a t e l e r i x * b o o k s

aloysius

2007-07-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

to everyone was so kind and generous about contributing to my hedgehog aloysius's surgery several months ago, whether by purchasing a book or telling others or sending a get-well card or thinking good thoughts for him:

aloysius passed away this past saturday the 21st. despite all best efforts, the cancer kept coming back. he was six and a half years old. he had a happy last few months, which he wouldn't have been able to have without your help. thank you so much for that. i'm hoping his hedgie spirit is blissfully running on an eternal hedgehog wheel while munching on an endless supply of mealworms (and some salmon now and then). he was loved tremendously and will be missed equally so.

a t e l e r i x * b o o k s is now on etsy.com!

2007-05-31T09:11:00.000-07:00

after much turmoil & travail (none of which involved the high seas, jungles, or antarctic climes, alas), i have finally got a small but actual selection of books available over at my etsy shop!

this is exciting news as it means that most of you have received most, if not all, of the books you ordered during the hedgie fundraising drive. also it's lots of fun to have a virtual shop, and i hope you like visiting it. i'd welcome any ideas or suggestions about how to improve it, as well.

****

on the hedgie front, the little guy has fully recovered from his surgery and seems to be functioning pretty darn well, although another lump has shown up. the vet says it's best to leave it be for now, so we're just watching hedgie closely and if he shows signs of discomfort or impaired functioning i'll take him in.

hope you are all enjoying the end of spring/beginning of summer. things are sunny here, which is good for picnics and bicycling, though not so much for one's inner vampire.

making the books ...

2007-04-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

not that anyone is necessarily reading this, but in case you are ... sorry for no new posts lately. i've been busily trying to fill everyone's orders, which is taking a little longer than i'd hoped, but which is nevertheless proceeding. onward, onward ... your patience is much appreciated.

once these orders are filled and the books have been united with their new owners, i'll be devoting my energy to stocking my shop at etsy. please check it out in the next few months and let me know how it looks!

and if you're trolling around etsy looking for something to do, you can also look in on my friend shannon's shop, full of wonderful linoleum-block prints and postcards.

hedgie-heros

2007-04-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

surly ben, illustrator extraordinaire and apocalypse-aficionado, kindly posted news of hedgie's plight many days ago and also patiently ferried us to and from the vet these past few days. if you're in the portland area, you should check out his show hanging at tiny's coffee over on NE MLK blvd.

the sweet sarah fischer (who makes damn fine pancakes!) and her family and friends, who generously donated to the hedgie-fund without ever having met me (or hedgie).

everyone who has purchased a book or made a donation to the hedgie-fund in the past several weeks. thank you!

thanks for helping me out!

the after-surgery update

2007-04-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

aloysius as frankenhedgie

it's been nearly a week since aloysius had his surgery, and he seems to be recovering. he's a little wobbly, and i fear the onset of Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome, but i might just be projecting my hypochondriac tendencies onto my prickly friend. i hope.

thanks to everyone for rallying to his aid. at last count, we had received $616 in donations and book sales (not to mention lots of good wishes), which means that his surgery cost is covered! all additional income from the hedgie-fund will go toward building aloysius a new and improved "hedge-palace" and any future vet appointments and costs that come up.

(during his surgery, they found a third tumor, which was lodged in his neck and which the surgeon could not remove entirely. tomorrow we should get back the biopsy results, but the likeliest scenario is that it is malignant. so we'll see what happens. as in humans, the fear is that the cancerous mass will metastasize to a vital organ. but for now, he seems to be functioning as well as can be expected.)

aloysius looking rather pensive

now, as for the books: i've gotten a portion of the book orders filled, though realistically, it is going to take me several weeks to get all of them made! if you need your book sooner rather than later, please let me know so that i can put it at the front of the line. in the meantime, i'll contact you as soon as your books are ready. thanks for your patience!

return of the hedgie

2007-04-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

he's back!
he's alive!
he's running on his wheel!

and i guess it's a good thing, sort of, that he sprouted those two tumors, because during the surgery the vet called to say they'd found a third tumor. it was only when i got to the office that they told me what it was: in his neck, about the size of a gumball (and he's only the size of my hand, so that's a really big tumor), and well-established. meaning, hard to remove. meaning, they probably didn't get it all out, and it could be highly malignant, and it'll probably come back, or show up elsewhere. ugh.

so, that's the bad news.

but for now, he's all right. a little grumpy, but who wouldn't be, considering?

books #7

2007-04-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

i found some wonderful books the other day. here they are!

Magic Chef Cooking, 7.5 x 4.75 x 0.5

$15
SOLD

The Flickering Torch Mystery, 7.5 x 5 x 0.75
$15

Patty Lou of the Golden West, 7.75 x 5.25 x 0.5
$15

Nine Tomorrows: Tales of the Near Future, 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.75
$18

Sending the Word, 8.5 x 6.5 x 0.25
$18

All About Monkeys, 9.25 x 7 x 0.75
$22

Julian's Interest Book, 8 x 5 x 0.25
$15

Gregg Shorthand, 7 x 5 x 0.5
$17

All About Animals and Their Young, 9.25 x 7 x 0.75
$22

The Fantastic Universe Omnibus, 8.5 x 5.75 x 0.75
$18
SOLD

the hedgie-fund

2007-04-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

in response to lots of questions about how to make a donation for aloysius's surgery, i've finally figured out how to place a Paypal donation button on the blog. thank you!

anything is much appreciated, of course, and now even more so as the vet just called an hour ago to say that they found a third tumor while he was under anaesthesia. eeeek. it appears aloysius might be in the running for lumpiest hedgehog of the year. i'm glad they found it, and sad it was there, and sad that hedgie's got to go through all this.

but i think it's for the best. and they're going to send him home with pain medication so that he won't be too uncomfortable, i hope.

thanks so much to everyone who's helped! it's comforting to know that people are out there thinking good thoughts for him.

hedgehog in the grass

2007-04-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

aloysius was supposed to have had his surgery yesterday, but after dropping him off at the vet at an hour when i am rarely, if ever, awake, they called to say that they would rather do the operation on friday (tomorrow). apparently, the tumor on his head is located in a rather tricky spot, and after explaining something to me about the quill-skin margin, they said they'd rather have an additional surgeon present, one who's got a great deal of experience performing surgeries like this. which is absolutely fine with me, except for the waking up extraordinarily early again ;)

but so it goes. and so tomorrow it is.

anyway, in anticipation of the big day, not to mention the looming absence of quills from one side of hedgie's head, my boyfriend and i took aloysius out for a photo shoot early wednesday morning. these are some of the photos that we took.

you can see the scar from the earlier tumor-removal on his nose pretty easily.

but he's still awfully cute...

aloysius in the grass!

i wish i could do this

2007-04-07T23:34:00.000-07:00

(roll up in a ball, i mean...)

books #6

2007-04-07T00:35:00.000-07:00

more books...

Miss Pickerell on the Moon, 8 x 5.5 x 0.5

$15

I Heard the Owl Call My Name, 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5
$15

Small Game Hunting, 9.25 x 6 x 0.5
$18
SOLD

Speedwriting: Shorthand, Book 1, 8 x 5.5 x 0.25
$15

Famous Mysteries of the Sea, 8 x 5.5 x 0.5
$18
SOLD

and more books...

Fanfare for 2 Pigeons, 8 x 5.5 x 0.75
$18

Newsreel Man, 9.75 x 7.5 x 0.75
$30

The First Book of Water, 8.75 x 7.5 x 0.25
$15
SOLD

One in a Thousand, 9.25 x 6 x 0.25
$15

Essays: Thomas Carlyle, 5.5 x 3.75 x 0.75
$15
SOLD

My Friend Mac, 9.5 x 7 x 0.25
$15

books #5

2007-04-04T00:25:00.000-07:00

and yet more books for your viewing pleasure!

Film and the Director, 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5

$18
SOLD

All About the Flowering World, 9.25 x 7 x 0.75

$22
SOLD

Grishka and the Bear, 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5

$18
SOLD

10 Trained Bears, 7.25 x 4.75 x 0.25
$10

Jokes and How to Tell Them, 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5

$18
SOLD

hedgehog update #1

2007-04-03T19:49:00.000-07:00

(aloysius as a little tyke, 2001)

aloysius is scheduled to go in for surgery next wednesday. the vet says they'll have to remove some of the quills on the right side of his head, and they predict that those won't grow back, so he'll have a little bald spot! poor little guy.

i think we've raised nearly three-quarters of the surgery costs between the books that have already been bought and those that people have pledged to buy.

thank you all for your kind & incredibly generous support.

i've got a pile of books ready to be made into journals, and a huffy hedgehog sitting atop them all:

(aloysius as a grumpy old man, 2007)

books #4

2007-04-02T01:01:00.000-07:00

thanks for looking...

Perky the Partridge, 10 x 7 x 0.25
$18

The Spell of the Yukon, 7.5 x 5.25 x 0.5
$15
SOLD

A Revelation of the Chinese Revolution, 7.75 x 5.25 x 0.75
$20
SOLD

Casanova's Escape from the Leads, 6.75 x 4.5 x 0.5
$15

Foolin' Around, 7 x 4.5 x 0.25
$12
SOLD

The First Book of Glass, 8.75 x 7.25 x 0.25
$15

British Grub, 5.75 x 5.75 x 0.25
$15
SOLD

All About Prehistoric Cave Men, 9.25 x 7 x 0.75
$22
SOLD

Wir Lernen Deutsch, 8.5 x 6 x 0.75
$20

The Jade Flute, 7.5 x 4.5 x 0.25
$12

thanks to the two gyrlz

2007-04-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

please click on over to two gyrlz quarterly, where the wonderful tiffany lee brown — writer, editor, performance artist, musician, and lover of all things Rattus rattus — has posted my plea for hedgehog-help!

(aloysius never thought he'd be mentioned in a blog, let alone two. he is blushing beneath his quills as we speak.)

questions & answers

2007-04-01T02:04:00.000-07:00

in response to various questions sent my way, i thought it would be helpful to tell you about the techniques i use to make these books, as well as various and sundry other bits of information.

how do you bind the books?
essentially, i take the pages out of an existing book and then rebuild the insides. first, i cut batches of paper to size. i then fold each of these in half to compose a sheaf of pages, known as a "signature." i then sew each signature together using waxed linen thread. after the thread is tied and cut, the signatures are pressed together and glued into book cloth. once that is dry (usually overnight), the book-cloth–bound pages are inserted into the hardcover boards and glued to the boards and spine. the entire thing then sits overnight until fully dry.

finishing includes affixing pages cut from the book to the front and back endpages and cleaning up the exterior by removing what marks and imperfections can be removed (sometimes many, sometimes none).

it is a long process, but satisfying. it produces a durable, unique journal or sketchbook that you can put on a bookshelf without anyone knowing it's filled with your words or drawings or newspaper clippings or photographs or what-have-you.

what kind of paper do you use?
for most of these books, i use a 24-lb text-weight paper in natural color. some have white copy-weight paper in them. if you want to request a particular kind of paper, i can probably accommodate your request, though it depends on things like the size of the book and how easily i can get my hands on the desired kind of paper.

where do you find your books?
sometimes thrift stores, sometimes yard sales, sometimes piles of free stuff; sometimes people give them to me! if you have old books with cool covers that you have no particular use for, let me know.

can you bind this old book i have?
yes! most probably. i'm happy to turn one of your old books into a blank book.

ok, those were all the questions i could think of for now. if you have others you'd like to ask, let me know. happy to do my best to answer them.

books #3

2007-04-01T00:16:00.000-07:00

and yet more books ... !

Penguins on Parade, 9 x 6.75 x 0.25

$15
SOLD

The First Book of Automobiles, 8.75 x 7.25 x 0.25
$15

All About Whales, 9.25 x 7 x 0.75

$22
SOLD

The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon, 9.25 x 6.25 x 0.75
$18

All About Famous Scientific Expeditions, 9.25 x 7 x 0.75
$22

Sinbad the Gorilla, 9.25 x 6.5 x 0.25
$15
SOLD

Best in Children's Books, 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5
$15

Color Harmony in Dress, 7.25 x 4.75 x 0.5
$15

The B.O.W.S., 8 x 5.25 x 0.5
$18

All About the Arctic and Antarctic, 9.25 x 7 x 0.75
$22
SOLD

Golf Is a Four-Letter Word, 8 x 5.5 x 0.5
$15
SOLD

The Real Book about Spies, 8 x 5.25 x 0.75
$15
SOLD

books #2

2007-03-31T13:24:00.000-07:00

here is another round of available covers for your perusal. please note, most of these have not yet been made into books, so i don't know the page counts yet.

also, i try to use 24-lb text-weight paper, usually a natural color. if your chosen book has a different kind of paper in it, i'll let you know.

many thanks for all the interest and support!

All About Archaeology, 9.25 x 7 x 0.75

$22
SOLD

College Spelling Studies, 78 pp, 10 x 7 x 0.25

$18
SOLD

The First Book of Stones, 8.5 x 7 x 0.25

$15

How and Why: Travel, 10 x 7 x 0.75
$20
SOLD

The Underachiever's Manifesto, 6.25 x 4.25 x 0.25
$12
SOLD

Elements of General Phonetics, 8.75 x 5.5 x 0.75
$18

The Organic Front, 7.5 x 5 x 0.5
$15
SOLD

The First Book of Boats, 8.75 x 7.25 x 0.25
$15
SOLD

Star Bright, 9.25 x 7 x 0.5
$18
SOLD

books #1

2007-03-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

here are some of the books i have available right now. if you're interested in one, let me know. i'll update as they are sold. more to come soon... thanks!

The Golden Picture Atlas of North America, 94 pp, 10.25 x 7.25 x 0.75*

$20
SOLD

The Inept Seducer, 78 pp, 8.75 x 5.75 x 0.5

$18
SOLD

Round-the-World Cook Book, 94 pp, 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5

$18
SOLD

The First Book of Snakes, 78 pp, 8.75 x 7.25 x 0.5
$15

SOLD

High and Low, 62 pp, 7.5 x 4.5 x 0.25

(with special cut-out cover!)
$15

Listening to the Great Teacher, 62 pp, 6.25 x 4.25 x 0.25
$10
SOLD

Ann H. Judson of Burma: Memoirs of Mighty Men and Women,
78 pp, 7.5 x 5.25 x 0.25
$15
SOLD

Riddler, 78 pp, 8.25 x 6 x 0.25
$15
SOLD

Philosophy of History, 94 pp, 8 x 5.5 x 0.75
$18
SOLD

Pablo: Boy of Mexico, 46 pp, 10.75 x 8.25 x 0.25
SOLD

The True Book of Tools for Building, 46 pp, 8.5 x 7.25 x 0.25
$15
SOLD

The Uncommon Commoner, 126 pp, 8.5 x 5.75 x 0.75
SOLD

Wide Awake, 46 pp, 7 x 4.75 x 0.25
$15
SOLD

*dimensions are listed as approximate height, width, depth in inches

buy a book, help a hedgehog

2007-03-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

if you've found this blog, you're most likely a friend or a friend of a friend. thanks for considering helping me fund aloysius's pending surgery by purchasing one of my books. we are both very grateful. below you'll find the original e-mail i sent out to announce the atelerix books hedgehog benefit. i'll be posting images of available books here so that you can see if one might work for you.

thanks!
-allison & aloysius

********

hello friends!

as some of you may know, my hedgehog, aloysius (see photo above taken by my friend, photographer serena davidson), has cancer again. he's had several surgeries in the past few years to remove malignant tumors from his nose. now, unfortunately, there are new tumors on his head and on his leg that need to be removed so that he can, i hope, live comfortably for a good while longer. i got aloysius when he was a little hoglet, and he's accompanied me through countless moves and jobs over the past six years. he's not the most sociable creature, but as those of you who've met him know, he's adorable and charming in his own grumpy fashion. in the background of the photo you can see the purple ribbons on the wall from when he won Best in Show at the 2001 Hedgehogs Northwest Show in Tacoma, Washington (yes, really): he's a special little hedgehog.

i'm telling you all this because, for the next few months, i'll be putting any and all profits from my handbound books (which i sell under the name "atelerix books," after the latin name for "hedgehog": atelerix albiventris) toward funding aloysius's surgery. the tumor removal will cost over six hundred dollars, which is rather steep, though entirely worth it when considering that it could mean he'll get to live for another year, or even more. i'm hoping funds from selling atelerix books will help offset some of the cost.

soon, i will have an Internet shop set up at etsy.com (check it out if you've never been there, it's a wealth of handmade fun), but it hasn't happened yet, so, for now, if you or anyone you know is interested in purchasing one of my books, please contact me directly at atelerixbooks at yahoo dot com.

oh! but the books, you ask? what are these books i'm pushing on you? well, i find old hardcovers with interesting covers and rebind them into blank journals. the result is an entirely unique, sturdy and durable "stealth" journal or sketchbook. i say "stealth" because no one needs ever know it's a journal. i use blank paper to fill them; sorry, no lined paper. i'm also happy to do custom orders. pricing ranges from $15-$30 depending on the size of the book.

(the books below have already been sold; they're offered as examples only)

in the past i've sold them at Reading Frenzy and Q is for Choir here in Portland, Oregon; they always sell out. i've made custom orders for customers in Portland (of course) and sent books to people in St. Louis, England, and Japan. which is not to brag but to say: the atelerix books are good books! you will like them. if you live in Portland, you can even come over and dig through my boxes of old hardcovers in search of the perfect one for you (or your mom, or your brother — you get the idea). if you don't live in Portland, shipping is extra.

thanks for reading this. please forward it on to anyone and everyone you think might be interested. you can e-mail us at atelerixbooks at yahoo dot com. aloysius says thank you, too.

in the meantime:
please buy a book! or two! help the hedgie!

a t e l e r i x * b o o k s

aloysius

a t e l e r i x * b o o k s is now on etsy.com!

making the books ...

hedgie-heros

the after-surgery update

return of the hedgie

books #7

the hedgie-fund

hedgehog in the grass

i wish *i* could do this

books #6

books #5

hedgehog update #1

books #4

thanks to the two gyrlz

questions & answers

books #3

books #2

books #1

buy a book, help a hedgehog

i wish i could do this