Caroline of Beauty Is a Sleeping Cat and Himadri of The Argumentative Old Git recently tagged me to take part in a link round-up for something called the 7 x 7 Link Award--something of a crypto-meme, let's be honest. Although I'm not really a meme guy, the psychological double-team employed by these two bloggers and the totally coincidental arrival of a "wonderful" unicorn image in my in-box courtesy of the amusingly passive-aggressive Jill from Rhapsody in Books persuaded me I should lighten up for a day. In any event, the instructions I'm supposed to follow appear in red below.
1. Tell everyone something about yourself that nobody else knows.
Hmm. Well, I do often wonder whether book bloggers who endlessly swoon over Victorian fiction have non-book blogging counterparts with similarly monotonously antiquated tastes in other parts of the blogosphere (i.e. fashionistas who devote their blogs to frock coats and cravats and governess gear; personal bloggers who chronicle their struggles with fainting on demand and "the vapors"; political bloggers who wax about their love for 19th century imperial monarchies, etc.). Then I take another swig of high alcohol content beer and think about the good old days when adult YA fans were my only "blogging nemeses" ("blogging nemeses" = smilingly stolen from the ever perceptive Frances of Nonsuch Book).
2. Link to a post that you think fits the following categories: Most Beautiful Piece, Most Helpful Piece, Most Popular Piece, Most Controversial Piece, Most Surprisingly Successful Piece, Most Underrated Piece, Most Pride-Worthy Piece.
- I don't do "beautiful," so I guess that one's out. On the other hand, there's a "lovely" simile buried in the body of this post although the lovely part naturally wasn't actually written by me. Is that close enough to count, chers lecteurs?
- I don't really do helpful either--or at least not intentionally. However, I'm tickled at the thought that a number of people arrived at and were potentially helped out by this Life A User's Manual post after launching a surprisingly popular keyword search for the humble "petit-beurre." True story!
- This Classics Club sign-up post--in reality, something of a prank--is the blog's most popular piece by far in terms of the number of comments it's generated. More importantly to me, the discussion was a blast. Since part of my blogging philosophy (well, if I had one, that is) is that people who don't comment don't exist, I won't mention the posts that have been visited more but have been commented upon less according to the lurker/spammer stats at my disposal.
- I wouldn't have had any idea how "controversial" this summarily brief, two sentence long post here was except a guy who's never commented on my blog took the trouble of e-mailing me a rambling, multi-paragraph complaint suggesting that I had caused people on multiple continents to cry on account of how hurtful and sexist the post supposedly was. Lesson learned from this incident: hack YA authors apparently have a lot of highly-strung fans in their cénacles! Other lesson learned from this incident: apparently many emo book bloggers only want to discuss books with you when you fully agree with them.
- I'm not sure how to measure a most successful piece or a most underrated piece since my opinion on the "success" of these things is likely to differ from yours. Ultimately, they're all throwaways anyway. However, I still get a laugh out of these old write-ups of Huysmans' Là-Bas and Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars because of the clearly inappropriate and ineffective ways I was going about trying to connect with other challenge readers who had little to no interest in the kinds of books I was reviewing. What an audience-baiting novice!
- "Most Pride-Worthy Piece" is a tough call--mostly because whatever stupid evanescent investment I have in a post has to do with whether I made myself laugh or said whatever I wanted to say in a short time or at least said it with only a modicum of potential future embarrassment anticipated. That being said, this post's first-sentence combination of a gratuitous Bjork insult with another insult about the crappy Scandinavian novel in question being a "historical fiction Beaches"? Yeah, I remember being pretty proud of that hate vibe handiwork at the time!
I'm going to anti-climactically pass on this passing on part since the chain-mail aspect of blogging awards doesn't appeal to the non-community builder/non-Victorian swooner in me. I hope you'll all feel free to participate if you like, though, since the posts of the other bloggers I've seen who have chosen to participate to this point have provided plenty of pleasant diversions for me. In the meantime, thanks to Caroline and Himadri for the invites! Their own responses to the 7 x 7 survey, by the way, can be found here and here. Other respondents of note: Emma; Guy Savage; Litlove; Obooki.
Entradas
That was fun. You did not disappoint me.
ResponderBorrarThe passing on part had to stop at some point. It was easy from me but since all of those mentioned above have participated the whole thing is narrowed down and we cannot keep on renaming each other ad eternam... Or we woud start a new meme called La Ronde...
Oh that Lanagan piece. I know I've tumbled down in your estimation - The Hunger Games -- hehe... I can finally read and review Tender Morsels.
There are different interpretations of pride-worthy and successful. I looked only at how often a post was clicked and not commented on. In terms of comments it was German Literature Month, I guess but I'm not looking at stats much.
The lurkers and spammers.... I have such a lot of subscribers who never ever comment... Weird, no?
I'm not going to forget your most successful post any day soon... I suppose I've contributed to the way things turned out... It was a blast in the end but for a while I felt like Hester Prynne.
Glad that was "fun" for you, Caroline; it was at least "semi-fun" for me to put together, ha ha, although I much prefer revisiting other people's old posts than my own. Of course, your Hester Prynne comment reminds me that I forgot to note that the Classic Club post, while most "popular," was also a contender for most "controversial" due to the crying jags and histrionics that appeared in the wake of your rather innocent comment. Anyway, glad that drama's over for the time being! P.S. I myself have never been able to understand the appeal of subscribing to a blog that's then never commented upon by the subscriber; I assume that many of those subscribers and/or followers are spammers or potential spammers, but maybe some of the rest are just super shy--or hoping that the blog in question will "improve" enough for them to want to comment on it one day? It's a mystery to me...
BorrarThere is a huge spam follower trend these days and new bloggers do it too because they think you will start to visit.
BorrarInteresting! I've never posted my "followers" on here because I never understood the point of doing that, but what you say makes sense all right. Too bad more new bloggers don't work on developing interesting content instead of "marketing" their "product" through such sketchy social climbing techniques, eh?
BorrarThe review contained in your controversial post did give me a good laugh. Thank you for that! I could snigger at will having thankfully never, ever, owned a poster featuring a unicorn. But y'know sometimes these things are dependent on hormones, of which we are all slaves one way or another.... ;)
ResponderBorrarAnd the thing about Perec and petit beurre is hilarious.
Litlove, glad you got a good laugh out of that and thanks for returning the favor with your comment about our teenage bedroom decoration tastes sometimes being "dependent on hormones." I totally get that part! The Perec keyword search thing is a crack-up to me as well even after all these years--and so much more imaginative than the porno spammers who end up at the blog because of my Apuleius and Herman Melville posts with all those four-letter words so prominently featured in the famous titles. How lame is that?!? Cheers!
BorrarI love the criterion of "whatever stupid evanescent investment I have in a post has to do with whether I made myself laugh" ... I can just imagine you sitting around snickering (as you take "another swig of high alcohol content beer"). I do agree with you on the Bjork/K-Lav comment though. Very pride-worthy. Your answer to number one, above, in which you deflect attention from you personally to blogging observations is not bad either.
ResponderBorrarBut, would I be me if I didn't add jibes? First, ONCE AGAIN you stubbornly persist in splitting infinitives. Since I saw it done last week on the very front page of the Wall Street Journal, I suppose I can't complain about YOU, but on the other hand, why not? Second, YA cenacles? ha ha - since cenacle most usually refers to "a *literary* coterie" I trust this was a subconscious admission that you really DO like unicorns and fairy tales and that you have a poster of Lanagan hanging up above your desk or bedside....
Thanks for fessin' up that you could "imagine" that typical post-creation scenario, Jill--you know me too well, I'm afraid, if only in cyberspace! On that note, do you think it's too early for me to vote "hack YA authors" and "cénacles" (with that aggressive French accent aigu spelling) as my most "pride-worthy" insult combo for the year? Whatever you decide, I appreciate your support and grammatical jibes, my friend. Cheers!
BorrarI ve got do mine as caroline picked me just seem be short time recently ,love your choices ,all the best stu
ResponderBorrarThanks, Stu--and just so you know, I've been looking forward to seeing which of your posts make the cut for you!
BorrarOh richard, you cracked me up! I started laughing with "I don't really do helpful either--or at least not intentionally" and then kept right on to the end! :)
ResponderBorrarThanks for sharing, Stefanie--what a relief! I was initially worried that that line and the post in general might have come off as just a little too belligerent in comparison to the posts from the other respondents I've seen, but then I figured that repeat visitors to the blog had prob. seen way worse by now. :D Cheers!
BorrarI just was remembering that I should have challenged you on the "most controversial" piece to propose the one in which you talked about going into the coffee shop carrying a bunch of books in your manly arms! ha ha! Still ROFL on that one!
ResponderBorrarTouché! Too bad there wasn't a "delusional faux-brooding-and-manly" category--I might have had multiple entries to choose from for that one. Cheers!
BorrarThat was funny and thanks for the link.
ResponderBorrarWhat is Tender Morsels ? Wait, don't tell me, it's like The Hunger Games, these books live in a parallel world for me. However I'm grateful that Caroline reviewed it, from a motherly point of view, because I expect that one day I'll have to answer the inevitable question "Mom, can I read The Hunger Games?"
Emma
Thanks, Emma, and you're very welcome about the link. I'd tell you more about Tender Morsels, but I'm afraid that I'd only set off another round of crying across the globe from the many fans of this work--apparently, hearing that other people don't like this novel magically turns them all into unicorn-poster toting Young Werthers!
Borrar