Blog Resolutions 2014

It feels weird to be back blogging again.  I'd set up most of my December posts in advance to go automatically and, in the haze of overwork over Christmas, lost track of what went up when.  I'm still somewhat exhausted, so this week will be on the lighter side for blogging.

I managed to read several books on my commute downtown, so you can expect to see one of those each week, as usual.  I'm not sure how much this will affect the blog, but I'll be reading more history books in the coming month (making use of Toronto's library system while I still have access to it).  They're mostly medieval or related history books, so you may find a lot of non-fiction reviews in February and March as well as some Stranger Than Fiction posts about some of the things I learn.

The downside of this is that I won't be accepting any new review requests for a while, at least until my store closes.  I'll still have books received posts for anything that shows up in the mail, but I won't be asking for new books until I have time to read them again.  And, as usual, I'd like to work on the backlog of books I've been sent that I haven't had time to read.

I'm considering a new feature where I research different mythologies and post information about strange creatures I find.  I've got several mythology books, a medieval bestiary, The Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were (sadly out of print but an amazing resource if you can find it) and a dictionary of symbolism.  It feels like fantasy is stuck on a few common creatures and it's been cool seeing some authors diverge from that, particularly Max Gladstone's Two Serpents Rise, which used Mesoamerican mythology, Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon, which used Arabic mythology, and Shana Mlawski's Hammer of Witches, which used a mix of Arabic and Jewish mythologies.  There are so many interesting creatures in the mythologies of the world it seems a shame that so many are ignored.

I'm looking forward to this new year.