One year ago today
I shared my first blog post!
I always wanted to
do more of two things. First, express my opinions more thoroughly to those who
were interested in bookish ideas. Second, to have more conversation and
interaction with other people about books. To those ends, I declare that my
efforts here have been a smashing success!
To be sure, the
time spent on blogging and related interactions have slowed my reading a little.
However, the overall experience has made me a much better reader. Though I
always expended mental effort thinking about themes, characters, connections
with other works and trends, etc., blogging has forced me to organize my
thoughts on these matters in serious ways. In addition, my commenters provide
me with new and alternative ideas, as well as insightful and intelligent
disagreements. Finally, the world of book blogs has led me to experience and
explore the writing and thoughts of numerous other bloggers. On the sites of my
fellow bloggers, I have discovered thought provoking and entertaining
commentary on various books, some that I have read and some that I have not
read. In turn, I hope that I have prompted their thinking through my
interactions on their sites. All in all, if only for self - improvement related
reasons, the additional time spent online has been well worth it. However, it
turns out that there is another enormous fringe benefit to blogging.
When I began this,
I had no idea that there was such a dynamic, intelligent, supportive and warm
community of book bloggers out there! I have established really wonderful
connections with a host of people from all over the world who share my interest
in books and important ideas. The community has been welcoming and supportive.
My fellow bloggers are such a smart and nice group of people!
This experience is
akin to belonging to an international book club that I have access to 24 hours
a day! The Internet has its supporters and detractors and those like myself who
tend to see the good and the bad, but this interconnectedness that I have
discovered can only be characterized as very good. More about this will be
included in an upcoming post.
So thank you to
all of my readers and commenters. Also, I want to add a special thanks to my
wife Catherine whose editing assistance has been key in keeping these posts
readable.
Hopefully, this is
the first year of many during which I will be sharing my thoughts and
ramblings. It has been a blast so far!
