The Century (Post) Mark, and What I've Learned From Readers

When I started this blog 99 posts ago, I did so with a full heart, an open mind and a goal of....PSYCH! Nope, this isn't one of "those" self-congratulatory, wistfully-looking-back posts. Those are silly.

But this is indeed my 100th post since starting The New Dork Review of Books, though I'm quite certain I'm the only one who cares about that....and frankly, I'm not even sure how much I care. It's not like I'm stopping now. It's just a number. And in fact Post #101 later this week will be my review of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom — which will hopefully be much more intellectually stimulating contentwise than this one will be. 

And but so, because this is Book Blogger Appreciation Week (for my non-blogger readers, BBAW actually is a pretty significant "event" — check out the website for some great articles, awards, book giveaways, etc.), I actually wanted to appreciate my readers on this, the occasion of my 100th post. You, the readers, via your comments and feedback, really make this blog a lot of fun. So, thank you. And to give this post just a tad more meat, here are five quirky, fun literary things I've learned from your comments over the course of 100 posts:

5. Eat, Pray and Love is a total shamockery! Patrick at The Literate Man — a fantastic blog geared toward dudes, but don't let that stop you if you're of the female persuasion — pointed out on my post about the Franzen Hype Machine that Elizabeth Gilbert had pitched her book and had a contract in place PRIOR to going out and having the spiritual, life-changing experiences chronicled in her memoir. Patrick puts it much more eloquently in his comment — highly encourage you to check it out.

4. I was heartened to learn that readers are just as outraged as I am about the continued practiced of leaving one-star reviews on Amazon to "protest" e-book prices. Again, not exactly an ideological limb, but people who do the one-star review that has nothing to do with the content really grind my gears.

3. I've learned about (and subsequently read) more great books and writers than I can possibly name. The first two examples that spring to mind as books I'd never have read are The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, and Lamb, by Christopher Moore. These two novels showed up more frequently than any others in the comments as recommendations; the latter in a post about favorite funny books. Side note: You know how when you hear your voice on a recording, you usually cringe and say something self-deprecatory to hide your embarrassment like, "Why didn't you tell me I sounded like Gilbert Gottfried on helium?" That's how I feel about that post. Ugh. Terrible. Did I really write that verbose garbage?  Which reminds me...

2. My readers have discerning tastes and high standards for what they want from The New Dork Review of Books. Back in January, on a day I was a little under the weather and just not feelin' like writing something, I tossed together this poor post about memoirs vs. autobiographies. Readers pounced. Lesson learned. 

1. Did you know that some novelists (newer ones, I'm guessing) have clauses in their contracts forcing them to blurb other writers from the same publisher? To learn that from readers on my post about the blurbs was a little disconcerting. But I still like blurbs, and still put stock in who is doing the blurbing — only with a slightly larger grain of salt now.

Any further comment on any of these? If you're a blogger, what are some of your favorite tidbits you've learned from readers?

(Oh, and since yesterday was supposed to be the day you tag your favorite book bloggers, per the theme of the day for BBAW, let me do so now by referring you back to a post I did earlier this summer where I named five of my favorite books blogs. And thanks to Kerry at Entomology of a Bookworm, who is mentioned in the post, and also to Trisha at eclectic / eccentric for their really nice shouts out to The New Dork Review of Books yesterday. Cheers!)