Yu, Gene Colan and others (artists)
This is a bit of a cop-out as this anthology contains a whole bunch of amazing artists making it the easy choice, but with such diverse art from story to story this was a clear winner. Below is an example of some of my favourite art styles for you to ogle 😛
Honorable Mentions:
Zombies Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Jim McCann (writers), David Baldeon (penciller), and Jordi Tarragona (inker)
Star Trek TNG: Hive by Brannon Braga (story) and Joe Corroney (art)
Most Fun Challenge:
While I set myself some great challenges last year, I had to choose Comic Companions as the best as it led me to read so many amazing comics and graphic novels! This year I’m not continuing this challenge but I’ve decided the graphic novels pile is just as important as the others so I’ve been going through the same process in reading them – when I finish one I pick another from the pile (or rather a random green piece of paper from my book-choosing jar so I don’t have to choose which wonderful graphic novel I want to read next – I’m chance’s bitch instead 🙂 )
Best Book Chosen for Old Books October:
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
I haven’t actually finished Guards! Guards! since I’ve been pretty slack with reading this year, and I got distracted with other books and comics at the end of last year, so I’ve been reading this very funny Discworld novel for a while, but every time I do read a bit its highly entertaining! Plus the other book I chose for Old Books October is Brisingr by Christopher Paolini which I have been even more slack with, so this was a no-brainer 😛
Best Graphic Novel Chosen for Old Books October:
The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman (writer), Kelley Jones, Malcolm Jones III, Mike Dringenberg, Matt Wagner, P. Craig Russell,George Pratt, Dick Giordano (artists), Daniel Vozzo, Steve Oliff (colourists), and Todd Klein (letterer)
Best Book Chosen for New Books November:
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Best Graphic Novel Chosen for New Books November:
FreakAngels #1 by Warren Ellis (writer) and Paul Duffield (artist)
2013 was a really interesting year for me, both in my reading life and personal/professional life, and I certainly have some good memories from it. I hope all my Bookbaggers also had an excellent year with a bevy of brilliant books (gosh I love alliteration :P) and tons of good memories, and that your 2014 is just as fruitful 🙂
Book Polygamist 