A Regimen

All right, then. I opened this joint up because I had a lot I wanted to talk about; yet a perusal of my archive would indicate that I am a shy, retiring creature who can only be driven to speak by a build-up of pressures and urges that finally leads to a gush of words and then leaves me sated for another month or so.

Those who know me can tell you that is not so. If ever you find that you need an enthusiastic gabber, I’m your guy.

So I’ve come up with a plan to make this place more generally reflective of its proprietor, and also to get me back in the habit of reading, thinking, and writing critically. I recently read Joan Acocella’s book of essays Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints. I thought it was very good, and the essays make for smallish chunks of text that are well suited to blogging about, so what I’m going to try to do is post on one essay approximately every day, until I’ve got all the way through the book. There are 31 essays in it (the hidden track is about writer’s block); if I can stick to the plan, that’ll be a month’s practice at regular, committed blogging, which I hope will be enough to get me into the habit.

So in the words of a professional twice over—an analyst and a therapist—“Let the great experiment begin!”

(Image from the Balboa Observer-Picayune.)