Reading and Readership

As an English Lit. major, I'm expected to read a certain amount per course. That makes sense. Sometimes it'd be around 5 novels, or perhaps 10 plays, or a novel and 20 short stories, etc. And the thing is, I used to read a lot as a child. And yet, nowaways, when I have spare time, even if I have a book I've been meaning to read, I'll more likely err on looking stuff up online, or reading less literary narratives like shoujo manga. Oh, the shame. What can I say, I'm a sucker for sappiness at times.

Sometimes, I worry about whether the amount of popular Japanese entertainment I intake has some warped affect on my ability to analyze "real" literature -- ie, that which we're studying in class. And also, to a greater degree, how it affects my arguments and my constructions in my essays for those courses. So, this term I'll try a little experiment and see if by dutifully doing my readings and abstaining from irrelevant junk, whether my grades will show a marked improvement.

As to the other half of my title, I sometimes wonder about how many people actually read this blog (or even my other blog -- the grammar/linguistics one). That one is specialised though, so I kinda leave it to its own evolution. But as far as this particular blog is concerned, where I generally talk about things in my personal life, or intellectual issues that are inspired by personal events, who is my readership? Aside from the people who know me personally and already have some sort of personal interest in my daily happenings and general well-being, why would a general stranger bother reading the conceited ramblings of an undergraduate?

Not that I'm trying to chase my dear readers away -- I actually find it neat that others would take to time to even work through what I have to say. At present, I can think of two readers whom I don't know personally (at least, I'm pretty sure I don't know them personally), who have made themselves known to me. One of them was fairly googleable though, and according to facebook, we share over ten mutual friends, most of whom are from my hometown or univeristy circuit. The other one also maintains a blog, but I wonder if the only connection is the fact that my blog is named in french. (Aside: Originally, I had wanted to name it "Le Nouveau Naissance," but my francophone friend advised against it. That's one grammatical bullet dodged!)

So, dear readers, as I count the minutes until my first lecture of the new year (which will be in 36 minutes), I would humbly request a short but sufficiently detailed comment explaining what about this blog you find remotely interesting (in other words, what makes you keep coming back for more?). It probably won't change how I do things around here, but it's cool to see how different things interest different people. ....Well, I suppose that's a generous assuption that my blog here is so multi-faceted as to be able to appeal to different kinds of people. :P So, comment away! :D Sometime later, I'll make a post or two about my christmas holiday. =)