Blogging About Blogging

Some of the folks I read on WP are blogging about blogging, and one aspect keeps coming up: the connections people create in the blogging community as they write and respond to posts. When I first began blogging, around 2004, all my connections were the same writers I'd been communicating with on Usenet (and later, Facebook). That was OK, but I thought it would be nice to have new connections, so I kept trying different things to make them, such as doing "blog hops" and clicking on random blogs to leave comments. I met some cool people that way and am still in touch with a few of them. I've also had various types of blogs, private blogs, etc. This one is almost like a private blog (I know it's not) because although theoretically anyone can read it, barely anyone does. I used to crave being read, but lately I find I don't care. Of course, I am glad I have a few readers and comments, but I'm not trying to gin up an audience the way I used to.

For a few years, I blogged a lot. I was obsessed with it, both in the constant churning out of posts (most of which were responses to prompts) and in reading, liking, and commenting as much as I could. I ended up with some good poetry and a couple fun pieces of flash fiction, but most of it was too hastily written and therefore mediocre. Also, I felt I wasn't truly connecting with fellow bloggers as we all dashed about saying "great post!' repeatedly and "thank you" a million times a day to the "great post!" comments on our own stuff. It became exhausting and unfulfilling. I began feeling resentful toward my blog for consuming so much of my time and energy, plus there were the constant WordPress glitches. Feh! I decided to give it up.

A year passed sans blogging. I filled my free time with a lot more books, movies, and crafts, which was very satisfying. The only problem was that, aside from monthly book club meetups, I had nowhere to put my opinions and reviews of what I was reading. I didn't have a place to yap on about movies or TV shows or even my lunch. I'm not a fan of FB these days with all their ads and garbage, nor do I want to post reviews in thread chunks on Bluesky. It occurred to me that I could do blogging "lite" by sticking to a format of mainly reviews and avoiding prompts, questions, challenges, etc. I knew I wouldn't get as many readers/comments, and I decided I was OK with that. I also came back here, to Blogger, where I'd had my first blog, rather than deal with all the glitches at WP again.

I've been blogging now for about 2.5 months now, and it's working out well for me. I review the books I read before I forget everything, thus I have something to trigger my memory besides my star rating on Goodreads. Today, I joined a new book club, which is very active (I committed to read all three of the suggested November books, plus I have a holiday romance to read for the other club), so this blog will be doubly helpful ~ I can review books as I read them and refer back to the blog post during discussion times. I read so much (and am getting old besides) that it can be difficult for me to retain a clear picture of a novel weeks after reading it when I've read a few others in between.

PS: I read that giving your kitty long slow blinks of your eyes means "I love you" in cat, so I just did that, and now Gatsby is looking at me like why are you blinking at me, weirdo?