Well, there's two reasons I've stopped updating. The first reason is pretty simple. This blog takes up a lot of time. Generally about an hour of writing per entry with two to three hours of researching to make sure I've got my facts right. And trust me, making sure the facts are right have saved my ass a couple of times. The truth is out there, but it takes quite a bit of digging to find sometimes. That said, if time were the only issue, I'd just update less often (look at January, where I worked, compared to December, which I mostly had off). No, there's another reason I've pretty much stopped updating.
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| This is the other reason why. Clicky-poppy to go to its Amazon.ca page. |
The Book Of General Ignorance is perhaps the best trivia book I've ever stumbled across. It not only dispels a lot of common misconceptions, it's well written and more than just facts. It also gives context, which is extremely important. It sometimes has relevant quotations, or amusing images to go along with it.
Does that sound familiar? Sound a little like what I try to do with my blog? Yeah, I thought so too. Which is, in a way, totally validating. At the other end of the spectrum though, it's totally discouraging. Seeing what you're trying to do done elsewhere, and done extremely well, leaves you with a feeling of, "Why should I bother?" Add in the fact that they've already covered a lot of the ground that I have (at least I'm reassured that my fact-checking is as good as theirs), or that I plan to, and it leaves me wondering why I bother writing at all, when I could just suggest you buy the book.
So that's what I'm doing. Go buy the book. If you like this blog, you'll love the book.
What will I do with my little corner of the web? I'm not sure. I may start using it as a place to write short fiction (the use of my original blog, back before the word blog existed). I may use it to vent my frustrations at the world. I may periodically update it under its current function as a repository of fun facts. What I do know is that it won't be updated with any frequency for a while.
To the rare few of you who have visited, I thankee sai. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Now go buy the book.
This makes me kind of sad. As much I find books like that fun to read. They tend to be short lived. Whereas the blog spanned over greater length of time, and made it kind of like dessert. You don't just want to consume it all once like dinner, you like to take bits and bites and savour it.
ReplyDeleteAlso there's the option of contributing, expanding, and rebuttal via comments. Which to me is much more interactive than a book.
I can understand the discouragement though. I gotta say it makes me sad that I won't see any more random fun facts on facebook anymore.
Justin Fortier
Your blog is very useful for me.I really like you post.Thanks for sharing.
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