Metapost
I've posted a few times already on this blog—nothing particularly good yet—but I feel it's necessary to reboot and offer the obligatory "this is what my blog's for, hopefully I'll actually post lol" post.
This blog's already gone through a few names as I've tried to figure out what to call it without coming off as too pretentious or obscure. I don't think I've succeeded (the new title, Reveries of a Solitary Reader is a hat-tip to Rousseau's unfinished journal Reveries of a Solitary Walker—as I'll be doing more reading than walking, I've made the necessary titular change), but I'm doing better than the first two ideas: "Deificari in Otio," a phrase taken from a letter St. Augustine wrote to some other 5th century dude (it means "becoming godlike in one's leisure"—and that's a very free translation) and "Frénésie Journalière," a phrase taken from one of Baudelaire's letters or journal or something. It means Journalistic (or Daily?) Frenzy. For the past few days, I've been thinking of calling the blog "Books Don't Need Batteries," which would have been a reference to this cute little Family Circus comic my mom sent me this year:
But that would have eventually embarrassed me, so I decided I needed a new one. After a few moments, I landed on Rousseau, the king of the Navel-Gazers. I'll be staying far away from any Rousseauian reflections, though, as that's not really what I want to do with this blog.
I'm hoping to spend most of the next two years reading, in preparation for grad school. I plan on concentrating in 20th Century American Literature, so that's probably most of what I'll be tearing through, although I'll try to mix things up with a Hrabal or a Bolano or an Abe every once in awhile. A sort of analytical/critical log of this reading program will make up most of the content on the blog, and if that description didn't just entirely put you off, you're more than welcome to read along, comment, and (please) suggest other things to read.
These maiden-voyage posts are usually rather perfunctory, but I've already spent way too much of your time on it. The post prior to this gives some more of my rationale about keeping this blog, and some thoughts on reviewing in general. Hopefully I'll have a real review up soon.
This blog's already gone through a few names as I've tried to figure out what to call it without coming off as too pretentious or obscure. I don't think I've succeeded (the new title, Reveries of a Solitary Reader is a hat-tip to Rousseau's unfinished journal Reveries of a Solitary Walker—as I'll be doing more reading than walking, I've made the necessary titular change), but I'm doing better than the first two ideas: "Deificari in Otio," a phrase taken from a letter St. Augustine wrote to some other 5th century dude (it means "becoming godlike in one's leisure"—and that's a very free translation) and "Frénésie Journalière," a phrase taken from one of Baudelaire's letters or journal or something. It means Journalistic (or Daily?) Frenzy. For the past few days, I've been thinking of calling the blog "Books Don't Need Batteries," which would have been a reference to this cute little Family Circus comic my mom sent me this year:
But that would have eventually embarrassed me, so I decided I needed a new one. After a few moments, I landed on Rousseau, the king of the Navel-Gazers. I'll be staying far away from any Rousseauian reflections, though, as that's not really what I want to do with this blog.
I'm hoping to spend most of the next two years reading, in preparation for grad school. I plan on concentrating in 20th Century American Literature, so that's probably most of what I'll be tearing through, although I'll try to mix things up with a Hrabal or a Bolano or an Abe every once in awhile. A sort of analytical/critical log of this reading program will make up most of the content on the blog, and if that description didn't just entirely put you off, you're more than welcome to read along, comment, and (please) suggest other things to read.
These maiden-voyage posts are usually rather perfunctory, but I've already spent way too much of your time on it. The post prior to this gives some more of my rationale about keeping this blog, and some thoughts on reviewing in general. Hopefully I'll have a real review up soon.
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