2015 in Review - BookAddiction Blog
Thursday, December 31, 2015
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for my BookAddiction blog. I love my little blog but I think I need to work harder next year - more bookish posts, more reviews (I read loads of books but only review a tiny proportion) and lots more on book collecting as I love doing those posts most and they seem most useful to others too.
Here's an excerpt:
Here's an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,200 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.Click here to see the complete report.
The Ingoldsby Legends - Mirth and Marvels, 1864, designed by John Leighton. Image credit: British Library[/caption]
The tradition of giving books and other keepsakes at Christmas has ancient origins but had been largely the preserve of the affluent elite. Spring used to be the prime time for book production but with technological advances in the early 19th century, printing and books became cheaper and more plentiful and by the 1840s peak time had shifted to October, with publishers and printers rushing out enough gift books, special editions and Christmas reading to assuage the growing demands of the aspiring middle-classes to celebrate Christmas in style. Authors, too, developed an acute understanding of the potential of the Christmas market. Charles Dickens wrote Christmas-themed stories for special editions of magazines such as Household Works and All Year Round and in 1843 he published the perennial Xmas favourite, a Christmas Carol. Fables, ghost stories and fairy tales were prominent among Victorian Christmas gift books, with new fantasy stories from the likes of Charles Kingsley, Christina Rosetti and Lewis Carroll mixing with retellings of traditional stories and cheap reprints of classic works.
Books intended for the Christmas market were often elaborately and beautifully decorated and illustrated - it was an era when books were often appreciated, and shown off, for their physical appearance as much as their contents. The one shown above - a copy of the Ingoldsby Legends from the 1860s - is typical, with its generous block gold decorations. This one is in the fine care of the 
Secret Santa sent me The Art of English Murder by Lucy Worsley - a book I didn't know existed by perfectly blends my interests in true crime, crime and detective fiction and history. I recall enjoying the series when it was shown on TV, but I didn't get to see them all, and the book is even better! I can say this with confidence, as I'm already half way through!
The second book out of the generously-sized parcel was another I hadn't come across before, but am now very glad to have it. The Italian Boy by Sarah Wise promises a retelling of a true story of murder and grave-robbery in 1830s London. A true crime story, set in early Victorian London couldn't be a better choice for me.
And the final book in this special parcel is The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. Winner of the Man Booker Prize a couple of years back, I've long been meaning to read this, and now I can!
I've given quite a few books as Christmas presents myself this year too. I will post about those, and why I chose them, but I don't want to give the game away before we have our delayed present exchange on Monday. I also plan to update this book if I'm lucky enough to receive any more books this Christmas.
Have you given or received books as Christmas gifts this year? Which are your favourites & why? Blogged about them? Have the odd photo or two? Please share. Post a link to you blog or photos or whatever before and, if you like, share on Twitter using the hashtag #XmasGiftBook
There's a lovely blog post here, on 
The Literary Press's owl logo - In Knowledge Lies Wisdom[/caption]
I know the Literary Press published some of Elizabeth Craig's cook books, such as 'Elizabeth Craig's Simple Cooking' but this particular version of the Literary Press's logo doesn't seem to match the editions of Craig's book that I have to hand. Any thoughts, tips or knowledge very gratefully received. If we get further details of the book from the book hunter, I'll post them here.
Afternoon at Home by Louis Wain, Design for a picture postcard published by Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd in London, 1922. India ink, water and body colour.[/caption]
To many these days Louis Wain may not be a familiar name but anyone lucky enough to remember the first few decades of the 20th century may recall being amused by his cat pictures, or have a vague recollection of the public appeals on Wain's behalf as he ended his life in mental illness.
Wain's most prolific period was between 1890, shortly after the death from cancer of his adored first wife Emily, and the outbreak of the first world war. During that period he illustrated many books and designed hundreds of picture postcards showing cats acting as humans or dressed in human clothes. He drew other anthropomorphic animals as well, but it was his cats that enchanted the public and with which he made his name.
[caption id="attachment_1184" align="aligncenter" width="356"]
Acrobatic Cats by Louis Wain. Drawing for illustration produced by Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd, c 1905. India ink and water colours.[/caption]
Wain was born in London in 1860, the son of a textile traveller originally from Leek in Staffordshire. His artist bent probably derived from his mother, Felicia (nee Boiteux) who was of Angl0-French descent. She worked as a textile designer and her father had been a freelance artist. Wain enjoyed great successes with this illustrations but he was not as good at managing his money as he was at drawing cats and his life was marked by poverty as a well as tragedy and ill-health: he died of kidney failure in 1935 but the latter years of his life in particular were marred with mental decline and symptoms - including some loss of speech and paresis - suggestive of cerebral thombosis.
His cat drawings, always peppered with incisive wit, brought joy to thousands of people all over the world - some of whom "sent him specimens varying from one many thousands of years old taken from a Egyptian mummy's tomb to the latest china monstrosity".
The essay was originally written in the late 1940s by Brian Reade, Deputy Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and intended to accompany an exhibition of a representative sample of reproductions of Wain's works. But that project never came to fruition and the essay was only published when the Victoria and Albert Museum held a Louis Wain exhibition in the early part of 1972. The essay is illustrated with numerous examples of Wain's cat illustrations, most of which are presented in lovely full colour tones.
[caption id="attachment_1186" align="aligncenter" width="916"]
Louis Wain by Brian Reade, an extended essay published by the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1972[/caption]
This book (booklet? - it's only 28 pages and comes in card covers) would make a fine and unusual Christmas present for any cat lover or admirer of Louis Wain's work - we only have one in stock but would love it to find an appreciative home.