Next year will be the thirteenth year of The Book Shopper blog and if I keep at the current pace of approximately two offerings a month, the 500th posting should appear sometime late next year.
It’s not too early to start pondering how this milestone should it be celebrated. Here are three possibilities that are currently percolating in my brain:
Possibility One. Host a party or gala. Rent out a small exercise room at the local rec center. Invite some of the regular blog readers as an opportunity to meet one another, swap stories and anecdotes. Though I am always apprehensive of putting my friends—even virtual friends together— I have the sense that the typical discriminating Book Shopper reader will peacefully share their thoughts on quirky, demanding books or the oddities of book culture. They would all probably get along unless…
Negatives thoughts on Possibility One. Since the Number 1 visited page of all time is the Unabomber’s Library Part Two, I could end up with more of a fringe element in attendence. These well-read anarchists might get out of control after quaffing too much Trader Joe’s Two Buck Chuck.
Possibility Two. Invite the more well-known book celebrities to comment on their cameo appearances on the blog. They include writer David Shields, Books-as-Art Artist Brian Dettmer, photographer Emily Berl, avantgarde filmmaker James Benning and rapper Killer Mike (when he appeared at a book event of Thomas Chatterton Williams).
Negative thoughts on Possibility Two. These artists might ask that their names and work be removed from The Book Shopper, which would have a devastating effect on blog traffic.
Possibility Three. Just surf through all the previous 470+ postings and repurpose some of the more timeless entries and then take the year off.
Negative thoughts on Possibility Three: I am not sure that’s a good idea, because as the late Joan Didion wrote in her essay “Why I Write” that she writes to know what she is thinking. This is how I feel about blogging,
If I cease to blog, then I may not be thinking. And if I am not thinking, I am not percolating.
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