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Category: Blog-related

Last Blog Standing

In an interview with Laura Owen Hazard for NiemanLab, Jason Kottke talks about 20 years of Kottke.org and the future of blogging:

Personally, I think I felt a lot worse about it maybe three, four years ago. I was like, crap, what am I going to do here? I can see where this is going, I can see that more and more people are going to go to Facebook, and to mobile, and to all of these social apps and stuff like that, and there’s going to be less and less of a space in there for blogs like mine. I can’t churn out 60 things a day and play that social game where you use the shotgun approach to spit stuff out there and see what sticks. I’ve got to do four, five, six things that are good, really good. Since then, though, I’ve sort of come to terms with that. I’m like: Okay, if I can just keep going it, just keep doing it, it will work itself out somehow. I don’t know why I think that, but I kind of do.

This might be a bit inside-baseball if you’re just here for the book covers and don’t care about blogging, but Kottke was one of the original inspirations for The Casual Optimist and so I tend to pay attention to what Jason has to say on the subject. I’m glad that he has found a way to make it work for him.

I’ve also been thinking more about the future of this blog over the past year or so. I’ve never done it for money (which is lucky because it’s never really been an option!), but I’m a slow writer at the best of times (too many thoughts in my head as a rule), and I’ve found myself blogging less and less in recent months.

And then The Casual Optimist turns 10 this year, which seems like… something. Is it finally time to call it quits? I don’t know…   

For some reason all this reminds me of this Onion article from a few years ago: Find The Thing You’re Most Passionate About, Then Do It On Nights And Weekends For The Rest Of Your Life:

I can’t stress this enough: Do what you love…in between work commitments, and family commitments, and commitments that tend to pop up and take immediate precedence over doing the thing you love. Because the bottom line is that life is short, and you owe it to yourself to spend the majority of it giving yourself wholly and completely to something you absolutely hate, and 20 minutes here and there doing what you feel you were put on this earth to do.

Hmm…

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Happy New Year!

Happy  New Year!

(It may be 2014, but Nancy is Happy is still one of my favourite Tumblrs. Some things will never change…)

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Happy New Year

Apologies for two Nancy  posts in a row, but if you’re a parent of small children and you spent the holidays at home, you will probably be able to relate:

Normal service will resume shortly (once I’ve dug myself out of toys, craft materials and dress-up clothes). Happy New Year.

(image via the fabulous Nancy is Happy)

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Hooray for Christmas

Happy holidays!

Nancy Likes Christmas has just been published by Fantagraphics.

(via the awesome Nancy is Happy).

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Happy Holidays

It’s been a stupidly busy December, but before I take a break from the blog for a couple of weeks, I want to thank everyone for supporting The Casual Optimist this year — it means a lot. Really.

Happy Holidays.

The amazing book cover above is from Maraid Design’s incredible, incredible Flickr photostream. Go take a look.

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Address Change

If you’re in the habit of sending me catalogues or review copies, it is time to update your address books — please drop me a line  and I will send you the details.

And, yes, sadly I am losing the view.

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50 Watts

Will Schofield’s wonderful blog A Journal Round My Skull has been relaunched as 50 Watts using the Cargo platform:

The new name has something to do with Charlie Watts, Beckett’s Watt, Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, dim light bulbs, riots, cheap amps, chaos theory, and the friend who threatened violence if I didn’t drop my old moniker.

I didn’t threaten violence, but I certainly got the name wrong more times than I care to mention. 50 Watts looks great and I should be able to remember the name this time.

Make sure you update your bookmarks and RSS reader.

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Back from Vancouver

I was in Vancouver last week for the Raincoast Books Spring 2011 sales conference. It snowed (see above) and I heard about a lot of new titles I’m looking forward to seeing next year (I can’t wait to get my hands on a finished copy of Into the Wilds by illustrator Nigel Peake for example). I also caught up with some old friends, stayed up too late, and managed to get sick. Needless to say, I’m a bit behind with this internet thing. I will be trying to catch up this week, but things are likely to be a bit wonky around here for the next few days (and I apologise if I owe you an email). Thanks for your patience…

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From My Desk…

I’ve mention Kate Donnelly’s blog a couple of times here previously, but now you can take a look at my office space on From The Desks Of should you be so inclined.

Other (more interesting) recent contributors to From The Desk Of… include book designers Peter Mendelsund and Coralie Bickford-Smith, and New Yorker critic Alex Ross. I’m honoured to be in their esteemed company.

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Proust

Open Book Toronto recently asked me to complete their version of the Proust Questionnaire. They have posted my answers — which include recommendations for Memories of the Future by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky and Colony by Hugo Wilcken (more of which at a later date I think) — today.  Thank you OBTO!

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