Janet Gogerty's Blog: Sandscript - Posts Tagged "goodreads"

Most writers may hope, but do not expect to be properly remunerated for their hard work or to make a living out of it. The explosion of e-books and Kindle self publishing, with books selling far more cheaply than paper books on the shelves of a bookshop, has increased the fear that authors are giving away their work.
But the truth is, most of us read most books for free. First it was the birth of public libraries, one of the great achievements of civilisation!
Years ago it was book clubs who made such offers as 'your first five books for fifty pence each' to seduce us into joining. We regularly joined, left and rejoined, gaining a library of colourful and useful family reference books and new novels.
Then charity shops became the Mecca for book lovers, most of us do not have room for all the paperback novels we have read and are happy to pass them on for a good cause.
Word of mouth is an excellent way to hear about books, but also usually means a good book being passed around friends.
Finally, when an avid reader dies they leave a house full of books; how many of us have doubled our book collection by inheritance?
I have shelves of books acquired and waiting to be read. Since joining goodreads I have enjoyed reviewing every book I finish; not only is it a good way to keep a record of personal reading, it is a way of appreciating the authors whose readers surely number far more than their buyers.

Do you keep a diary or resolve to keep one every New Year? Many years ago I was given a five year diary which lasted at least a decade of good intentions and still has many blank pages, but it does record some major life events; if anyone can ever decipher the tiny writing crammed into the allotted space per day and year.
In more recent years I received a handsome note book blissfully free of dates. I vowed to keep a journal for the purpose of preserving the art of handwriting and recording family history. Released from the obligation of daily jotting I would devote several pages to important events and places and people visited. I haven’t yet recorded Christmas.
But I am onto the third gift journal. Each entry begins with a few neat sentences, but quickly deteriorates into a cramped scrawl, especially if I am lounging with my feet up on the sofa. I imagine the diarists of old would need to sit upright at their bureaus to be able to handle their quill and ink.
In the unlikely event of me becoming a famous author posthumously, will my family be tempted to burn these diaries and journals to protect my reputation? If they bother to look at them they will find no scandal (there is none to help in the fame stakes ), nor salacious details of non writing activities at home. But hopefully my jottings will be a unique personal account of everyday life in the early years of the Twenty First Century.
And which will last longer, the paper books or this Blog? When I needed to look up a previous blog about the River Thames I typed in ‘Janet Gogerty Sandscript River Thames’ and up it came, from over two years ago; will it be there forever? Will our Goodreads Blogs and book reviews float through the ether into eternity, or only until the internet is switched off?
Like radio waves beaming out into space will the billions of words on the internet still be out there somewhere when the electricity is switched off for good? Will our Facebook posts and e-mails be accessible to clever Alien archaeologists or future Earth scientists? If so then, Greetings from 2016 A.D.