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 2014Top 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,

anigif_enhanced-16789-1413492833-17

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

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

part hard HP gif

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

why is the rum gone gif

why is the rum always gone gif

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

fry new years gif

 

Update On The Update Which Has Not Been Updated

Hello again my beloved Bookbaggers!

I profusely apologise for being an absentee blogger. When I posted the mini-update I had high-hopes that my work-life would calm down in the second week back, but alas it was still hectic so I never even got a chance to think about blogging until I got home, where I generally just wanted to wind-down, eat something that required minimal effort and then fall into bed. Last week was slightly better, so I have worked on my epic update when I could, but I wasn’t able to do enough for it to be ready to post Friday.

I didn’t want to be incommunicado for too long so I thought I’d quickly pop in with a tentative hope that the epic update will be posted at the end of this week, and to share some frivolous Friday Monday fun 🙂

Recently Christie over at Bibliophiliacs did a post about the YouTube series Thug Notes and since I watched a few about classics I’ve read (To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Lord of the Flies, Catch 22 etc.) and had a hearty giggle to meself, I thought I’d share the love and giggles around 🙂

This one about Catch 22 was my favourite of the ones I watched, but check out the whole playlist for other gems – I didn’t want to watch any I hadn’t read coz spoilers 😛

Then there is this by the amazing Harto, which has nothing to do with books but made me laugh because as I’ve said before, I am a rubbish lesbian so I could definitely relate #rubbishlesbianproblems #didiseriouslyjustusealonghashtag? #idon’tevenusetwitterreally #STOPNOW

Then some Mental Floss fun with John Green and old slang, coz I love me some odd, out-dated slang yo!

I’m so gonna use Pretzel-Bender now and I think “hot as a half-fucked fox in a forest fire” deserves a place alongside some quality Aussie sayings such as “dry as a dead dingo’s donger”, “flat-out like a lizard drinking” and “go off like a frog in a sock”, which were sadly not included but that may be because they never really fell out of use 😛

Then to nicely tie things together we have Harto AND John Green attempting the Hemingway Challenge and chatting about The Fault In Our Stars film:

That’s it for now my wondrous Bookbaggers!

Stay tuned for the long-awaited update on Friday hopefully, and maybe also some Notable Quotables and junk 🙂

Until then:

baby hercules waving

Epic Challenge Update Coming Soon!

Oh hello there my outstanding, offbeat Bookbaggers!

Apologies for the long-time-no-see. As I said in my last update, It was mid-semester break at work so for one week I was at a different campus and then the second week I had off, so I wasn’t sure If I would have the time or energy to blog. As it turns out, my week at the other campus started off pretty chill, so I was positive that I would have enough energy to do the update on Friday. That was until Wednesday morning when I woke up with the beginnings of a virus which I probably picked up from a workmate who was coughing and sneezing all over the place (one I had managed to avoid during a previous outbreak as he is based at the other campus). I still went in, but by the afternoon the bug had me so I took the last two days off and determinedly recuperated over the weekend so that my week off was in tact!

I then had a pretty packed week off with two long appointments at the keep-your-mouth-open-forever-while-we-fill-all-your-teeth-with-crap-and-shine-this-light-in-your-face office (also known as the dentist) and some catch-ups with friends, so I still didn’t have time to blog, and then the first week back to work was hectic, so by Friday I was too tired to do a long update post.

However, just because I’ve been absent doesn’t mean nothing happened, in fact because I was sick I read like a mad person (do mad people read a lot? I consider myself fairly mad and some of my friends and family are a touch mad and mainly bookworms, but I don’t think that’s sufficient research to form a definitive answer 😛 ) and so I actually have a big exciting update for you when I get to it!

Hopefully this week is less hectic and I can post the update on Friday like normal, but until then here’s a representation of how the past few weeks has left me feeling, told through one of my favourite mediums – Gifs:

GIF_FinnDazed

dog falling asleep

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tired sloth

And this derpy cat for good measure 😛 :

derpy cat

Challenge Update: Week 6 of Short and Sweet & 1000+ Pages of Epic Fantasy

Hola my quaint and quirky Bookbaggers!

Welcome to the exciting 6th update of Short and Sweet and 1000+ Pages of Epic Fantasy where I don’t actually have anything non-challenge related to share with you O.o

Luckily, I have made a lot of headway in both challenges since my last update, so there’s still heaps to tell you! In fact, some of this update will be a mixture of stuff that happened last week and this week, since I usually post the updates on a Friday and it seems silly to save stuff for the next one when it happened just the other day. From now on I think I will consider the “week” from one update to the next as that makes more sense and makes the whole thing less confusing 🙂

Lets get this ball rolling, shall we?:

Short and Sweet challenge badgeThis week deserves the Mighty Numbered List (now with extra mightyness!) more than ever since a whole lot happened:

  1. As I said in my last update, I finished Above/Below by Stephanie Campisi and Ben Peek last Wednesday and it was excellent! Both authors are skilled at short fiction, and I felt connected to the characters and fascinated by the world almost right away. Having never read a book in that format, I found it to be a strange, but interesting experience. When I finished Above it was odd because physically I was in the middle of a book, but I had the feeling I get when finishing a book (sad that I wouldn’t be visiting the world or characters anymore, but satisfied by a well-ended story) and the one when starting a new book (excited to start something new but slightly hesitant to leave the old one behind) simultaneously, but it felt different again because I was still sort of reading the same book! I also loved reading it in the opposite order to Sarah and comparing, and it was such a great story (or stories) that I’d love to pick it up again some day and read in the opposite order.AboveBelow-cover1-300x246
  2. Since I finished Above/Below I asked my mum to choose me a new one out of the bag, and she chose A Clockwork Orange by Anthony BurgessA Clockwork Orange is probably the contender for this challenge that has been on my TBR pile the longest, and I’ve been wanting to read it for even longer, so I was definitely happy with her choice, and as she had read it in her youth she was also excited to have chosen it. I haven’t started it yet as I thought it would be a bit full-on for my lunch break (I have seen the movie so I’ve come prepared!) but I hope to soon.a clockwork orange
  3. As I also said in my last update, I read another story from Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan last week, “The Isles of the Sun” – a haunting tale of a young boy being visited by unearthly, glowing people who communicate with him telepathically the necessary steps he and other children must take to gain the power of flight. Then over the WA Day long weekend I read heaps (it was like two lazy Sundays for the price of one!), including the last two stories from the collection, “Bejazzle” – a weird story which involved a middle-aged man who’s sick of his wife, and his encounter with a gang of strange girls on the train, then a buxom woman who turns out to be much stranger than a careless tryst; and “Significant Dust” – which was partly about a young woman running away from her past after a freak accident, but I think was also about aliens….at least I think it was aliens….it ended and I still wasn’t 100% sure but it was really mysterious and atmospheric and since the other stories also didn’t spell out what the fuck happened by the end, I didn’t mind. Overall I really enjoyed the collection! Margo Lanagan is a freak – which I of course mean as a compliment! – and I now want to read more stories out of her freaky brain 🙂Cracklescape_lg_large
  4. I then asked Sarah if she could pick a new one when she came over for dinner on Monday (I actually asked her to pick preemptively as I was almost finished with the last story of Cracklescape which I finished the next day) and she chose Bleed by Peter M Ball! Since it was the only contender she had read (as she also bought it at Swancon) and she had told me a few times that it was good, we we’re both pleased as punch by the choice 😀 I started it yesterday during my lunch break, and then read a few more chapters that afternoon, and I can tell I’m gonna love it just from the sheer amount of swears and drinking so far 😛 Plus it reminds me of the Downside Ghosts series, which Sarah and I were both obsessed with last year, except the main character in that is a ghost-hunting witch who takes a bunch of drugs and has sexy time with dangerous men, and the main character in Bleed is an ex-cop mixed up in messy Faerie business who drinks heavily and fancies the ladies…but also ones which get her into trouble.Bleed
  5. Lastly, I also read another 2 stories from The Living Dead zombie anthology on Sunday, which starred more non-threatening undead. First “Malthusian’s Zombie” by Jeffrey Ford, where the “zombie” was actually a living person who due to a government experiment was virtually brainless and obeyed every command from the person or persons it had been programmed to listen to, right up to crazy things like “stop aging”. It was one of those stories where at the end I was like “what the hell just happened!?” but I also found it quite touching and a unique take on what a zombie is. The second story I read – “Beautiful Stuff” by Susan Palwick – did have zombies which were risen from the dead, however they were purposefully brought back for just a day at a time to visit loved ones or the like (in the case of this story they were victims of a terrorist attack brought back as a political platform) and the dead were very simple, childlike and attracted to animals, plants and shiny things. It also had it’s touching moments, but also a nice dollop of humor. A bunch of different zombie stories by different authors? What's not to love?

So, the new, shorter list of contenders is:

i am legendI Am Legend by Richard Matheson

hornHorn by Peter M Ball

deadly belovedDeadly Beloved by Max Allan Collins

ericThe Illustrated Eric by Terry Pratchett (writer) and Josh Kirby

Now onto the world of fantasy:

1000+ pages of epic fantasy challenge badgeOnce again I was way over my quota and shit is getting intense all over the place in these two behemoths!:

The Sending:

Maruman on the cover of The Sending75 pages (3 chapters)

Pages remaining: 197

Brisingr:

Brisingr52 Pages (3 chapters)

Pages remaining: 393

Total:

127 Pages

Pages remaining: 590

Since I’m consistently reading over 100 pages each week, and both books are getting to the pointy-er end, I may as well make my quota at least 100 pages collectively and strive to read at least 50 pages from each per week. I have added this update to the original challenge post 🙂 If I keep to this new quota I will have finished both books in around 6 more weeks 😀

Besides challenge books I also read my last comic/graphic novel pick – Hinterkind: The Waking World Volume 1 by Ian Edginton (writer), Francesco Trifogli (artist), and Greg Tocchini (cover artist)

hinterkind

Which was an excellent post-apocalyptic story where in the aftermath a few human settlements have been established, including one in an overgrown Central Park, while other beings which hid their existence previously have come out of the shadows to reclaim earth. I will definitely be finding the next volume as there was many an “Oooo! Ahhhh! What now??” moment, especially near the end. I also read the second randomly picked comic from my Free Comic Book Day haul – KaBOOM! Summer Blast – which had a bunch of delightful, self-contained stories from popular children’s comics.

KaBoom Summer Blast

I then picked a new comic out of the Jar-O-Choosing which was The Sandman: Overture #2 – Chapter Two by Neil Gaiman (writer), J.H. Williams III (artist), Dave Stewart (colourist), and Todd Klein (letterer)sandmanoverture2

And since I knew I’d read that super fast, I pre-emptively picked another one – The Unwritten: Leviathan (The Unwritten, Volume # 4) by Mike Carey (writer), Peter Gross (artist, colourist), Vince LockeAl Davison (colourists) and Yuko Shimizu (cover artist)

unwritten 4

And since I picked two, I randomly chose 4 comics from the Free Comic Books – SCAM Crosswords; Grimm Fairy Tales; Spongebob Freestyle Funnies; and Courtney Crumrin

During the week I did indeed read The Sandman: Overture #2 – Chapter Two (which was amazing of course) plus SCAM Crosswords (which was violent fun and even included a crossword on the back with clues related to the comic, but isn’t a series I’m particularly eager to follow-up) and Grimm Fairy Tales (which gave a few teasers of the long-running series, and was much more my style so I reckon I’ll at least find the first volume or something to get a real taste of it 🙂 ).

 I think that’ll do for now, since my week was much less exciting than the last few! Tune in next week (probably Friday) for the next update, and also I’ve started working on a new Collective Nounitude and a new Adventures in Etymology, so expect them soon also 🙂

Until then I’ll leave you with a few fun things:

I came across this video of Neil Patrick Harris and Kelly Ripa inhaling sulfur hexafluoride while browsing YouTube, and even though I’ve seen it before it always makes me giggle (as does pretty much any video where people inhale sulfur hexafluoride or helium, to be honest) so I thought I’d share it with y’all

Then there’s this video from Mental Floss which is actually book-related and very interesting:

And since it’s the 30th Anniversary of one of my fave movies – Freakin’ Ghostbusters you guys! – I thought I’d celebrate with some classic Ghostbusters GIFs:

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That’s one mad librarian!

Maybe I don't have time for a quick smoke break...

Maybe I don’t have time for a quick smoke break…

Yes you did sirs!

Yes you did sirs!

This Mr. Stay Puft's okay! He's a sailor, he's in New York; we get this guy laid, we won't have any trouble!

This Mr. Stay Puft’s okay! He’s a sailor, he’s in New York; we get this guy laid, we won’t have any trouble!

Don't cross the streams!

Don’t cross the streams!

On that note I’ll say goodbye for now. Hope you all have a great weekend (or whatever part of the week it is where you are) especially if you’re watching Ghostbusters 😛

Challenge Update: Week 4 of Short and Sweet & 1000+ Pages of Epic Fantasy + Some More Comedy (and not just from yours truly!)

Why hello there my stochastic, sagacious Bookbaggers!

Welcome to the 4th update of my personal reading challenges, Short and Sweet and 1000+ Pages of Epic Fantasy, and a darn good update it is, if I do say so myself!

Lets start off as usual with:

Short and Sweet challenge badgeNot much happened in this challenge (it’s the other one which warranted the darn good statement) but I’ll do a mini mighty numbered list anyway:

  1. I’ve been reading Above/Below by Stephanie Campisi and Ben Peek quite a bit on my lunch break and commute, and I am a couple of chapters away from finishing Above and flipping the book upside down to start Below. I’m really enjoying it so far and Sarah and I have had a couple of convos comparing the difference between starting on one side or the other – for example with her starting with Below she was introduced to that story’s main character right away and so got used to his appearance (especially his…lets just say “enhancements” to keep it vague and spoiler free, shall we?), but I just reached the part where the main character from Above meets the one from Below, so I found his appearance quite shocking. AboveBelow-cover1-300x246
  2. I still haven’t read any more of Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan as I don’t want to get stuck into a really good short story on the bus or during lunch, and then have to leave it part-way through, but I hope to read one or two this weekendCracklescape_lg_large
  3. Lastly, on Sunday I read another story from The Living Dead zombie anthology – “The Third Dead Body” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, which was even creepier than the last one I read (which I didn’t think was possible). It followed a young prostitute who was murdered by a trick (do people still say “trick” when referring to the customer of a prostitute, or am I behind the times?) and then rises from the dead, inexplicably in love with her murderer and determined to find him due to a Voodoo curse placed on her as a child. Besides being very skin-crawly it was an interesting one because unlike most zombie stories, it was from the point of view of the living dead, and besides having no earthly urges (besides the ones created by her curse which compelled her to find the murderer) and limited senses, she was conscious of her surroundings and had memories of her life.A bunch of different zombie stories by different authors? What's not to love?

As I haven’t found any new books under 200 pages, the contenders remain the same:

a clockwork orangeClockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

i am legendI Am Legend by Richard Matheson

hornHorn by Peter M Ball

BleedBleed by Peter M Ball

deadly belovedDeadly Beloved by Max Allan Collins

ericThe Illustrated Eric by Terry Pratchett (writer) and Josh Kirby

Now onto the other challenge which was really successful last week:

1000+ pages of epic fantasy challenge badgeOn Sunday I had my usual schedule of reading interspersed with “important” stuff like laundry and dishes, but instead of just reading a little of my two gigantic fantasy tomes, I got caught up and a tad carried away:

The Sending:

Maruman on the cover of The Sending70 pages (3 chapters)

Pages remaining: 344

Brisingr:

Brisingr52 Pages (5 chapters)

Pages remaining: 476

Total:

122 Pages (squee!)

Pages remaining: 820

Soooo… I definitely reached my quota…and made up for the week of nothing….and then some O.O I honestly didn’t mean to read as much as I did of either of these books, but they’re both getting so exciting that when I reached the end of the chapter I thought “oh I’ll just do one more and then wash the dishes”… and then I came back to it after the dishes anyway 😛

Besides being engrossed in huge fantasy books and a zombie prostitute story, I also read FreakAngels #2 by Warren Ellis (writer) and Paul Duffield (artist), which has been sitting on my pile looking sad since the end of my breakFreakAngels Warren Ellis Glénat 04 (5)It was as awesome as I expected from the first volume, and even more so because a previously unnamed member of the group was introduced, and she is a hilarious ball-busting no-nonsense sort of chick, which I love, and another character revealed a new ability she had been practicing, which was very cool. I’ll have to track down the other volumes of this series, or maybe just succumb to temptation and start reading the free online version, even though I will likely also buy the hard copies for my burgeoning comic collection 🙂

I then asked my mum to pick me a new comic from the Jar-Of-Choosing (she’s starting to become a more official unofficial Jar Chooser then unofficial Jar Chooser Sarah!) which was one of my new exciting ones:

hinterkindHinterkind: The Waking World Volume 1 by Ian Edginton (writer), Francesco Trifogli (artist), and Greg Tocchini (cover artist). I also randomly picked two comics out of my 20-odd wodge of Free Comic Book Day comics – Worlds of Aspen 2014, which has two previews of upcoming stories in it – a fairy-tale adventure series called Damsels in Excess on one side and an action-adventure called The ZooHunters on the flip side; and KaBOOM! Summer Blast which has stories from Peanuts, Garfield, Adventure Time, and  Regular Show among others.

I haven’t started any of them yet,but since this weekend is meant to be a rainy one, I will probably find myself holed up inside with a blanket and all my delicious reads….mmmmm 🙂

Besides challenge stuff I also went to another comedy gig on Friday night – Michael Workman‘s show “War”, again part of the Perth International Comedy Festival

Michal Workman's tour poster for "War" from wendylikesstories.com click on the image to read her excellent review of the show, as well as one of David O'Doherty's

Michal Workman’s tour poster for “War” from wendylikesstories.com click on the image to read her excellent review of the show, as well as one of David O’Doherty’s

I had previously only seen one show of his – “Mercy” – on Warehouse Comedy, a show that has featured many Australian and international comedians performing in a converted warehouse, but it was so interesting, unique and affecting that I’ve watched it three times – and every time I saw it was to be repeated I was excited to revisit Michael Workman’s amazing story-telling and quirky style. Sarah had never heard of Michael Workman nor seen any of his comedy, but after watching a video teaser of “Mercy” she agreed to go with me, and we had a wonderful time 🙂

On that note I’m off for now Bookbaggers, but I may as well leave you with that same teaser Sarah watched:

Tune in next week for another, hopefully just as successful update, and until then:

so long and thanks for all the fish

 

And since it’s World Turtle Day here’s this little guy as a bonus:

baby turtle gif

Challenge Update: A Successful Week 3 of Short and Sweet & 1000+ Pages of Epic Fantasy!

Greetings and salutations my dapper, debonair Bookbaggers!

As I had a relatively low-key weekend, I have a much more successful update on my new challenges, Short and Sweet and 1000+ Pages of Epic Fantasy, completely devoid of random bragging about my exciting life (snort):

Short and Sweet challenge badge

As I said in my last update, I finished one of my short reads last week, so I have picked a new one and I also have two new contenders, once again brought to you by the might of a numbered list:

  1. I finished No Nice Girl by Perry Lindsay, which was a great commuting read and helped with the whole rut-breaking thing beautifullyno nice girl
  2.  To replace No Nice Girl I asked my lovely mum to pick again, so I wouldn’t be tempted to cheat, and she picked Above/Below by Stephanie Campisi and Ben PeekI was quite pleased with this choice, as Sarah recently read her copy and said it was great, and I thought the whole concept of the book (two stories published on the flip sides of one book, telling different perspectives of the one narrative, which can be read in either order) was really interesting. Since Sarah started with Below I decided to start with Above so we could compare. I’ve only read a few chapters so far, but it already has me hooked in and wanting to learn more about the world.AboveBelow-cover1-300x246
  3. On Thursday I went grocery shopping at my local Coles and came across a wonderfully terrible/excellent cover in the tiny book section – a little pulpy crime book called Deadly Beloved by Max Allan Collins, with a lingerie-and-trench-coat-clad, pistol-wielding dame on the front. Perhaps with No Nice Girl still fresh in my mind, I gave in to my curiosity and read the start of the blurb, and by that point I was a goner. This is a short snippet:

    Marcy Addwater killed her husband – there’s no question about that. Shot him dead in the motel room where he was trysting with a blonde hooker. Shot the hooker, too. But where the cops might see an open-and-shut case, private eye Michael Tree – Ms Michael Tree – sees a conspiracy. For Ms. Tree (ah get it? – Ms. Tree XD) digging into it could mean digging her own grave…and digging up her own murdered husband’s.

    Add it the fact that it’s based on a comic book series and was a mere $5, I couldn’t resist and since it’s 192 pages long it is a new contender in the challenge 😛deadly beloved

  4. On Friday I went to pick up my very exciting Terry Pratchett book which I told you all about last time. It looked even better once I could flip through it, and as chance would have it is also part of the under-200 pages club so has been added to the challenge 🙂eric
  5.  Lastly, on Sunday I read a story from The Living Dead zombie anthology called ‘Blossom’ by David J Schow, which was a very short, but very creepy story where some S&M foreplay goes awry….and since this is a zombie anthology you can probably guess where that leads….trust me, it’s even creepier than what you’re thinking.A bunch of different zombie stories by different authors? What's not to love?

Here’s the updated list of Short and Sweet contenders:

a clockwork orangeClockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

i am legendI Am Legend by Richard Matheson

hornHorn by Peter M Ball

BleedBleed by Peter M Ball

deadly beloved

Deadly Beloved by Max Allan Collins

ericThe Illustrated Eric by Terry Pratchett (writer) and Josh Kirby

I also had success with my other challenge:

1000+ pages of epic fantasy challenge badge

The Sending:

Maruman on the cover of The Sending22 pages (1 chapter)

Pages remaining: 419

Brisingr:

Brisingr38 Pages (2 chapters)

Pages remaining: 532

Total:

60 Pages

Pages remaining: 951

It didn’t quite make up for last week, but I’m under 1000 pages now and both books are getting really interesting, so I have high hopes for this challenge 🙂

Besides that not a lot happened last week….so here’s a few fun things to make this post more exciting 😛

Firstly this video since my bro and I were talking about the other day:

I used to have this on my MySpace page you guys! Back when MySpace was actually cool and Facebook was just a book made of faces or something weird (not sure if a book made of faces is less weird than Facebook however). I likely also had a bad early ’00 song that automatically played in the background of my MySpace and made it take forever to load…and I was probably using dial-up to access it. Man, I hope most of you even knew what I was talking about then or else I’m going to feel pre-maturely old O.O

Next a couple of gifs from Orphan Black, which is my current obsession in TV-land:

baaaaaaa

felix

And lastly a video from the Arctic Monkeys concert I went to @ Perth Arena on Tuesday night (not one I filmed – I was much further away) of my favourite song off their new album, and the song they closed an epic set with:

It’s a bit wobbly and you can hear the fans singing along as clear, if not clearer than, the band, but I kind of like that – it shows the excitement and energy in the room that night better than if it had perfect picture and sound, you know?

That’ll do for now Bookbaggers, but I’ll catch ya next week when I do my next update, and there may be some other bits and bobs in the works too.

Until then:

good-night-apocalypse

Book Polygamist is back baby!

Long time no see my illustrious, invigorating Bookbaggers!

This is just a quickie to say sorry for being incommunicado since early December and to let you know that I’m still here and Book Polygamist hasn’t joined the Island of Lost Blogs.

I won’t go into why I’ve been absent as it’s a terribly boring combination of a relaxing holiday break, an old zombie-like laptop too frustrating for words, a lack of funds for Internet beyond my smart phone, and as always, a dash of laziness.

Regular blogging won’t really start-up again straight away, as there is normal start of year busyness to contend with at my work, plus I have moved to a different campus so that will take some adjustment, but I thought I would at least let you know my plans for upcoming posts

Coming in February

  1. I will of course be doing my Awards for last year, but with a bit of a twist! Since I read so many comics/graphic novels in 2013 I thought it only fair that they get their own Top 10, so before the end of Feb expect a Top 10 Books I Read in 2013, a Top 10 Comics I Read in 2013, and some new comic-related awards in my 2013 Book Polygamist Awards
  2. Since I haven’t stopped reading over the holidays (quite the opposite!) I have a few Notable Quotables which I’ll post in Feb
  3. Lastly I have made some changes for 2014 that I will tell you about (may include the introduction of a new challenge 😉 ) plus I’ll update you on some of my book-related news, i.e. what I finished and started over my holiday, books I got gifted for Xmas etc.

Coming sometime soon

  1. I will hopefully do a new Collective Nounitude and an Adventures in Etymology in the near future, time permitting
  2. I hope to catch up on the Micro Reviews from Planet Procrastination in my spare time, since they’re the only reviews I really do anymore (bad book blogger!) and I enjoy writing some fiction again 🙂
  3. Maybe I’ll sort out a format for reviews I can be bothered with and start doing them again – even if it’s just a copy and paste job from my Shelfari reviews with a bit of book info 😛

Lastly, before I disappear again I have been indecisive about Book Polygamist’s theme of late. Some of you may have noticed that I changed from the one I’ve had for ages – Matala – to Shine On, a seasonal theme designed for Xmas (how could I resist the owl!) and now I have become interested in another theme (seems I’m a polygamist for things other than books!) Sorbet, and I can’t decide which I like more.

So, I thought I’d put it to a vote, since I haven’t done a poll for a while and you’re the ones looking at it anyway:

The poll will expire in a month so you have all of Feb to vote and whichever one wins will become the theme, at least for now 😛

That’s in for now, in my possible absence pop over to the Facebook page or my Pinterest if you want some Book Polygamist Lite, and I’ll leave you with a little something that made me giggle:

What I wish I could do when someone is talking while I'm reading :P

What I wish I could do when someone is talking while I’m reading 😛

Challenges Update # 22 – A Wrap-up of New Books November + Who Day and other Exciting Acquisitions!

Season’s Greetings my jolly, yuletastic Bookbaggers!

Sorry I have been AWOL since my last update. Initially I didn’t do an update because nothing had really happened challenge-wise what with the end of War & Pages and the wrapping-up of New Books November, but I was going to still share my experiences of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary and other goodies I have acquired before and after. That was the plan last week, however at work we are winding down to the christmas break which has been a bit hectic and exciting, so blogging has sort of fallen behind the couch of things-to-do.

But! I am back and will at least do this last challenge update before my chrissy holidays begin 😀

I have lots of exciting things to share with you but firstly here’s a quick wrap-up of New Books November:

  1. New Books November challenge badgeNew Book November successfully included at least one book/graphic novel from all 4 piles (Books-I-Own-But-Have-Yet-To-Read; Books-Borrowed-From-Libraries; Books-Borrowed-From-Others; and Graphic Novels) and 6 books/graphic novels were chosen, which is a great result
  2. I still haven’t started The Living Dead anthology or Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde as I’ve been so distracted, however since I will have a lot of time on my hands I can enjoy them before Christmas 🙂
  3. I have only read one chapter so far of Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger but I was giggling throughout so this is another one I’ll sink my teeth into before xmasetiquette and espionage
  4. I finished Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow – Wonderland last Saturday and I absolutely loved it! The story was a really interesting sort-of stand-alone which saw Willow journeying to another dimension of sort in order to restore magic to her world. As you can imagine from the title, there were Alice in Wonderland elements to the story, such as a cryptic man-sized caterpillar, but mostly it was its own exciting and insightful story, especially for fans of Willow and her struggles with magic. The art was absolutely stunning and definitely enhanced the vivid setting. willow wonderland
  5. I also finished Death: The High Cost of Living, last weekend (on Sunday) which was another sort-of stand-alone in a world I love. It of course followed the character of Death from the Sandman comics as she spends one day as a mortal on Earth, as she must do every 100 years to understand the struggles of the people she takes everyday. death the high cost of living
  6. I also started and finished FreakAngels #1 on Sunday which was fantastic! It was set in a post-apocalyptic world and focused on a group called the Freakangels – 12 people born at the exact same moment 23 years before, who despite their parentage have the same pale skin, purple eyes and powerful psychic powers which they were forced to use to end the world and start anew. The first volume was nicely mysterious, giving away little tidbits of information but keeping major plot points for later on. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next volume!freak angels vol 1
  7. This challenge was also fun because I had my mascot – Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales which I polished off on Sunday (sunday was spent almost exclusively reading comics :D) I thoroughly enjoyed it and it has been a big highlight of this challenge, and of the year 🙂 buffy tales
  8. Overall it was a really fun challenge that allowed me to choose recently bought, borrowed or published books without cheating 😛

Now onto the excitement that was Who Day! 😀 😀

As I said in my last update, my best friends and Official Jar Chooser, Sarah, and I had been invited over to my workmate, Scott’s place to stay up until the wee hours to watch the 50th at the same time as Whovians the world over. We started our day/night of fun by meeting in the city centre where Scott presented Sarah and I with our own Who Day 2013 lanyards that he had made especially for the occasion (thus awarding him many cool points) before we headed to the ABC Shop where they were having a special 50th Anniversary event with lots of Doctor Who loot for sale, a costume competition, a quiz and other fun activities. None of us were in costume except Scott wore a shirt with the TARDIS on it and I wore my 10th of Hearts shirt from Teefury:

10th-of-Hearts-TeeFury-Shirt-of-the-Day

So we knew the costume comp wasn’t really for us, plus we wanted to get going fairly quickly to start our day of movie watching, so me and Sarah quickly filled in the quiz (we got all questions right with minimal cheating :P) and perused their wares. Scott went away with a fabulous TARDIS cushion, Sarah got a Sylvester McCoy era DVD (her first and favourite Doctor) and a cute TARDIS-shaped soap dispenser and I got a cute TARDIS book light which has a normal light and a UV light to revel hidden messages written with the included invisible ink pen; a Tom Baker era DVD, Masque Of Mandragora; and a book of course! – Who’s 50 which covers 50 episodes/story arcs that are must watches 🙂

All my Who Day goodies :D

All my Who Day goodies 😀

We then bussed to Scott’s neck of the woods, had lunch at his local shopping centre food court then headed back to his to start our exciting viewing extravaganza! Scott had plenty planned for us before the 50th anniversary episode so we got cracking with the Star Trek Next Generation Movie – First Contact, which I had never seen before and Sarah hadn’t seen since it came out when we were kids. I was amazing on Blu-ray and on Scott’s impressive TV and was an awesome way to start the festivities! Next we watched a doco that Scott had kept a secret – Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope – which followed a few very different sets of people going to San Diego Comic-con (two artists hoping to break into the industry; a comic book seller hoping for good business at the con to keep his business afloat; and a troupe of master cosplayers) and interviewed a whole bunch of con regulars and newbies, fans and professionals alike. It was also fantastic and me and Sarah were both by surprised how much we were rooting for the artists, sellers and cosplayers to succeed! After those few hours of sitting we went for a welcome walk with Scott’s adorable Corgi cross German Shepard, Fudge and had top-notch bento at a local Japanese place before settling in for the evening’s entertainment.

Our next viewing was The Cabin in the Woods, an unconventional horror flick from the genius mind of Joss Whedon along with fellow buffy/angel writer Drew Goddard. I had always meant to see Cabin in the Woods, as had Sarah and within the first few minutes I think we were both thinking the same thing: “WHY HAVE WE NEVER SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE.” It was truly epic and amazing, one of the best and most original horror films I have ever seen and definitely one I will now need to find for my collection. If you’ve never seen it and you’re a Joss Whedon fan, or a horror movie buff, or a fan of good movies in general, do yourself a favour – see this movie ASAP! With still many hours until our beloved 50th Anniversary episode we then decided to get into the Who mood a bit by watching Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide a 2 hour special which chronicled every regeneration as well as key villains, companions and gadgets from the show. After that it was getting to be pretty late and with a couple of hours still before the 50th ep we were all stating to lag. As a preventative measure we went for a film full of action and scary stuff to shock us awake if we started to nod off – World War Z. It was a pretty good disaster/horror movie which differed from the book (which Sarah and I both read recently after borrowing it from Scott) but not in a way that annoyed me – they were their own entities and as a zombie movie this was genuinely terrifying and creepy. Suffice to say it kept us awake until the main event!

I don’t think I have to say that the 50th Anniversary episode – Day of the Doctor – was AMAZING. We all had fangirl/fanboy moments throughout, laughed and gasped and cheered, and I know that I teared up on multiple occasions. I won’t give anything away in case you haven’t seen it, but as a Whovian I was definitely chuffed 🙂 And we made it all the way through to morning without falling asleep or dying so that’s an achievement!

Who day extravaganza collage

Despite being proud of our efforts and feeling not that shabby we all agreed a power nap for a few hours was in order before we ventured out for breakfast, so we kipped until 10ish, had some much-needed coffee and prepared ourselves for a final outing. But, before we headed off Scott had a lovely surprise for us – a goodie bag of presents for the two of us including a couple of DVDs, 2 audio CDs (one Doctor Who story and one Torchwood!) and a graphic novel. immediately we split the DVDs between us as one was the final season of The L Word (mine) and the other was an anime (Sarah’s) and I latched onto the graphic novel as it had been one I had eyed out whilst perusing comic stores with Scott previously:

American vampire

American Vampire #1 by Scott Snyder, Stephen King (writers), Rafael Albuquerque (artist), Dave McCaig (colourist) and Steve Wands (letterer)

However, I will loan it to Sarah once I’ve finished if she so desires 😉 The CDs have gone to Sarah as I had the lion’s share, but I’ll be borrowing them off her also. It was such an unexpected gift that me and Sarah were quite touched – the day/night itself was gift enough, presents on top were just icing on the cake 🙂 We ended our adventure by getting a big breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs, hash browns and ice coffees all around in the city centre once more, before me and Sarah headed back to mine to talk about what a fantastic time we had for the rest of the day. It really was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a really long time.

In other news I’ve made a couple more exciting purchases, as I do.

The Friday before Who Day Scott and I went to a local comic place, Comiczone where I got some very exciting things:

Comiczone purchases

Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere by Mike Carey (writer), Glenn Fabry (artist), Richard Horie, Tanya Horie (colourists) and Todd Klein (letterer); The Crow: Skinning the Wolves by James O’Barr (writer/artist) and Jim Terry (writer/artist/colourist); and Telling Tales a CD of Neil Gaiman reading some of his short stories with accompanying orchestral music for ambience 🙂

Then we went to Kaleido and I bought 2 books:

Kaleido purchases

I am Legend by Richard Matheson which was proclaimed as a must-read by Scott, and Grimm Tales by Philip Pullman which just sounded neat because it’s a retelllling of Grimm’s fairy tales.

And I also got a few of their bookish badges:

Kaleido badges

Then this week I popped into Kaleido again to pick up a book I had on order:

20131205_184517

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter which I have heard great things about and, come on, Alice AND Zombies? I know I’ll love it 😛

That’s it for now my faithful Bookbaggers 🙂 I may be notably absent for the rest of the year as I enjoy my holiday and gear up for Xmas, but I promise I will drop by with little bits and bobs when I can and then I’ll be back to do my annual awards!

Until then I’ll just leave you with one of the funniest parts of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary episode, as a taster:

As always share away in the comments, send me an email at bookpolygamist(at)gmail(dot)com or frolic on the Facebook page, and check out my mad pinning (which will likely increase with my free time) on Pinterest :)

Challenges Update # 21 – Week 10 of War & Pages + New Books for New Books November!

Hello my gracious, gregarious Bookbaggers!

Welcome to the 10th update of  War & Pages (and actually the 11th and final update too!) + an exciting update on  New Books November and other crazy dribblings from my mind parts 😀

war &  pages challenge badge

This Sunday I was feeling a little under par (probably a combination of the heat and an overindulgence of junk and underindulgence of sleep the nights before) so I stayed inside, napped, and read in between napping. As a result I read over 50 pages of Catch 22 and likely would’ve finished the whole lot if I hadn’t fallen asleep again:

Catch 22:

catch22

59 pages (4 chapters)

World War Z:

world-war-z-book-cover

Finished! :D

Total:

59 pages

Then Tuesday afternoon and evening I plunged in again and before I knew it I had finished the last 2 chapters and the extra bits at the back! Since it seems silly to wait until next week to officially update you on this development, I may as well do this:

Catch 22:

catch22

53 pages (2 chapters + thoughts on Catch 22) – Finished! :D

World War Z:

world-war-z-book-cover

Finished! :D

Total:

53 pages

Overall it was a wonderfully surreal and darkly funny book, and while it took me the good part of the year to read it, this challenge certainly helped me get into the story and finally finish this excellent classic. I know a lot of people struggle with Catch 22, so to them I say: don’t worry if it takes you forever to pick it up, if you start and abandon it a dozen times, or when you finally stick with it, it takes you almost a year – or longer – to get through –  in the end its worth it 🙂

So that’s all folks for the War & Pages challenge, which started with a link between two books I was struggling with, and in the end both books were in the top 10 of books I’ve read this year! I do have another idea for a reading challenge (*cough* possibly to do with Brisingr *cough*), so perhaps when New Books November is done and dusted I will announce something new – I’m getting to love this challenge business!

In other exciting news I have chosen my first books for New Books November!

New Books November challenge badge

As predicted I didn’t finish anything before the 15th, so I planned to get Official jar Chooser Sarah to pick me a random slip and a Comic Companion to go with it on the weekend, but then I also finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman Friday afternoon (it was awesome by the by) so instead I got her to choose 1 random slip, 1 blue slip (since Neverwhere was a library book and thus had a library book successor) and 2 greens for the Comic Companions. Then yesterday she came over for a coffee and chose a purple slip (Books-I-Own-But-Have-Yet-To-Read) and another Comic Companion to replace Catch 22, so for New Books November I have at least one book from each pile! 😀

The random slip Sarah chose was actually a blue so I just made that the replacement for Neverwhere and got her to choose another random:

The Living  Dead - New Books November

The Living Dead by Various

I borrowed this zombie anthology from my workmate, Scott, at the same time as World War Z so I’m really excited to get into some more zombie creepyness (especially because I finally got around to watching The Walking Dead since the first episode is finally airing on free-to-air TV in Australia (yes we are way past the 8 ball on this one).

And for the Comic Companion:

Willow wonderland - New Books November

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)

I’m really excited about this choice as Willow is my favourite character from Buffy, and the art for this collection is just stunning!

For the blue slip replacing Neverwhere she picked:

Shades of Grey - New Books November

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

This interesting sounding sci-fi came before the whole 50 Shades phenomena and has been raved about on many book blogs I follow so I’m eager to see what its like 🙂 Sounds to me a bit like The Giver meets The Hunger Games with its own twist, which is very promising 😀

And as the Comic Companion:

Death the high cost of living - New Books November

Death: The High Cost of Living
by Neil Gaiman (writer), Chris Bachalo (penciller) and Mark Buckingham (inker)

I was also super excited to read this stand-alone volume set in the Sandman universe, staring one of its most intriguing characters – Dream/Morpheus/The Sandman’s sister and fellow Endless, Death.

Then last night to replace Catch 22 she chose:

Etiquette and espionage - New Books November

Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger

Darn lens flare! This is another uber exciting choice because it’s the first in Gail Carriger‘s (of Parasol Protectorate fame) new series, and if it’s good (which it definitely will be!) I can lend it to Sarah after 🙂

And as the final Comic Companion:

Freak angels - New Books November

 FreakAngels #1 by Warren Ellis (writer) and Paul Duffield (artist)

Which I bought at the same time as Death: The High Cost of Living and looks excellent 🙂

While there is next to no chance that I will finish something else before December 1st, the contenders still need updating, just in case. The updated contenders are:

Books-I-Own-But-Have-Yet-To-Read Pile (Purple Slips)

Newest-On-The-Pile Books:

A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin

a-game-of-thrones

White Cat by Holly Black

white-cat

Books Published in 2013:

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

neil-gaiman-the-ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane-book-cover

Books-Borrowed-From-Libraries Pile (Blue Slips)

Newest-On-The-Pile Books:

Carnevale by M.R. Lovric

carnevale

Skinlane by Neil Bartlett

skin lane

(Yes, I know this was also on the Old Books October contender list, but I now only have three books on this pile, so they’re all included)

Books Published in 2013:

Metro Winds by Isobelle Carmody

metrowinds

Books-Borrowed-From-Others Pile (Red Slips)

Newest-On-The-Pile Books:

Flip This Zombie by Jesse Petersen

flip this zombie

Away with the Fairies by  Kerry Greenwood

away with the fairies

Books Published in 2013:

None.

Graphic Novels (Green Slips)

Newest-On-The-Pile Books:

         Scott Pilgrim Volume 1: Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O’Malley

scott pilgrim vol 1

Batman: Nevermore Issues 1-5
by Len Wein (writer), Guy Davis (penciller and inker), and Jeromy Cox (colourist)

Batman Nevermore

Books Published in 2013:

Rat Queens #1 – Gold, Guts and Grog, Part One
by Kurtis J. Wiebe (writer) and John Upchurch (artist)

rat queens #1

In other New Books November news I didn’t end up reading any of my New Books November mascot – Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales – over the weekend, but I did read some Monday afternoon

buffy tales

I read the Melaka Fray story that I mentioned last week, but then when I was all ready to get into the Vampire half I saw that there was one last Slayer story that I missed – and a pretty darn epic one at that! The forgotten story was actually a story in two parts that circled back on each other in a way. The first half was about Buffy and the Sunnydale crew dealing with a Djinn at Sunnydale high, and it was illustrated in this glorious, psychedelic coloured, cartoonish style. The second part was set in the late 1930s (during WWII) and had the Slayer enlisted to impersonate a German spy, but ended up with her discovering the same Djinn and trapping it.

In other, other news, last Friday I received a really exciting parcel in the mail – my two pre-ordered copies (one for me and one for Sarah) of Hyperbole and a Half by the hilarious Allie Brosh 😀 😀

Hyperbole and a half

Because Allie is hilarious and the book is filled with stories/comics both from her blog and previously unpublished, I have also been dipping into this all week, so with all the books I was already reading, the New Books November picks, plus this and my New Books November mascot, my currently reading page is looking like some sort of crazed orgy of books and comics at the moment!

I haven’t started the majority of the new picks (only Etiquette and Espionage which I started during my lunch break yesterday) and I probably won’t get to them this weekend as the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary episode – The Day of the Doctor (linked in case you live under a rock… which still has internet access…and yet you still haven’t heard about the 50th….under a rock with internet access but you only read my blog? Little weird and stalkerish Mr Under-rock dweller, but that link’s for you :P) is airing Saturday night/obscenely early Sunday morning and my workmate Scott, Sarah and I are staying up all night to watch it 😀

That’s all for now (“All?!” I hear you say. “After that bombardment of news I need a lie down” O.O) but stay tuned for more updates, maybe a new challenge and other things that I can think of/can be bothered doing 😛

Until then:

You want weapons? We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world! This room’s the greatest arsenal we could have – arm yourselves!

In honor of the 50th Anniversary I thought I’d go with another book-related Doctor Who quote, this time from the Season 2 episode (of the New Who series that is) Tooth and Claw.

and this is a representation of how excited I am about the 50th, especially seeing David Tennant as the doctor again:

Doctor who David Tennant gif

Also, in case you haven’t had enough Doctor Who stuff on this post (is there such thing?) have you seen the Google Doodle for today?

If you go there today it should be there and if it ends up the the archives after I'll update the link :)

Updated to link to the doodle in Google’s doodle archive…that’s a bit of a mouthful isn’t it?

Its a super funny and frustrating game (aren’t the frustrating ones also usually the most fun?) where you play as the doctor fetching all the letters of GOOGLE in different times while dodging Daleks and the like, and ever time you die you move on to the next regeneration! Very cool 🙂

Anyway, that’s really all for now 😛 As always share you’re weird sigh-offs, quotes and now I guess funny gifs too in the comments, at bookpolygamist(at)gmail(dot)com or on the Facebook page, and feel free to follow me or just my individual boards on Pinterest 🙂

Challenges Update # 20 – Week 9 of War & Pages + Other Bits and Bobs

Good morrow my nifty, nimble Bookbaggers!

Welcome to the 9th update of  War & Pages + other little updates such as how New Books November is going 🙂

war &  pages challenge badge

I had another weekend of reading since it was hot and I’m a pale, ground-dwelling sort of beast which burns at the sight of a few rays making an inside relaxation the best option. I ended up reading a bit from most of my current reads (even Brisingr!) and easily made my quota with Catch 22:

Catch 22:

catch22

52 pages (6 chapters)

World War Z:

world-war-z-book-cover

Finished! :D

Total:

52 pages

There is only a little over 100 pages left so I will be all done with this challenge either at the end of this week or the next, depending on how riveting it gets in the final chapters 🙂

New Books November challenge badge

 I still haven’t finished any current reads so the picked-for-New-Books-November tally is still at zero. While I am getting close, I don’t think I will finish either Catch 22 or Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman by the 15th, since it’s tomorrow, so it looks like I will be doing my just-in-case-random-picks as prophesied in the official challenge rules. I will be seeing my Official jar Chooser, Sarah, on Friday night so I’ll ask her to pick then or Saturday, and will probably also get her to pick ones to replace Catch 22 and Neverwhere in case I finish them right after (highly likely).

In other New Books November news, I also read three more stories from my New Books November mascot – Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales

buffy tales
The first was set in the Wild West with a Navajo Slayer on the hunt for a particular vampire and it was beautifully illustrated in muted sepia tones; the second was set in Germany during World War II with a young Slayer coming to terms with her understanding of evil and who the real monsters are, and had a uniquely unsettling, childlike art style; and the last was set in modern times (my best guess is ’60s-early ’70s judging by the visual clues and the character involved) and was about a Slayer which featured in the show – Nikki Wood, one of the two Slayers Spike killed (the one who he “inherited” his iconic leather jacket from) and the mother of Principal Robin Wood from season  7.

There is only one tale left of the Slayers half of the collection, which follows Melaka Fray, the Slayer from the far future featured in the Graphic Novel, Fray, which I read earlier this year, which I will probably read on the weekend, and then I’ll be onto the Tales of the Vampires half 🙂

Another little bit of news is that I have acquired another Graphic Novel, this time from my local library. I logged into my account on their catalogue the other day to check when my books were due and thought I’d do a quick search to see what other  Neil Gaiman books they hold (since I’m a tad obsessed now :P). What I found was mainly stuff I’ve already borrowed or bought, but I did stumble across The Books of Magic which Neil Gaiman did with artists John Bolton, Scott Hampton, Charles Vess and Paul Johnson

books of magicI vaguely remember reading one volume of The Books of Magic when I was a kid, around the same time that I read The Sandman volume 3: Dream Country and whilst I don’t remember a thing about it, I do remember that I loved it, so I’m excited to read this collection of volumes 1-4 at some point after New Books November 🙂

Also I have recently joined Pinterest!

Book Polygamist on Pinterest

Not everything is book or reading related obviously but if any of you are interested you can follow one of more of my boards by clicking on the screenshot above or here

I’ve also put a link on my About page and if you don’t have Pinterest you won’t miss out because anything related to books, reading, libraries and the like that I think is especially share-worthy will also be put on the Facebook page

Well, that’s all for now Bookbaggers. Look out for my challenge update next week where I will very probably share my picks for New Books November! But until then:

“What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore it knows it’s not fooling a soul.”
Neil Gaiman, American Gods

Quote from Goodreads

Since I obviously have Neil Gaiman on the mind I thought a quote from American Gods, one of my Top 10 Reads of 2012 was only fitting 🙂 As always if you have other lovely book quotes or pop-culture ones which I can fit books into somehow, let me know in the comments, send me an email at bookpolygamist(at)gmail(dot)com or post on the Facebook page
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