Versatile is my middle name!…no, wait it’s Louise

On the 14th of June I received a surprise honor – Christie from bibliophiliacs  nominated me for The Versatile Blogger Award! 🙂

For those who haven’t heard of the award before you can find out all about it on the blog, Versatile Blogger Award but the basic lowdown is:

1. If you are nominated, you’ve been awarded the Versatile Blogger award.
2. When you’re nominated thank the person who gave you the award and include a link to their blog.
3. Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly.
4. Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award.
5. Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

So, first things first – thank you once again to Christie from bibliophiliacs. It really was a big surprise as I’m just a fledgling blogger and haven’t been able to post very regularly for a while, so thanks for making me feel special…and versatile 😀

My nominations for The Versatile Blogger Award are:

1. Christie from bibliophiliacs (WordPress)
   One good nomination deserves another and bibliophiliacs is a well-deserved multiple nominee which consistently offers interesting posts about books, reading, literacy, libraries and the authors workplace – a book store with a cast of quirky clientele
2. Chelle from Salmon & Avocado (WordPress)
   Chelle is actually one of my fellow Library students at Central Institute of Technology and it’s because of her that I even started Book Polygamist in the first place. Her blog is inspired by two of her favourite culinary ingredients – salmon and avocados – and features tons of quick, tasty recipes, cooking experiments and restaurant reviews
3. Lauren from The Very Hungry Bookworm (WordPress)
   One of the first blogs I followed, The Very Hungry Bookworm is a clever blog which is a sort of book/food blog hybrid. Book reviews usually include a recipe  adapted from a dish that features in the book (or inspired by the book in general). She also blogs about movies and has one of the best rating systems I’ve ever encountered
4. Siobhan from The Book and Biscuit (WordPress)
   Another blog I took a shine to early on, mainly because Siobhan likes some of the same novels as me and we both are fans of Alice in Wonderland related goodies 🙂 Besides book reviews she also posts interesting tidbits about book related events or sites, her newest purchases or gifts, and some excellent literary lists
5. Miss Anderson from The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say Shhh (WordPress)
   A school librarian and teacher who blogs about books (especially Young Adult fiction), her career and other fun stuff like photo editing sites and programs
6. Stephanie from Listful Thinking (WordPress)
   A HILARIOUS blog which embraces the mighty power of the list! As a Library student turned Library Technician (yes I have qualified – wooting ensues!) and a bit of a weirdo order-wise I love lists and Listful Thinking has some great ones. Check it out for a hearty giggle 🙂
7. The Byronic Man from….The Byronic Man (WordPress)
   Very funny and clever posts. If I could sit and read the entirety of The Byronic Man in one sitting I would, but since he’s been going since November 2010 I may have to remain content with slowly devouring them. He has probably been nominated many a time but why not one more? 🙂
8. Neely from NEELYWANG Photography + Design  (WordPress)
   A really stunning photography/design blog. I especially love her Macro Monday posts – beautiful stuff
9. Jessy from Library Shenanigans (WordPress)
   A funny blog about all the weird and wonderful shenanigans that occur at libraries (they really do attract weirdos and not just bookworms people – trust me!) as well as other funny library related news
10. Shivani from My Owl Barn (Blogger)
    The only blog on this list so far which is via Blogger not WordPress, but for me it was definitely worth joining and subscribing because I am absolutely crazy about owl things and this gives me a regular owl fix! All the posts feature some kind of owl related product or artwork, but often includes other pieces which are not owls and I have found some stunning art on there so its worth a look-see even if you’re not an owl freak like me :p
11. J. Vance from A Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette (Blogger)
    A blog I only discovered extremely recently (i.e. last Friday) when browsing the blogroll on Library Shenanigans. Every post made me twitter to myself (as in I emitted a series of little high-pitched laughs like a twittering bird not I sent myself messages of 140 characters or less on a social networking site) and there is actually some great advice for Library workers behind the humor as well
12. Allie from Hyperbole and a Half (Blogger)
    Another Blogger blog that I discovered on Friday when browsing. Awesomely funny posts accompanied by equally awesomely funny drawings which tell stories from the authors day-to-day life – kinda like a cross between a diary blog and an autobiographical comic 🙂
13. Ginger from GReads (Blogger)
    GReads receives this nomination mostly for her fun features: Tune In Tuesdays, where she takes a break from books to showcase music; The Blogger behind the Book, where she interviews other book bloggers; and TGIF at GReads, where she recaps the posts of the week and asks her readers a question for them to answer on their own blog or via the comments page. She also has quite an impressive archive of reviews, nicely arranged in alphabetical order 🙂
14. The gang at The Broke and the Bookish (Blogger)
    The Broke and the Bookish is another blog which is receiving a nomination based on their wonderful features. The blog hosts a few clever features and/or blog memes, but the most popular is Top Ten Tuesday a meme which won the Best Book Blog Meme award during Book Blogging Appreciation Week  2011. Every Tuesday they post a new Top Ten list answered by one of the contributors and their followers are welcomed to post their own list and link back creating a wonderful web of book blog Top Ten lists every Tuesday! I have yet to post a Top Ten Tuesday list but as my regular readers (or Bookbaggers) know I am quite the fond of Top 10 lists and I’m very impressed with the number of themes The Broke and the Bookish has managed to compile over time (over 100 and counting!)
15. And last but not least:
    lambskinny the administrator at The Versatile Blogger Award (WordPress)
    Because creating and maintaining a place for all nominees to find out more about the award and share the love is worth its own reward 🙂

Nominating 15 bloggers/blogs was surprisingly tricky because I’m still relatively new to the blogosphere and don’t actually follow that many blogs. So, with this list of nominations you are pretty much getting the entirety of my following/subscriptions lists from both WordPress and Blogger BUT they are all well deserved and worth a read 🙂

Lastly here is the 7 facts about me for Christie at bibliophiliacs :

1. I have two small, furry, old dogs. The oldest one, Charlie, is a Maltese cross Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who looks like a fluffy, curly ball of fur attempting to infiltrate the couch or bed by impersonating a cushion. I’ve had him since I was 14 and he’s approaching 11 now, is going blind, has allergies which causes him to itch like crazy and sleeps 95% of the time but still acts like a crazy puppy when I get home. The second one, Tia, is a salt and pepper Miniature Schnauzer who has only been with us for a little over a year. She was a rescue dog that someone found abandoned in a backyard, with very overgrown and tangled fur, ticks all over her body and teats still producing milk after a recent litter of puppies. It’s been a long road to get her use to people (we suspect she has been abused or mistreated in some way) and she has also had to have quite a bit of medical treatment (an emergency spay due to an infection in her uterus and all of her teeth removed because they were in such bad nick) but she is now such a sweet and funny little dog who is so happy to see me when I get home. The vet estimated her age at around 8 or 9 so she’s not much younger than Charlie which means my fur children are more like furry geriatrics but I love them all the same.
   

   We are cushions! You do not see us!

2. As I mentioned above I’m crazy about owls (and I was before everyone jumped on the owl bandwagon!). This makes it pretty easy for my friends and family to get me presents as I collect owl statues and owls of every size, shape, colour and pattern seem to be everyone at the moment. Currently I have around 30 but I haven’t counted in a while and I also have plenty of owl earrings, necklaces and clothing with owls on them. Hoot! 😀
   

   Some of my growing owl family 🙂

3. I like dead things. That sounds way creepier than it is and is not a great sentence to lead from but hear me out. Firstly I’m not some crazy goth who likes to fantasize about getting it on with a vampire in a cemetery before finding a goat to slaughter and offer to their satanic master (before any goths get up on their high horses over that statement – chillax. I use to be a goth in highschool and I was just playing around with the stereotypes that get thrown about. I’m not being serious. Please don’t eat me). I also don’t condone killing animals for no reason and even though I am a meat eater I could probably never kill my own cow if I felt like a juicy steak. When I say I like dead things I simply mean that I’m fascinated by dead animals (namely birds and insects) and animal bones. If I come across a dead pigeon on the side of the road I stop and take a photo of it. If a bird has died and the bones have been completely cleaned by insects I may even take one home for my collection. I have a box where I keep dead insects that I find and It has gotten to the point when friends and family will give me insects that they find or even take pictures of dead birds and forward them to me. I won’t go into WHY I love dead things because you may already think I’m a freak but rest assured the reasons are fully wholesome and nothing to do with evil science and creating my own army of zombie animals, I swear…. although that would be pretty sweet…
   

   MWAHAHAHAHA!…..*cough*….sorry

4. I use to be a Florist’s Assistant so I have an interest in flowers and especially the meanings behind them. The Victorian language of flowers is a particular interest of mine, especially because one species of flower can often have many different and conflicting meanings. I wish I could grow a whole garden of flowering plants but alas, my mother’s green thumb did not pass on to me and If I don’t kill my plants it’s usually from sheer blind luck.
   

   Lavender, one of my favourite flowers can mean mistrust or on the other hand love, devotion, purity, cleanliness, luck or compassion. How bizarre is that?

5. I’m a lesbian, but not a very good one. I say this because at the age of 25 I have only had one serious girlfriend and two disastrous ones and even the serious relationship didn’t last very long. Also I’m usually too busy/lazy/disinterested to go to gay bars or other events where I could meet other lesbians, I’m not particularly fussed about getting married (although I do support same-sex marriage), and I’m usually surprised when a celebrity comes out so my gaydar is shot (only with the ladies though – when it comes to gay men I can generally spot it a mile away).
   

   Maybe one day I’ll meet an equally rubbish lesbian and we can be rubbish and lazy together 😛

6. I’m a Librarian who has tattoos. Well, that isn’t 100% true – I’m a Library Assistant with a Library Technician qualification but that’s a mouthful so when I explain my job I usually just say Librarian if I’m talking to people outside the library industry. The tattoos part however is 100% correct. I have two eye tattoos, one which is a tiger’s eye and one which is an owl’s eye on either side of my chest/front of my shoulder (you can see them a little bit in my Gravatar picture). Because of their placement and the dress code at my place of work (smart casual) they remain hidden the majority of the time, so much so that one of my lecturers (who I only had on a day when I worked afterwards) thought they were brand new when seeing them at our end of semester afternoon tea, even though I’ve had them for the entirety of my course.
   

   This isn’t me obviously – I wish!

7. I unconsciously sing/hum little songs to myself. To my friends and family this has become endearing I guess because they hardly ever mention it/giggle at me anymore, but I found myself doing it on one of my first days at a different campus library and didn’t even realise until my co-worker started laughing. It usually happened when I’m working on something and the tunes don’t sound like anything really – just a string of notes like the made up song of a child – but if I’m really into a task it may evolve into an actual song but with what I’m doing replacing the real lyrics – i.e. a song about washing the dishes to the tune of Don’t Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin (to my knowledge I’ve never done that specifically before by now I’ve thought of it next time I’m washing dishes it will probably become reality)
   

   “Washing dishes in the sink, when I’m done I’ll have a drink! Don’t worry, be happy…”

   So there we go, all the required duties of becoming a Versatile Blogger Award winner have been fulfilled and only…. almost a month after my nomination O.o oops.

   Thanks once again to Christie – I was almost on the verge of shutting down Book Polygamist because I’ve been too busy to post so your nomination gave me the kick in the behind I sorely needed 🙂

   I hope to get onto more posting now I’ve finished my course but since I’ve been working so much it’s been a little tricky so hopefully you, my few but loyal Bookbaggers will stick with me and I can bring you more Book Polygamy in the near future.

   For now Happy Reading! and I hope you find some new wonderful blogs to follow in my nominations list.