Welcome to the Read-Along!

Hello to you, fellow bookworms out there in cyberspace!

Ah, who am I kidding? There's no one out there right now, and there's likely never to be, and ostensibly, that's part of the point of my starting this blog--finding a vaguely accountable yet safe, easily searchable and well-laid-out space to write about the books I'm reading in order to organize my thoughts and work through some ideas. (Sorry, Google docs--you're a great tool and eminently searchable, but damn, if that layout doesn't make me dizzy).

Right now, I'm a graduate student in English literature slogging through the muddy, uncharted expanse of the ABD stage. I had an idea for a dissertation (sort of), but once I started to try to write the fucker, I was absolutely paralyzed. Too much information out there, too much to read, too much one could fail to take into account, too much that's already been done... All I could do was--all I currently can do seems to be--to sit down, stare at the blank screen, dick around for awhile and ultimately give up.

This has been going on now for months, and has predictably resulted in an immoderate level of frustration. For awhile there I couldn't even read, which was a true tragedy, since for as long as I can remember, reading has been one of my chief pleasures and a refuge from the slings and arrows that outrageous fortune sometimes sees fit to throw. This, I feared, was an untold possible consequence of making a job out of your favorite hobby. It's like Rumplestiltskin in reverse: you take your gold and spin it into dross.

The good news is that lately I've been reading again, chiefly novels (with a few graphic novels, a little poetry thrown in for good measure), whipping through them in a day or two and remembering the joy I used to take in reading--not just in the escapist sense, but in the tactile experience of the cover, the page, the words on that page. This website is dedicated to combining that experience of joy in the experience of reading with what *can* be the intellectually rewarding task of analyzing what you've read in a playful, consequence-and-judgment-free fashion. And in the process, maybe I'll rediscover why this kind of work, increasingly devalued in our culture as the humanities retreat ever further into irrelevance, actually matters.

If anyone stumbles upon this website, feel free to let me know you're there. Chime in, suggest a text to tackle, offer words of wisdom or offer topics of debate. I'd love to know you're there, and that I'm not talking to myself across the vast reaches of the cyberabyss. And, of course, happy reading!