Why and how I blog: Thoughts on Elliot's Reading

Spent the morning on air w/ host Frank Prosnitz talking about 25 Posts from Elliot's Reading, first at WBLQ (Westerly), then at WADK (Newport). Frank posed a # of intriguing questions, not only about what I've read, and haven't read, but about why (and how) I blog. In short I explained that Elliot's Reading is like a personal reading log, a daily record of what I'm thinking about what I'm reading. I don't intend any of the posts on this blog to read like polished essays; they're not. They are like a snapshot of my brain at a moment in time; I write them "raw" and don't edit, nor do I fact check or reference the works under discussion while I am writing the blog entries. I kept this raw format in the 25 Posts booklet, although I did correct obvious typographical errors and added a few explanatory notes. But why do I blog? I think blogging makes me a better, more attentive, more analytic, and more sympathetic reader; as I'm reading I'm not just receiving information and mediated experiences, but I'm thinking about my engagement w/ the works that I'm reading, preparing, on some level, the thoughts I will post the next day. The blog also serves as a personal reference point, which enables me to recapture some of my past and otherwise long-gone reading experiences. I think it's unusual if not unique among blogs that I am not interested in posting reviews or analyses of the works I read; because I post daily as I read through various novels, some quite long, the blog shows the reading in process, as I come to understand more about what I'm reading, sometimes to appreciate the work more as I proceed, sometimes the opposite. Frank was particularly interested in whether blogging would be a goo teaching tool, and I think that it would - I would guess that many English teachers encourage students to keep a daily record of their reading, even if the record consists of no more than a sentence or two. (I'll be w/ Frank again in Thursday at 4 p.m. on WOON Woonsocket).

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