New direction?

This blog is going on eight years old and has lacked purpose from the beginning. It didn't take long for me to vent all my angst on issues I considered fit for public consumption. (Not that all that much public has shown up, but still...) I find that I'm more inclined to jump into online discussions started by others than to do monologues here in blogland. (I know, more readers would bring comments, which would be sort of like having a discussion, but I would still be responsible for initiating every new topic.)

Last week, however, I found a new love in the world of social media -- goodreads.com. I know it has been around a while. I've probably even seen it mentioned in my Facebook feed. I just never paid attention to it.

What makes it so attractive now is that, after many years hiatus, I'm back to reading fiction for pure enjoyment. This is prompted by two unrelated happenings that happened to coincide:

1. I bought a mini-tablet off ebay -- an Archos 32. Although it runs Android applications and does fairly well with them, it's goal in life, it's favorite activity, is to be an mp3 player. It fits perfectly into a shirt pocket or will nestle down into the pocket of sweats and feed me audiobooks as I DO OTHER THINGS! This is amazing. Books have always fought to KEEP me from doing other things. Now books are keeping me company while I clean or cook or do other mindless tasks that drive me crazy in their mindlessness.

2. The local library joined a consortium offering not only ebooks, but also audiobooks, many available in mp3 format.

I tried nonfiction, but it's not a good fit. Fiction flows more easily and requires less concentration, which is good since I'm DOING OTHER THINGS while listening and am sometimes only half listening.

This morning I was messing around over at goodreads.com and wrote a review of one of the most enigmatic classics I have ever read: The Great Gatsby. I noticed that goodreads would like me to post the review to my blog. Aha! This might be a good fit. I'll try it and see.
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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I have a list of New Year's resolutions for readers that includes the suggestion of revisiting a book you just didn't get when you were 18. This suggestion prompted me to try The Great Gatsby again in my 40s. I still don't get it. A bunch of shallow people do shallow things. And it's a classic.

This is obviously a sign of something lacking on my part. Fortunately, I am more appreciative of other classics and my self-esteem is only slightly bruised by my inability to appreciate this one story which is so loved by others. It remains a puzzle, however. Maybe I'll try it again in my 60s and see if I'm to the point yet where I can appreciate it.



View all my reviews
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That's it. Not much of a review. I didn't even particularly like the book. (The second star was a recognition of the book's place in classic literature. On my own, it would have been a 1-star rating.) But we'll see where things go from here. I was amazed at how little time it took browsing goodreads to pile up over 200 books on my "read" shelf. I am only vaguely aware of how many books I have read over a lifetime, but it obviously must be a much higher number. Still, there are many more that I haven't read and goodreads did an excellent job of zeroing in on my interests and pulling up titles that I immediately recognized as good friends. I think I like this place!