Where have all the bloggers gone?

How does one start blogging? Why does one continue?

There are a few stalwart blogs active these days, and I must look at a dozen of them almost daily.

I started blogging because I like sharing photos and stories about events/people/places. I like that I can do it on my own time.

Japanese dogwood

As my COPD and Bronchiectasis has progressed, I'm required to sit and use a nebulizer to inhale a couple of medicines which help me cough out the sticky phlegm which settles in the far reaches of my lungs.  So I've got a laptop and can type while clinching the little mouthpiece and doing the half hour of breathing.  What do I do then? I read lots of things on the internet, and also load my blog pages.

That's at least twice a day.  Ancestor sleuthing is one of my favorite pursuits.  My 3 family trees still have a lot of people I haven't discovered yet.  I'm now enjoying the brothers and sisters of people in my direct line, the great uncles and aunties.  And looking at their lives not only gives me hundreds of new cousins, I often find out facts about my direct ancestors...so it's a win/win use of my time.

I wish I didn't sit in front of a digital screen, nor that my family would, as much as we do.  Wishes are horses and we all would ride, said the old rhyme.  We don't need horses to get around any more, and maybe we don't even sincerely have wishes either.  We do have our vision plugged into fantasies, games, words shared through texts, and trivia which zooms into our devices.

This lovely tree is in the parking lot where I get my bi-weekly allergy shots

I noticed several years ago (maybe 6-8) that the blogs started having "memes" or a theme which could be contributed to by other bloggers...and then found the joy of commenting on others' blogs.   I continue to share weekly blogs to my favorites, as a challenge and an interest in the other folks who I've gotten to know pretty well.

But the number of bloggers I follow is steadily declining.

We used to have a Pottery Bloggers site, where other bloggers would not only share pottery information, it would be gathered monthly so that site would be the go-to place, organized by different topics.  And then at the end of the year, the administrator of the site would add up the number of blogs each potter had had listed (simple algorithm) and become one of the Top Pottery Bloggers of the year.  My blog was coming in in the teens each year.  I was fine with others who posted daily about pottery, since my posts are not always on that topic.

Then came the burst of Facebook posts...and many bloggers would share their blogs over there (myself included.)  They were being seen by many more people, if you consider the number of comments, "likes" and shares, which represented maybe a quarter of those who actually saw the post.  However, of that big group of people, maybe only a few would actually click on the blog and go read it.  I never knew, but figured it was like most group surveys, something in the 10% or less area.

So I still blog.  And enjoy the few other bloggers who share comments with me, going both ways.  It's like a Facebook group (which I've also enjoyed joining) where maybe these dozen people spend some time every day listening (reading) each other's posts, and maybe commenting if they are so moved.

Will I continue?

Will I write a book instead?

My autobiography seemed like a good goal when I was younger, thinking of all the juicy stuff I was doing in the 70s, and when I retired wouldn't it be fun to write about it...but I've forgotten most of it.  My many journals have silly things recorded.  And with the faster paced lives we now lead, reading any book is a luxury compared to those digital devices.

After all, I read most of the library books on a digital device already!

But holding a nice physical book, reading and turning pages, I want to keep doing, and help keep "bricks and mortar" libraries in business!  Each of us does need to work to do that!

Remember that people employed by organizations are being replaced by robots every day...and we need those people to be employed! They need to too of course.

A good book is worth - keeping around

I enjoyed every one Joe Coomer's books, including a journal-like one about building his house, and one about refurbishing his boat. His boat also has a cameo in this book, but he doesn't.  I admit I didn't purchase the others, but I do re-read this one, and have made some interesting personal notes in it, so it's not available for a Christmas present.

He writes from the first person as a woman who has lost her husband.  I don't know how that would feel, but I find this book very believable.  And above all else, I find it full of characters that I think I would probably get to know.

I posted about some favorite books, and my own indulgence in using computers as an outlet...HERE

Today's Quote:

May we never forget the crippled, wind-beaten trees, how they, too, bud, green and bloom. May we, too, take courage to bloom where we are planted.

Br. David Steindl-Rast

Books from back in my past!

I ran into a Facebook site which gave the book which had been the best seller in the year you were born.  I think this was the year before I was born, but I didn't ever read it.

However the year I was born, 1942, had a book which I'm pretty sure I read after seeing the movie.  Then I saw the movie a few more times.

Now of course you want to know which book was a best seller in the year you were born.

I think this is the link I used...and I was thrilled to have read so many of the books that came out before my birth (except for Bernadette)..but not as many in the following years.

Thanks to Sepia Saturday for giving this meme to follow this week.

Monday book club

Pamela Duncan had me loving her characters within the first page.
I noticed the vernacular language of the Appalachians, though it was a bit different than what I'm familiar with...but I'm no expert.

And the 3 women that interact in this novel are so believable...I enjoyed seeing how they moved through the pages and their lives.

But I cried at the end.  Can I help it?  These days apparently a good ending does that to me.  Just saying...

And I went to the library to find another of Pamela Duncan's books, so I'll be reading it soon. 

I also have another Anita Diamant book. I was amazed and touched by the second Diamant book I read, "Day after Night."  I'd read her "The Red Tent" once years ago, and recently again, and loved it again.  Now I got to read a novel about the Jews who first settled the area that was to become Israel, and how they were treated by people who should have been helping them.  Very powerful and eye-opening.

What powerful women authors! 

And I found a Deborah Crombie murder mystery which I hadn't yet read.  This is a great life.

I over-heard the librarians saying that one of the local University Libraries in Asheville was no longer going to hold physical books, everything would be e-books.

I'm glad I've now got a program for e-books, but it's not that easy to read them here at my desk and I'm not about to purchase a "tablet" to read them on.  Remember when a tablet had yellow paper with lines?

OK, inspirational books

I was asked to review these two books for Amazon.  Then I found that since I hadn't bought anything form Amazon in years, I'm kind of locked out from writing reviews.

So here's what I would have said.

Marilee Bresciani writes in Rushing to Yoga and Surrendering to the Call, her own invigorating dynamic stories which are woven together using yoga type ideas.  She writes in first person, sharing many interactions with friends which provide dialog for the ideas to be demonstrated, each of which becomes a chapter.  I enjoyed these stories, but can't personally relate to them.  Her life is delightful, but very different than mine.  I did get some inspiration, but also my head would have been spinning if I lived with so many relationships and friendships as Marilee must have.  Unfortunately both of these books were not edited for correct spelling and it became more and more distracting as I read them.  When the word "while" was written as "whine" it became evident that a spell-check program had gone berserk.  I hope Marilee keeps sharing her ideas and gets a good editor.