Post 2500 on The Reading Life. - Some Observations on this Occasion

This is the 2500th post on The Reading Life.  When I began my blog 5.5 years ago, I never dreamed I would push on to post 2500.  If you asked my wife and family they would have said, and I would have agreed, it will be amazing if he does 25 posts.   Everyone once and a while I have found it useful to reflect on what I am doing and hope to do.    So I will just indulge in some observations.

My Reviews

Of my posts, probably at most fifty are negative, most are very positive.  Part of the reason for this is I don't read a book or a story  without assuming I will like it.  If I don't like a book, I normally abandon it. Life is to short to read bad books and  I don't do bad reviews just to appear tough.  When I read something, I look for the good in it, true reading is not a passive activity.   

Free Books and Reviews

I like free books!  I pretty much only E Read so publishers and authors do not occur much expense in sending me a book.  I look at everything I am sent but a free book is not a guarantee of a review.  If I have explicitly told you I will post on your book I will.

Short Stories

I now have 91 collections of short stories on my E Reader, easy 2000 stories.   Some I bought but most were gifts from publishers.   There is great literature in these collections.  In March I will hopefully post on at least thirty Irish short stories, during Irish Short Story Month Year Five.  I have seven collections of short stories by authors from the Indian Subcontinent.  There are at least 100 new to me writers in these collections.  At some point I will begin reading them in a fairly systematic way.  The biggest reader draw to my blog is pre-WW II short stories from the Philippines.  I will keep reading them.  I will continue to seek out and read the stories of developing writers.  

Reading Plans

Near term I Will push on with Balzac's Comedie Humaine, I am almost half done.  I hope to reread Proust this year,  more European classics, I hope to read Faust, Part One, translated by David Constantine.  I will hopefully read a few American classics.  In a world wide literary shoot out,  The Reading Life will stand with the Irish.  

I will keep doing Q and A sessions.  I am close to 100 now.  I very much appreciate the writers who have  kindly done a session.  Doing a good author interview is not easy, at least for me.   If anything is of lasting value on my blog, it is the Q and A sessions.  

I am looking for more authors to do sessions with.  If you are interested, contact me.  I have 100,000 plus visits a month from serious readers of quality literature.  I have found sessions being regularly read years on.  

Mel u