Snoopy or silence

Love it or hate it there is no escaping Christmas music. Personally I am just about ready to boycott any business that insists on blasting it uninvited into my ears when I visit. Particularly Snoopy’s Christmas. This piece of music is my bête noir as a librarian because, despite its popularity, for some unknown reason it is impossible to buy or borrow a score of it – so if you have one you’re thinking of getting rid of, your local library would be eternally grateful for a donation.

However, I am happy to choose my own Christmas music and my own time for listening to it – strictly Christmas Eve in my case – so I often take home a CD from the library. I quite like a traditional rendition of carols and maybe some jazz.

To select one to suit your own individual tastes try browsing our extensive website guide to Christmas music at the library.

The joy of my sexy holiday reading pile

I’m feeling a bit pleased with the library booty I’ve gathered up for holiday reading.

Poetry

It’s been a fan-blooming-tastic year for poetry, and am looking forward to getting my teeth into Magnificent Moon by Ashleigh Young. It has had great reviews and I confess I got even more keen when I read her  blog post on the book launch:

I suddenly realised that I’d made a serious omission in that poem: the vomit. Ah, the vomit! There is always another layer – of something, maybe not always of vomit – underneath the story, festering away. Which is why I’m now very excited about future projects. My six-year-old self is feeling very gleeful right now as well, because she finally got a book.

PS Ashleigh’s blog Eyelashroaming is a nuggety gem.

Book pron

My ideal bookshelf art by Jane Mount, edited by Thessaly La Force
Ideal bookshelf neatly captures the personalness and attractiveness of books on a shelf. Yes, I suppose a librarian would say that …

The book features the ideal bookshelf of a pretty damn cool range of peeps, from Judd Apatow to:

writers Chuck Klosterman, Jennifer Egan, and Michael Chabon, musicians Patti Smith and Thurston Moore, chefs and food writers Alice Waters and Mark Bittman, and fashion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte.

Plus Thessaly La Force ties with Sonnet Stanfill for my favourite author name of the year.

Snifferama

The Perfume Lover Denyse Beaulieu

Given that Luca Turin is my homeboy, I think I’ll like a perfumey exploration. Though this description makes me a bit iffy:

When Denyse tells a famous perfumer of a sensual night spent in Seville under an orange tree in full blossom, wrapped in the arms of a beautiful young man, the story stirs his imagination and together they create a scent that captures the essence of that night.

Pop culture guff

Silhouettes from popular culture by Olly Moss. This is the dude behind some of the coolest pop culture referencing stuff around including Video Game classics and the spoiler tshirt from Threadless. While away some time guessing who the silhouettes are – from the Big Lebowski to Saved by the bell.

The History of the NME by Pat Long and How soon is now? The Madmen and Mavericks Who Made Independent Music, 1975-2005 by Richard King will fill the need for a meaty beaty big and bouncy music tomes.

What is on your holiday to-read pile?