the return of the blogger

I am back... and, I think, sort of kind of committed to seriously starting to blog again.

The last couple of years I have been so WOUND UP in my job that I couldn't bring myself to blog. I couldn't even bring myself to read, which made it difficult to write a blog about reading.

I had the privilege of taking almost six weeks off work and travelling to Europe over Christmas and the New Year.  Besides getting to be in Europe, almost six weeks away became an opportunity to reassess things, and I have decided that I am not happy with the idea of:

- giving up reading
- giving up writing about reading
- giving up writing, or only writing if it's the soulless function-driven communications of a policy advisor writing to politicians and bureaucrats.

Dammit, I want to have fun again.

So this year is a year of change.  I am slowly learning to say NO more.  It also helps that late last year my friends and I started a book club.  We are firmly resolved to read only books that are fun - i.e., not only to be read because we think they will be good for us.  It has been a successful practice so far.  And having six weeks to travel, thereby sitting in a progression of trains, planes and transit lounges, is a real boost when it comes to re-developing a thirst for literature.

I feel like I have lost my ability to write creatively.  I used to have a nose for stories and I have lost it entirely.  But I suspect that if I start properly reading again - and properly writing about reading - I may just regain my confidence too.

So hello, blogosphere.  I am back (I hope).  I think I will be here regularly - how often that is, I'm not sure.  But I feel optimistic that this blog is not over yet.