Money, money, money

"Money dignifies what is frivolous if unpaid for."

Virginia Woolf
"A Room of One's Own"

Sunday Diary

Since I feel as if I did not "accomplish" much today, I thought this tiny inventory might prove beneficial.

• went to church, though I sang few if any hymns
• made friendly quips and conversation with the priest's son afterward
• at the fellowship hour, had the longest conversation, by far, I had ever had with Wayne, a parishioner
• read some of Affliction by Russell Banks
• did dishes
• did some digital marketing of my three published books
• cleared my desk of old bills, magazines, newspapers; dusted and polished it
• my laptop, which I am using now, sits atop the desk
• walked the dog
• went to two grocery stores

How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?

When I was very young, I was enthralled with the song "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window." Maybe I wrote this because I was subconsciously influenced by the fact that the song's singer, Patti Page, just died, on January 1.

You know what? We never did find out how much that little doggie cost.

But I want to ask you something: "how much is that word on the Internet?"

What I'm asking is, how much would you be willing to pay if you had to pay for each word you send out into the ether of the Etherworld, the Internet, cyberspace, you-name-it?

I'm not engaging in a debate over free speech or free Internet. I am asking you to put a value on the words tapped out on your keyboard and transported into and onto and through the digital realms of the planet.

How much would you be willing to pay for each word, if you were forced to do make such a payment?

The great writer Jorge Luis Borges, one of my favorites, once commented that censorship imposed in his native Argentina by the regime there forced him to choose his words more carefully.

Would Modern Wordcost Internet Protocols (MWIP) make us act in a similar manner? 

And how would such a "cost" influence what you tapped, typed, wrote, scrawled, whatever-you-want-to-call-it?

Reading, Nonpennsylvania

You've become such a blogvoyeur, lurking here without commenting.

C'mon.

Tell us.

What are you reading?

Habit

I got out of the habit of blogging here.

I am sorry.

If you recall, this is where we began our digital conversation, back on Bloomsday, in 2006.

Can we begin again?

May we begin again?

2012 Book List

It's a tiny bit late, but here is my annual list of books I have read. For no reason other than I've been writing my OWN books, the list is a little shorter this year. I could claim the list is briefer because I have one or two monster-long books, but that wouldn't work. I typically have one or two monster-long books. Here goes:

1. The Greatest Game Ever Pitched: Juan Marichal, Warren Spahn, and the Pitching Duel of the Century -- Jim Kaplan

2.  Wait Till Next Year -- Doris Kearns Goodwin

3. The Odds: A Love Story -- Stewart O'Nan

4. The Great Leader -- Jim Harrison

5. Just Kids -- Patti Smith

6. The Hunger Games -- Suzanne Collins

7. Cutting for Stone -- Abraham Verghese

8. Ignorance: How It Drives Science -- Stuart Firestein

9. A Pirate for Life -- Steve Blass

10. Canada -- Richard Ford

11. The Juju Rules, or How to Win Ballgames from Your Couch -- Hart Seely

12. You & Me -- Padgett Powell

13. The Cow in the Parking Lot: A Zen Approach to Overcoming Anger -- Leonard Scheff and Susan Edmiston

What are you reading?