Reading progress… update #4((I started reading the first book from The Once and Future King by T. H. White in the middle of February but life and work have stepped in and slowed my reading progress.))

Fiction:

  • Dexter, Colin: The Dead of Jericho
  • Dexter, Colin: The Riddle of the Third Mile
  • Dexter, Colin: The Secret of Annexe 3
  • Dexter, Colin: The Wench is Dead

Non-fiction:

  • Glei, Jocelyn K.: Unsubscribe
  • King, Stephen: On Writing

Morning reading:((Conversely, my morning reading continues apace. After finishing ‘On Writing’ and ‘Unsubscribe’, I have added ‘A Room of One’s Own‘ by Virginia Wolf.))

  • Aurelius, Marcus: Meditations – Books 1-4
  • The Bible:
    • Romans
    • 1 Corinthians
    • 2 Corinthians
    • Galatians
    • Ephesians – Chapters 1-2
  • Russell, Bertrand: History of Western Philosophy
    • Preface and Introduction
    • Book One: Ancient Philosophy
      • The Rise of Greek Civilisation
      • The Milesian School
  • Seneca: Dialogues and Essays – Introduction and Note on the Text

Current status:

Working on my ‘inspiration list’. 💭 A great idea from Colin Devroe’s personal blogging tips.

He kindly commented on my most recent post where I had unearthed an old list of ten things I had learned after a year of blogging.

Sharing his own list of tips, all of which rang true, the following one struck an instant chord:

“In your notebook or notes app write down some topics you’d like to write about someday. Make it long. Like, 50 items. Don’t worry too much about what should be on it just start writing the list down. When you can’t think of anything to write about look at that list and simply pick any one at all and check it off.”

This is a great idea which aligns perfectly with my goal to write more this year. ✍️

Thanks Colin. 🤝

More on blogging…

https://jamesmichie.com/blog/2011/02/10-things-ive-learned-in-a-year-of-blogging/

Ten years on and most of the points in the above post still hold up. Except for number nine, that is. If I were writing the post today, I would say forget about SEO and analytics. Instead double down on point number one. All that matters is what you write.

On blogging…

This…

“Blog posts can be edited, added to, improved upon.

If you missed something, you can fix it.”

~ Kleon, Austin, Blogging as a forgiving medium, 2021

Reminded me of this…

“It’s foolish to wait until you’ve made something that’s perfect, because you never will. The alternative is to continue to move toward your imaginary ideal, shipping as you iterate.”

~ Godin, Seth, Toward Perfect, 2020

As Austin notes, blogging is the ‘forgiving medium’ because it affords you the opportunity to treat your writing iteratively; practising and learning in public. This can be a daunting notion but it can also be deeply rewarding.

No one is going to be upset if you go back and revise something you have already published. You will gain from it and so will your readers. After all, the more you ship, the more you push back against the resistance and improve as a writer.