When you find a great new blog do you go back and read through the archives?
Why or why not?
Does it make you feel like a stalker if you do?
I am so unmotivated at the moment I’m amazed that I finally (after sitting and staring for what felt like forever) managed to actually start writing even if it was to cheat and ask a question of my readers thereby putting the onus of providing content on someone else.
I’m curious, though. When I find an author I like I want to buy every book they’ve ever written and read them all through. I find myself doing the same thing with online journals and blogs. I read back through the archives, sometimes obsessively, sometimes helplessly, pulled along by a curiosity and hunger for something I can barely begin to define. I look at the “about me” page and the user profile and read lists of 100 things if they exist.
I check out links on their blogroll or friendslist, reasoning that if I like this person’s voice so much, they must also have good taste and will lead me further to even more great writing out there (—which opens a whole ‘nother can of wormy questions about how many lives I can keep up with anyway, when most of the time these days I feel I’m barely keeping up with my OWN).
Yesterday was book group and even though there were only 5 of us, it was WONDERFUL. One woman told us how a friend of hers, tired of listening to her rave joyfully about our book group, finally “retaliated” by starting one of her own. She was asked if she wanted to join the new one, but she finally answered that it would be more fun to be able to talk together about the books each were reading and the responses of each other’s group to them. There is something special about book people. There is something special about the way they press their favorites on you and say “I know!” in that rising and astonished and kindred voice when you say something about how a book made you feel or why you reacted one way or the other to the writer or the writing, that weaves a special spell of friendship.
Another friend who has come a few times and who I was thrilled about having the chance to get to know better in the context of one of my favorite ways to spend time with people recently remarked that she was considering dropping out. She doesn’t like to borrow books and doesn’t want to come if she hasn’t read the book under discussion. I didn’t use to like borrowing books that much either, but with this group it doesn’t feel like borrowing. To me, the word ‘borrowing’ has a sub-context of obligation, debt and guilt attached to it. I prefer to think of it as sharing. With this particular group, or at least the members that really are kindred spirits, there is no sense of obligation, debt or guilt. There is only excitement, encouragement, interest and curiosity. There is a genuine belief that knowledge is important, that well-written words are life-affirming, that bringing these things together and sharing them with each other will give everyone the foundation with which to build a network of pleasure, friendship and support. I hope she changes her mind, or at least that she doesn’t think I’m stalking her.
Beegest and Brightest Birthday Weeshes to My Beeg Leetle Seester, Sarah!
*Thoreau