Mar 28
Warning: Blatant marketing to follow.
This is a terrible post because it’s a marketing post. But a guy’s got to market every now and then, right? So I figure if I downplay the marketing and get all self-deprecating about how marketing sucks, even though I’m doing it, that you might like this post better. But isn’t that a marketing tactic in itself? Yeah, I guess so.
So…
The last book I will read during this 101 book project will be Ulysses.
If you don’t know the story behind that, I’ll briefly share. The list upon which this blog is based, created by Time Magazine, features what they deem as the 100 greatest English-speaking novels since 1923. As luck would have it, Ulysses was written in 1922.
James Joyce’s Ulysses is widely viewed, at least in critical circles, as the greatest novel ever written. So, for kicks and giggles and possibly self-torture, I threw Ulysses into the mix to make it a nice round 101.
On top of that, I decided to save Ulysses for the very end. A “celebratory” read, I guess you could say.
I don’t know if this is a good idea or not. But if it sucks, it won’t be the first time I’ve had a post that bombed.
But what the heck.
The floor is yours. If you have a question for me related to 101 Books–the blog itself, blogging, anything of that nature–then fire away!
Think of this as a supplement to my FAQ section.
I still get a lot of questions in the comments and in emails. I try to answer as many as possible, but sometimes I don’t get around to them all. I’m certainly not an expert on blogging, but I’ve figured out a few things over the last two-and-a-half years.
Today, I’ll answer every single question that’s asked–which will likely be two or three, so that should be easy.
So fire away! Ask me anything about the blog or even blogging in general.
I messed up with yesterday’s post.
I bit on a common case of social media mania. This Telegraph article popped up in social media land a few weeks ago, and it seemed too crazy to be true.
But The Telegraph was reporting it, right? This wasn’t some random Joe Schmoe blog (I guess that would be me), so I saved the article to talk about in a few weeks.
Last year was slow.
I began the year reading my 34th book from the list, American Pastoral. I finished on Book 50, The Great Gatsby. That’s only 16 books. But here’s the catch: A Dance To The Music of Time is 12 books that counts as 1 on this list. So…I actually read 29.
That’s still a slightly slower pace than I had in 2011, when I got through 31 novels or so.
All that to say, now, with A Dance out of the way, I hope to pick up the pace a little in 2013. My target goal this year is to get through book 75, which would put me on pace to finish this project sometime in late 2014.
My main question this year will be: Which long novels should I tackle next?
Nothing left on the list is even remotely close to A Dance in length, but the longest novels I have left are as follows:
For the second year in a row, our friends at WordPress created a nifty year in review recap of my blog.
I posted the top 5 posts (my personal 5 favorites because the most visited posts aren’t always the most interesting) during the holiday break. But I thought I’d share this report with you if you are a numbers person. I am, so I find it pretty cool.
I’m not going to go through all the numbers, but I do want to highlight a few.
Celebrate!
I’m halfway finished with 101 Books. This little hair-brained idea that started on August 30, 2010 is now going on two-and-a-half years strong.
I’ve somehow managed to keep my wife, my job, learn how to parent, run a marathon and several half marathons during the course of this blog. Those people that tell you they don’t have time for reading? They’re full of crap.
You might have noticed that my pace slowed down a little in 2012, compared to 2011. That was mainly because of A Dance To The Music Of Time, a dreadful 3,500+ page book that I’ve been reading from the list, in addition to the regulars.
Thankfully, I’m almost finished with “The Year of the Dance”–which I will gladly put behind me in 2013.
With that book out of the way, I hope to pick up the pace a little. That said, I expect the blog has about two more years or so.
As I’ve done after every ten books, I thought I’d recap some of my highlights and lowlights from the list to this point.
Let’s take a look!
I was looking at my About Me page recently and realized that it was pretty light on content. Not much there.
Honestly, that’s purposeful. When I started the blog, my goal was—and still is—to make 101 Books about the books, not me. This isn’t a personal blog. It’s a niche blog on a very specific subject.
Throughout, I might share a few tidbits about my life here and there, if it fits within the context of the post, but that’s about as far as I’ve gone.
Along the way, I try and spark discussion and maybe provide you with a little tidbit or interesting aspect of a novel that you never knew or thought about—something that I probably just learned myself.
All that said, there is a dude who writes this blog. That dude is me. Or is it me is that dude? Or maybe I am that dude. Yes that’s it.
So the blog’s grown and all that over the last two years, and I figure it’s only fair to let all of you who read this thing every day to at least know a little bit about me—more than the short sentence on the About Me page.
So, here goes.
It’s The Grapes of Wrath week! A week dedicated to angry grapes? Yes!
I have so much to say about The Grapes of Wrath, I thought I’d dedicate this whole week to nothing but posts related to the novel. It’s all The Grapes of Wrath, all the time.
Today, I thought I’d start with a repost. I’m not on vacation or anything. All of the posts this week will be brand new, but this post is relevant enough to The Grapes of Wrath I thought it was worthy to post again. The original post was on March 7, 2012.
Hey friends.
I know it’s unusual to have a post on Sunday, but I wanted to fill you in on what’s happening this week.
Like last year, I’m taking this week off again, the week of July 4th here in the States. For my sanity and to keep the content on the blog fresh, I take two weeks off a year: this week and the week after Christmas.
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