Maggie of Maggiereads posed this question recently and it got me thinking. Here's my two cents:
I began my blog in hopes of curing my writer's block. I wanted to give myself an outlet for thinking and writing about books other than those that I have to read for my research(regardless of how interesting they may be). This seems to open the floodgates for me and get the creative juices flowing, for as a fellow blogger commented on her post, it's a purge to write a book review.
I am convinced that it is important not only to read and write, but to read and write about a variety of things. Book blogs create a dialogue that allows us to contemplate and comment on others' thoughts, encouraging us to broaden our reading horizons. Wouldn't it be hypocritical of me to push my students to discuss literature if I didn't engage in a bit of discussion myself?
When reading a blog, we simply need to be aware of its purpose. Maybe we are asking ourselves an ill-defined question. Instead of "can blogs be trusted," maybe we should ask: "what is the goal/purpose of this blog?"...
Maggie's goal of making us read is quite successful! Thanks to her challenge, I have discovered that I quite admire Flannery O'Connor's writing and have added another of her books to my list.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Can blogs be trusted?
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5 comments:
Bravo Kelly!
I wish more bloggers were up-front on their mission. I get a little annoyed when I follow a blog for a couple of weeks, then said blog springs a "for sale" sign on some bookmark or dare I say book. I'm okay if they let me know they are a stay-at-home mom or author in the about section, but out of the blue, very iritating.
Great Post!
......i got something for your writers block.
I hadn't really thought about this much but I guess because I've always been up front about why I started a blog - just love to read and love to talk about books :)
This was really interesting though and some good points.
i hope at some point blogs will be catalogued, i lve blogs as they can be personal expression, but if you browse the next blog button the diversity is meagre sometimes.
advertising, plain political propaganda..,general distraction, they don't really seem to come on a random bases. Like in wikipedia, people can tag themselves, for eg. being a french or english speaker,
blogs might categorise themselves in a similar way, that would sortta facilitate informing yourself on all kinds of subjects. (i do like eg. opinions and thoughts, but i don't like knitting or bookreviews (film/music reviews).
commercial, non commercial , or ecologically inspired, non ecologically inspired could be other examples of broad categorys.
Nice would also be to have visitors vote on qualitys of a bloc. (so that i dont have to struggle through 4 posts to find out someone is a reactionairy)
Maggie, thanks for posing the question in the first place. And I agree about mixing business in with blogging. I can't really fault someone for wanting to make an extra couple of dollars, but it certainly makes me wonder about their intentions or hidden agendas.
Oberon, so what's your cure for writer's block? Or dare I ask?!
Iliana, that's what I enjoy about your blog! I value the comments of another avid reader.
Onix, you make some great points. I often discover new blogs from the blog rolls of the ones that I read, but it would be so helpful to have a catalogue searchable by categories. Thanks for stopping by.
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