As Mark Twain said regarding his published death – and after four years I’m tempted to bring this blog back to life. I’d become dissatisfied with posting 100-word rants about the books I’d read and the films I’d seen, so I felt I needed to walk away. And I was annoyed at the unwanted changes WordPress had made to its editor.

But the habit dies hard – the habit of reviewing, that is; although I suppose the habit of ranting is equally enduring. Soon after shuttering this blog, I started posting longer, actual proper, reviews of books on Medium – see here – and a year or two later, I began posting shorter book reviews on Facebook. It occurred to me recently I might as well post the latter here as well. I’ll continue to post them on Facebook and LibraryThing, but I’ll leave the longer reviews to Medium… And I may well branch out here and post more than just book reviews. But no rants.

Hopefully, posting reviews here will generate conversations much as it has done on Facebook – although not just among friends. Social media these days is a cesspit – actual posts by friends are in the minority on your Facebook timeline, Xitter is a shit-filled bearpit populated by fascist morons, and Bluesky started off well but is now pretty much doom-scrolling…

Maybe it’s time for a second lease of life for the blogosphere. We shall see. Or not.