Sarah's Books - Used & Rare

On some other book-person's blog I recently read a bit (no link because I can't remember where it was) to the effect that if no one comments on your blogging efforts, or only a few people comment, then why blog at all, i.e. It's like talking aloud to yourself out in public - rather shameful, egotistical, perhaps nutty, even delusional. That really stuck with me, and bothered me, because the author's intent wasn't friendly, in fact the point of the post was ridicule, for the little guy (the rest of us, in other words). I don't want to return the favor by poking back with a sharp stick, but I do have a few thoughts in response to this, which run along these lines:

Why be exclusive when you can be inclusive? Why take someone else down when it's more peaceful to allow people to do their little thing, whatever it might be? To paraphrase Buddhist author Pema Chödrön: in interactions both small and large, in daily decisions, do you keep choosing peace or do you go to war? Take the high road? And - the thing that really gets me about this person's post - why do artists make art (not that blogs are art, but stretch with me here, for blogs are creative expression, surely)? I'll answer my own question: artists make art because they must. Whether or not anyone responds to it is completely secondary. I think about the great painters and writers who labored their whole lives in obscurity. I mean GREAT artists and TOTAL obscurity. So why begrudge anyone their bit of creative freedom in this highly accessible age, even if the only person who sees the tentative results is a friend or family member here and there.

I think all bloggers must wonder What exactly am I doing here... I blog because I have a creative streak and I've always been a compulsive chronicler of my experience. I also like the interaction with readers (this means YOU). Blogging is like keeping a journal, which I do and have done since I was a teenager, except with blogging your journal talks back to you sometimes. Of course much of what I write in my journals I don't choose to share in public, so I edit what appears here, and I try to keep it to bookish themes, because that's one of the things I love best and want to spread the word about - reading, the bookshop, the bookish life. So many folks who stop by the shop ask me about being a bookseller. And because having a bookshop is one of the great dreams of many of us booklovers, I figured people might be interested to hear what it's like on this side of the desk.

So here we are, blogging. To what end, who knows. But how about this: for fun, and for sharing our love of great books - that might just be enough. I'm feeling introspective, because this is blog post #199. Post #200 is coming up next. With pictures. Of books. LOTS AND LOTS OF BOOKS.

Happy anniversary to us, the booklovers managing to cope with the digital era.