Changes in the Garden

I haven't posted in quite some time, mostly because I've been thinking (against the better advice of Robert Olen Butler) about exactly what I want this to be. I have a ravenous love of books that I am constantly inclined to share with those around me. I deeply enjoy giving book recommendations, which somehow I connected to an enjoyment of writing book critiques. But surprise! They just aren't the same thing.

There is something about truly knowing a person: their tastes, the things that surprise them, the experiences they have had; that makes finding a good book for them especially challenging and interesting to me. I don't know that you would ever hear me make a blanket statement that no one should read a certain book, because I simply don't believe that. I think that all writing can touch someone, and just because it doesn't touch me doesn't mean I want to go online and recommend that no one go near it.

Furthermore, there are several instances in my life in which I have picked up a book only to put it down halfway through, then a year or two later pick up the same book and find that I cannot put it down until that last page has been turned. This happened to me with Life of Pi, which I couldn't get into at all the first time I tried to read it. Now it's one of my favorite books.

All this is trying to get to my main point, which is that this blog should be a place to celebrate writing and discuss events pertaining to writing and reading. I will no longer be offering my critiques of the books I read (because let's face it, it's just not my strong suit) but I will be discussing my favorite parts of the books I read, or what I was thinking about...though only if it's worthy of posting. I'm trying to get a calendar up with events around New York City that booklovers like me can attend, and maybe that will one day extend to other cities as well. Finally, I will continue to link to reading material that I believe to be exceptional.

These are the changes for now in the very young blog, so who knows what is to come. Either way, I'm excited to see this little garden grow.