On relics, their uses and limits

A few years younger and I might understand this 'brave, new world' that technology has foisted upon us, or rather it would be as natural as breathing, which may or may not be a good thing!  I have recently started regularly reading the excellent blog of a very promising young writer and this has reminded me that perhaps I am a bit too old fashioned in my approach to modern readers.  I get annoyed when all people do is promote their book, their business, their whatever all the time.  I like to discover things on my own, stumble across them as it were while perusing quietly in the library.  Everyone shouting that their book (or whatever) is the best and must be read ends only in a maddening cacophony and turns off my interest in reading altogether.  I assumed this was the feeling of most discerning readers and thought that perhaps benign neglect was the best approach in 'promoting' my books.  That sounds very oxymoronic even as I write it!  But I figured, if my books are good enough, people will read them, if not they won't and I will still enjoy them myself; win win!  The problem with that is, like my reading preferences, it tends to be a hundred years behind the times.

For reasons I cannot possibly comprehend, people nowadays like to feel important, informed, a part of things.  They like to know everything about anything they find even vaguely interesting or they cease to be interested.  As mortifying as this is to my antisocial soul, I suppose it is not wholly a bad thing.  Why anyone would be interested in the mundanities of another person's life, I cannot fathom; I have enough trouble keeping track of my own details, let alone memorizing someone else's.  This does not mean I will become a user of social media (we relics have our limits), but perhaps I can offer up a few tidbits to those who are interested now and again (ye blessed few!).  I refrained from such things before because I thought there would be no interest and another voice crying in the virtual wilderness would likely avail nothing, but I can give it a try, and if this turns out to be an exercise in futility I can always go back to random posts about obscure christmas hymns and amusing words.

So in an attempt to bring myself and this blog into the 21st century, I will from time to time post some amusing trivia relevant to my writings, and if there is no one around to hear the tree fall in the forest, at least I will have the pleasure of saying I have at last caught up with the times.