Last week, my entire book list for this year disappeared from blogger. I opened the draft to add something to the list, and suddenly several lines were gone. I tried undo but nothing happened. I tried it again and still nothing happened. I tried it a third time and the entire post draft disappeared!
My usual emergency measure for such things is to quickly close out the post before it autosaves. Then I get a dialog box reminding me that I have unsaved changes, but I close it out anyway and the mistakes aren't saved. This time, no such dialog box appeared and the post closed with my entire list permanently deleted!
Once the disbelief became less acute, I started to wonder what to do. Should I try to reconstruct it? I had three or four dozen physical books, about three dozen audiobooks, and two eBooks on my list. I'm not sure I could remember all the titles; that's why I kept the list.
In pondering this, I had to ask myself what the long-term value is to it. It's kinda fun to do, and kinda fun to compare with others, but it's like keeping monthly weather records in my garden posts. It's time and effort to do, but I rarely reference it later.
Should I start again beginning now? I had to ask myself why I kept a reading list in the first place. Besides being fun, I'm not sure what other benefit I gained from it. For one thing, my interests have meandered in different directions than the theme of this blog. The purpose of this blog is to document our homesteading adventure. But as I mentioned awhile back, our time now is less dominated by homestead experiments and projects, and more influenced by a seasonal routine. When I found myself doing almost identical blog posts at the same time every year, I decided there were more interesting things to do with my time.
I'm still very much interested in homesteading, but I'm no longer reading to collect ideas and information on it. My interests have instead shifted toward the fiber arts and genealogy, especially historical culture studies. I read a variety of fiction and nonfiction. Fiction is mostly historical and for bedtime reading when I don't have to maintain alertness. Much of my nonfiction reading is inspired by the fiction I read. I'm curious about historical accuracy plus the people, terms, and concepts in the story.
For example, earlier this month I (finally) finished Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. It starts in 1799 in India and progresses through Britain's participation in Napoleon's Peninsular War and the Battle of Waterloo. Historical events were woven into an interesting storyline, and I learned about the culture, customs, military, strategies, and weapons of the time. I learned about Portugal, Spain, and France in the early 1800s plus the people behind the notable events. These aren't topics I have much interest in, but because I enjoy Bernard Cornwell, I tackled the series and learned a lot.
To expand on this, I read other fictional works of the same battles, and was able to compare two authors' treatment of the facts and details. I looked for biographies of the main historical characters and read (or listened to) those. Of those authors, I found other of their works that interested me. For example, after listening to Ida M Tarbell's biographies of Napoleon and Josephine, I listened to her The Business of Being a Woman. It was written in 1912 and not only remains relevant, but it will open the reader's eyes to how far off the deep-end modern day feminism has fallen.
In terms of the origins of my ancestors, I've discovered a number of books written in the 1600s and 1700s that are extremely interesting. Thankfully I've been putting interesting tidbits into a notebook rather than the computer. I won't have to worry about losing them as easily that way.
So that's my tale of woe. It's a good reminder of how precarious it is to rely on a computer to save important information, whether a home device or an online venue. Maybe I'll just start a notebook to record the books I read.
18 comments:
Well, THAT'S frustrating! Yes, things can happen to electronically stored info, just as it can to physical records. Floods, fire, and other disasters destroy people's treasured and/or important records, too. Nothing is guaranteed in this world; best to not hold onto anything TOO tightly.
Michelle, it's true, there's no real way to keep anything safe. That's just the way things are.
As a result of the latest blogger breakdowns, I've revised my approach. I've discontinued a lot of blogs I read which were not really interesting nor well written, and have cut back on my own blogging. I took it as a time to overhaul how much effort I've been putting in. So I made it into a kind of decision point, because I was dismayed at how taken aback I was. That told me it was getting out of proportion. Things like reading lists tend to grow without trying and take more time to attend to!
The Universe is showing us the way all the time, isn't it? I'm so grateful to have read this today. It validates to me that I am on the right track by simplifying everywhere I can. Enjoy your Sunday!
I have has a simple spiral notebook to record books I've read for many many years now. I just cut out photos of books and covered the front of it (decoupage). I'm about to fill it up, so I will probably do another (inexpensive idea). Yes, it's hard to rely on the computer. I went to my blog today, to find a recipe location I forgot to write down (the recipe too), and thankfully it was there. I've considered not writing on there as often, since AI seems to put these trackers on everything anymore. I hand write way more often lately. I am considering to using a different platform just for my writing.
Liz, I've never wanted to become dependent on the internet technology, but I've realized now how much of a habit it is. Not an addiction in the sense I was going bonkers, but a disruption that felt more like a wake up call and time to examine how I use the technology and my time. You're right, it just has a way of growing and consuming more and more of our time without our realizing it. I've been gradually cutting back on my computer time anyway, but this was another step away from it.
Daisy, I so agree. Things tend to get complicated so easily and I find myself tolerating it, tolerating it, tolerating it, until I finally realize that I don't want to tolerate it, I want it completely different. Periodic evaluation and re-evaluation are definitely good things when they help us get back on track.
Kristina, a notebook is a very good idea. I'm finding myself returning to them too, and writing by hand more and more. For one thing, things just seem to get buried electronically and it's difficult to find them again, even with labels and keywords.
I agree that AI's growing dominance on the internet is making it less and less useful. Between that and the previous commercialization of everything, I can rarely find the kind of information I'm actually looking for.
Leigh - What an incredibly timely post.
Yours is the third or fourth post I have read this month involving some kind of issue with Blogger, the big one being that updates are not happening for updated posts. A commenter on Chant De Dupart noted that apparently Blogger is supported by volunteers at this point - not surprising really; after all, it probably generates very little income for Google (in which case, why did you acquire it, Google?). It has prompted my own thought process on the whole issue of its use and what (if anything) to do.
Like Pioneer Woman, I keep a physical notebook with a list of what I have ready (I think at the point going back to the mid 20-oughts). Like you, I kind of find it interesting to track my reading journey over the years; sometimes looking back I am surprised to see where my journeys led me. I am also becoming far more analog based in general, and am coming to resent when I "must" use electronics only.
I, too, have been paring away at my computer time. I do not know that I am adding any "new" reading to my list (which is awful for me as well of course, I suppose) - but I find that I am spend far too much time not specifically reading and more wandering.
I have never kept a list of things I have read mostly because among my personal circle, very few people I know read and those that do mostly read things that I am not interested and vice versa. I occasionally pick up a book based on the review of others in a blog post but mostly I just like to go with what feels like the most interesting book at this point in my life, not follow on other's coat heals so to speak.
Blogger seems to be winding down to date where it will close down for good. I'm not sure what I will do when that happens but I am saddened at the thought of losing so internet friends I have come to enjoy so much after all these years of reading their blogs.
I, too, would feel very sad about losing my 'blogpals,' although many have stopped blogging over the years so I've lost those already. I like the 'long form' of blogging, which allows me to write as much as I want and share as many photos as I want. I also like that it seems to bring together people of similar interests.
Ed, that saddens me as well. Although Blogger is 90% of why is use Chrome at all. With that gone, likely I have no need to use Chrome at all.
TB, yes, there have been issues for awhile now. I can think of at least two reasons of benefit to google for keeping blogger 1) it's perfect for data mining (which data is readily sold), and 2) it's perfect for "training" AI. They offer blogger for "free," and their terms of service allows them to help themselves to who we are and what we write.
I find more and more time on the internet is pretty mindless. Paid ads dominate and AI generated content degrades any sense of human genuineness. Sadly, the younger generations have no experience of how it used to be and are just sucked along. It seems those of us who do remember, are getting bored and turning away.
Ed, the same thought crosses my mind often now, that one of these days blogger will be closed. Google has done it before, remember Google Plus? My how they pushed that on us and then suddenly pulled the plug. Google Business too. I got signed up for that when I got a domain name through google, even though I had no intention of being a business. Then one day they said to download all your pics and data because they were closing it. Like Michelle, I'd miss certain things, but I'm assuming it's inevitable.
TB, blogger is basically the only reason I use Chrom(ium) too. It's the only browser google likes and will play nice with, but I don't use it for anything else.
As far as my reading list, like Ed I never kept one before, but I do like Pioneer Woman at Heart's notebook list idea. It is interesting to see how my interests and research have flowed over the past couple of years.
That 's too bad that you lost your readers list , but so many people from my readers list do not blog anymore. So I try to reach out to new bloggers along the way and I try to visit the ones who comment and the ones who are still blogging on my list..
Y.E., that's the best way, to return blog visits to commenters. I admit, though, that I fall behind fairly quickly on that. Happily, that reading list now seems to be functional again. The list of books I've read so far this year, however, is permanently lost.
That is terrible that you lost your reader/book list. It is sometimes hard to remember all of the books that you want to read.......I have to make a list somewhere, because usually I will forget. I hope you can somehow piece it all together.
EMP, thank you! One nice thing about having a list online is that I always know where it is. Otherwise i forget where it is!
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