"I don't know what to write about today."

One of my favorite parts of this Blockhead blog is hidden away in the column on the right: the Collections. There are three folders at the moment: Books Julian Finished in 2008 (few), Films Julian Watched in 2008 (a few more), and Books David Finished in 2008 (a very large number, with about 5 more added every time you visit the folder). If you click the icons inside the folder, a larger book or DVD cover comes up, at the bottom of which there's Julian or David's thumbnail review of the item in question.

David seems to devour a book a day, while I'm lucky to manage one a month. I added my third book of the year today: a wonderful collection of "How to" humor columns by Guy Browning. I commented that no one is better than Browning at skewering our pretensions and satirizing our foibles. As he has been writing columns for years, there seems to be an endless supply of both. He recently wrote one (not included in the book) on "How to... blog" in which he notes,

"Traditionally, people kept diaries of their innermost thoughts, safe in the knowledge that no one would ever publish them. Nowadays, millions of people publish their innermost thoughts as internet blogs, safe in the knowledge that no one will ever read them."

He also warns that "'I don't know what to write about today,' is not a good way of starting a blog. You'll notice that none of the great works of literature start with that line."

Both points taken. (Sound of air escaping from punctured pretentions)

--Julian