At first glance, ‘Lucidly Awake’ looks similar to many other weblogs — it’s built with a fairly standard template, featuring a main column for the entries and a sidebar to the right. Stylistically, there’s not much to set it apart, but the look is clean, and there’s certainly nothing to distract (or detract) from the writing.
So how is the writing? I dug into the archives to find out. The first few posts offer a glimpse into the life of the author — he’s a nineteen year old student, studying actuarial science and living in Mumbai, India. Many of the entries center around his schoolwork, various girls and friends in his life, and pop culture, including commentary on several movies, both American and Indian. For me, it offered an interesting view into the life of a young man in a very different situation and culture from my own, and it was the posts that highlighted these differences that really captured my attention.
There’s not yet an enormous amount of content in this blog; the archives extend back for only about three months, and several of the weekly archive pages contain only two or three posts. With a bit of free time and a cup of coffee, a reader could browse all of the archives of ‘Lucidly Awake’ in an hour or two. There are also a few issues with spelling and syntax to be found in many of the entries. These aren’t overly problematic, but I did find them a distraction at times.
Overall, I enjoyed ‘Lucidly Awake’, and was intrigued by the author’s descriptions of his life in Mumbai. It’s an interesting and personal view of the day-to-day thoughts of someone immersed in a different culture, and I found myself comparing his experiences to my own. I’d like to stop by again when there’s a bit more content, and I think that some of the language issues make some areas a bit difficult to follow, but this is a weblog with a lot of promise, and — in my reading experience, at least — a unique perspective. I rate ‘Lucidly Awake’ 3.5 out of 5, and look forward to seeing more.Lucidly Awake