What's in a blog?

Last night I hunkered (yes, I said “hunkered”) down with my roommate, her boyfriend and a big bowl of popcorn to watch the film Julie & Julia.

That’s right – the three of us had a lovely date night. But that’s neither here nor there.

The point is that the movie got me thinking about my own blog. Okay, let’s be honest – I think about my reasons for starting a blog more frequently than I should. I love to read other people’s blogs – and in fact have a rather extensive list of strangers’ blogs “favourited” in my internet browser – but I always considered myself to be someone who could never maintain a blog of her own.

The idea of broadcasting my innermost thoughts and the dullest moments of my daily existence over the internet has always struck me as being distinctly narcissistic. And while I still have no interest in maintaining a “this is what I did today” blog, as time goes on and I become increasingly invested in the musings of those whose entries I follow, I have slowly become aware that each blog operates around a theme of sorts – whether intentional or not.

There is a central dilemma at the core of each writer’s entries, and it is because of this that blogs can be so goddamn addictive. It’s like reading a juicy novel in which the central conflict has yet to be resolved. The only difference is that in real life, central conflicts tend to be a bit more difficult to resolve, and the number of obstacles encountered along the way is often overwhelming.

Thus, no matter what theme a particular blog revolves around, most readers can relate to the all-too-familiar human experience of working toward something that is difficult to achieve, or merely fraught with numerous triumphs and failures. Whether that’s life in general, re-entering the dating world, cooking or books – every theme is characterized by a windy road, in one form or another.

To get back to my original point – what is the point of Bookworm? In the film, Julie’s blog had a very distinctive purpose. She was to work her way through every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in the span of a year and write about it. She was a writer seeking a creative outlet and a project she could, for once, complete. Pretty straightforward.

But Bookworm – what am I trying to get at here, with this particular blog? I know that I don’t want to discuss the happenings of my day-to-day existence – no one needs to be subjected to that kind of utter confusion. All I know is that I want an outlet for my writing, and I want to write about literature – my true love.

The question is, how can I make writing about literature interesting for others to read? I thought I could do this by writing about my own experiences with certain novels – not necessarily reviews, but defining moments in my life that were characterized by engagement with a certain book. I'm still not sure if this is an effective or even remotely interesting way of writing about literature, but right now it's one of the only semi-unique ways that I can think of to write about books.

To conclude this excessively, internet-unfriendly long post, I have no idea what the true theme of this blog is or how it will evolve. I’m just going to write as I please and see how it unfolds. And since I have no expectation that anyone will even care to read these nonsensical ramblings, I am essentially free to do as I please.

Let the blogging begin.