brag vs pat oneself on the back

brag

verb
  • To boast of something. 

  • To boast; to talk with excessive pride about what one has, is able to do, or has done; often as an attempt to popularize oneself. 

adj
  • Excellent; first-rate. 

noun
  • A boast or boasting; bragging; ostentatious pretence or self-glorification. 

  • The thing which is boasted of. 

  • The card game three card brag. 

pat oneself on the back

How often have the words brag and pat oneself on the back occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )