Blogging about blogging

Because approximately twelve hours of my day are consumed by work - getting ready for it, getting there and back, and actually being there - only weekends and a couple of hours in the evening are left for everything else. So I usually post entries to my blog for a day or two, then I read and comment on blogs for the next couple of days. There are three or four blogs that I read every day, the others I catch up on every few days. This is what entertains me at the moment, and as long as it does I will keep doing it.

Yesterday was one of my reading days and Ilva of Lucullian Delights had posted this quick entry asking us for our thoughts about a post by Adam of The Amateur Gourmet, entitled More Blogging Advice.

I read the post, and at first I was going to keep my thoughts on the matter to myself. Ha! If I had, it would have been a first! Neither in relationships, nor at work, nor out in public have I ever been able to “just let it slide”. Oh no, not I.

So first I posted a comment to Ilva, then to one of Adam’s readers, then to Adam’s post, and now here.

Adam is sick of boring food blogs and gives advice on how to spice (no pun intended) things up. He does not use the word success, but that is what he is talking about, and he equates it, if I am not mistaken, with getting ads and lots of readers. Being popular.

The ability to synthesize has never been one of my strong points, but I’ll make an effort. What my reaction boils down to is this:

1. So what if a blog is boring to some or even to most?

I enjoy the connection to people I would probably never meet otherwise and the exchange of information that writing a blog and reading blogs provides. My advice is if you enjoy doing it, continue until it no longer gives you what you want. That my blog may be boring to many does not bother me, they need never read it again, but when it bores me to write it, then I will quit.

2. Why do we have to be “successful” and what is “success”?

To be fair, in response to some of the comments he received, Adam did say that he was really speaking more to those who wanted to be successful and not to those who blog for their own pleasure.

Still I wonder what that word means.

There are those in every field who are “successful” in the commonly used meaning of the word, i.e. money/popularity/fame, singularly or in any combination. This does not mean that their work or product is “good”. Without mentioning any names, I’m sure we can all conjure up our own examples of this in the food industry, in entertainment, in magazines and books.

3. Popular? ohmygod, the word makes me cringe. It evokes memories of the worst of junior high school. Doesn’t it remind you of the stress that not being popular could cause? Of the lengths to which we might go to achieve “popularity”? Even to the point of doing something stupid, or cruel or insensitive just to be considered cool by those whose acceptance we wanted.

OK, I’m getting too dramatic, it’s just foodblogging after all.

Now please read Ilva’s response to Adam’s post and, for a totally coincidental piece on the subject of blogging, there are these lovely thoughts posted today by Alicia of Posie Gets Cozy.

Mi dispiace, ma si è fatto tardi e proprio non ce la faccio a fare la versione italiana - forse domani : )