Give the Gift of Reading

March 24, 2023

This season, give the gift of reading.

Somewhere out there, a blogger is writing a post much like this one.

If you harbor kind feelings about blogging, this might conjure up thoughts of diamonds in the rough: fantastic blog posts just waiting to be discovered.

If you harbor not-so-kind feelings about blogging, you might think of piles of shit, screeds and manifestos and mad ravings.

There are a lot of bloggers out there, and it's easy to feel like they're the ones whose time matters when it comes to posting on the internet. But you know what's just as important? The people who read, appreciate (or hate) and occasionally let bloggers know when they really loved a post.

I try to reach out and thank bloggers when I read an especially interesting post. I've made some great friends (and had faith in humanity restored) by people who liked my blog or appreciated me reaching out. So the next time you read a blog post and really love it, consider reaching out and letting the author know with an email.

Worst case, it goes to spam. Medium case, it brings a smile to their face. Best case, they also like YOUR blog and you make a new connection. I like to imagine the best case is more common than we think.

And thank you to everyone who reads this blog. I've never tried to gain followers or engage or target any kind of real audience. But if you take any amount of your valuable time on this planet to read this blog and either learn something or get a chuckle out of it, I appreciate you.