I liked the look of this site when I first clicked on to it – a simple, design with a picture of the author casually leaning against the titlebar, along with a menu. All the menu contains is the posts, an About Me page and an email link. The About Me reveals an author who wants to write – the veracity of the posts may be somewhat suspect, but the aim is to do a bit of creative writing, so truth isn’t really the point here.
So the content itself is a collection of stories by the author, with a few posts containing little observations/ jokes etc thrown in for good measure. The weblog hasn’t been going long – a couple of months now, but there is still enough content to look at for a good hour or so. The stories themselves are well written and easy to read. They are usually about things that have happened recently or reminiscences from childhood/ adolescence, though as stated earlier, some are obviously more fictional than others. All contain a creative use of vocabulary and I couldn’t find any spelling or grammatical errors. I enjoyed reading all the stories- there was a certain simplicity and unpretentiousness about them and they conveyed timeless themes and ideas.
It’s funny though, because I have reviewed a number of similar weblogs – i.e. ones which contain purely funny/interesting stories about someone’s life. For some reason, all have been written by 30ish, American, “successful”, socially well adjusted men. This one probably is one of the better ones though as the extra dimension of creativity certainly helps and so far, it hasn’t degenerated in to self-congratulation or egoism, though with the recent addition of comments and friends telling him how wonderful he is, I fear that this may not last. Although this weblog was pleasant enough to read, I always find it hard to interact with weblogs like this beyond “Yay, what a great story”. I never really feel part of somehow. Hell, maybe I just can’t relate to people who are successful, socially adept, financially secure, confident and good with women. I never really have been one for mainstream society, somehow.
Still, that’s just me. I think most people will find the stories found here a great read and the author clearly has some talent in this area. Those who enjoy personal weblogs should enjoy this one too if it continues along the same lines. Others however, may need to find something else with content they can get their teeth in to a bit more.
Autograph