In the summer of 2009, I went on holiday. It was a longish holiday, but not a very interesting one, involving a lot of hanging around on a beach in Italy, which means - for me - reading a lot. So when I considered the question of what to put on Facebook during the holidays, I thought that it would be more interesting to describe the books I was reading than what I was doing. Actually, truth be told, I don't really think I want to put a blow-by-blow account of where I am (therefore where I am not) on the web anyway.
Thus were my "holiday reading" Facebook notes born.
About three, possibly as many as five, Facebook friends said they liked these little book reviews, and, in one case, someone even told me that they had persuaded her that Facebook might even have a legitimate reason to exist after all. Wow! So I couldn't stop after that, could I?
"Holiday reading" notes thus continued into the post-holiday period and have now survived a second summer holiday (though more active = fewer books...).
This blog is an experiment, based upon another friend's observation that it seemed a shame to reserve these reviews for Facebook friends only. So with a little copy-pasting, here you have "Himoverthere's Books" - all the Facebook notes so far and possibly into the future.
Let's see.
By the way, in case you're wondering, the very first note is marked "no. 4" because, prior to that I had not yet discovered the FB note format, and posted these as regular status updates (bad idea...). Those first three were frankly too much hassle to find and copy-paste.
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Update, 4 January 2015:
I just looked at this for the first time in a long while, and realise an update is in order, if only for the sake of accuracy.
The whole "Facebook notes" thing is long gone. For a long time now I have simply written the post on the blog and then posted a link to it on Facebook. So much simpler, frankly. However, the origin myth is unaltered, it all started exactly as I say.
Also just for the record, I do still post on every book I read (for leisure purposes), although periodically I have got a bit behind and done multi-book bumper catchup posts. There are three such on this blog, I think.
Does anyone ever read any of this? According to the stats, a few. Most posts get a couple or three dozen page views, Facebook friends mainly judging by the traffic source data. Some posts seem to spread a bit more widely, though we are far from virality here. For the record, the top five as of today:
1. The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England - 129 page views (16 Aug 2010)
2. A Short Ride in the Jungle - 112 page views (10 Sep 2014)
3. Stoner - 94 page views (23 Apr 2014)
4. London Underground - 85 page views (10 Jun 2012)
5. Power, Why Some People Have It and Others Don't - 83 page views (8 Jun 2014)
On two occasions, I have had comments left by authors.
1. On "Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You" by Marcus Chown
2. On "How to Thrive in the Digital Age" by Tom Chatfield
That was nice, even if a friend maliciously pointed out that these are the ones who have to google themselves in the hope someone is talking about their book.
Anyway, whether or not anyone reads this, and whoever they are, I will carry on. I enjoy the exercise of writing these little reviews and I like the recollections the blog provides me of the things I have read. Yes, quite a few of those page views are me looking back at my own stuff!
