How 2008 Was Hornswoggled

Here's something else I've done two years in a row -- I think it was a meme originally, but I find it an interesting snapshot of a blog through time, so I'm doing it every year. (For reference, here are 2006 and 2007.)

How it works: I post the first and last sentences from Antick Musings from each month of the past year. If anyone else feels inclined to pick this up and turn it back into a meme, feel free.

I'm cheating slightly this year, because my monthly "Read in {foo}" posts go up first thing each month, and they all have some variation of the sentence "Here's what I read last month" to lead off, and repeating that over and over and over would be tedious. So I'm silently skipping those posts.

January:
"Unlike everyone else, I always wait until the new year to post my favorite books of the previous year -- in part because I'm a stickler for minor points of protocol, but also in part because the book I'm reading on December 31st just might be one of the best of the year."

"If you don't expect anything large from it, Scenes of a Sexual Nature will be a delight."

February:
"Over at Green Man Review, there's a new issue chock-full of various people telling you what the best music of 2007 was, each from their own idiosyncratic points of view."

"Read us now...or hear about us later!"

March:
"This is a sequel to The Cheese Monkeys, which was widely seen as a thinly-veiled autobiography, even though it was set a decade or so too early to be Chip Kidd's real life."

"A full list of the nominees is also available."

April:
"I may add to this, as the day goes on and I discover more amusement out there, but, to start the morning, here are some links to unbelievable stories of the day:"

"So that's the point: I complain because I love. Really."

May:
"He "doesn’t like it when you tease him about his success, or suggest that many of his books are written by assistants (they’re not, he insists: he deals with absolutely every plot twist and detail, even if he doesn’t write every word)," says Publishers Weekly's Sara Nelson."

"Has anyone out there used Twitter, and actually found it useful. If so...for what?"

June:
"The mail was light this week, probably because all of trade publishing was obsessing about, preparing for, and traveling to BEA out in Los Angeles."

"That sounds like a vaudeville setup, but I really did review the novel Superpowers by David J. Schwartz. Honest."

July:
"As of last night -- I haven't been connected long enough to see anything this morning -- there was still no statement from Boing Boing about why nearly all references to Violet Blue were deleted from that blog recently. "

"Suck it up or go home. If you want to be taken seriously, be serious. And watch what the real journalists do. Asking your subject to pay you is very much not what actual journalists do."

August:
"Bookslut pointed me at this breezy Guardian article about writers who share names (but not much else) by a David Jenkins."

"Oh, well. The numbers go up and down, and it's not like Antick Musings has any coherent focus in the first place."

September:
"Every Monday morning, I post an annotated list of the books that came in the mail to me for review (and occasionally books that came through other channels)."

"Ghost Town doesn't seem to be doing a lot of business out in theaters, which is a shame -- it's a standard Hollywood entertainment, but it does everything right and is a fine example of its genre."

October:
"Chuck Asay is currently my favorite editorial cartoonist; I must admit it."

"This week's "Manga Friday" column for ComicMix reviewed the one, the only Bat-Manga!, a collection of Japanese Batman comics from 1966-67 with a list of credits as long as my arm."

November:
"Another day, another romantic comedy -- I guess I've seen a lot of them recently."

"No, really, you don't. All of the recipes in that book focus on one common, naturally-occurring animal product -- why, for half of you, there's some as close as your own hand. The comments are fun, though."

December:
"This week saw the first package addressed to me specifically as an Eisner judge -- at work, since people in the publishing business tend to know (or be able to find out) where other companies are."

"I've been on vacation for most of two weeks, and have very little to show for it -- I don't even feel as rested as I think I should. At this rate, I'll be happy to get back to work on Monday, so I can Get Things Done. (Maybe that's the point of vacations..."

Explicating any lessons or themes is left as an exercise for the reader.