Day 1: The Purpose and Origin of this Blog

Welcome! Thank you for even giving my blog a cursive glance to see if it's what you are looking for.

I should start by introducing myself. I am Annie, and I am a self proclaimed book nerd/snob. I worked in bookstores for almost 10 years of my life, directly after highschool, through University, until it became blatantly obvious that if I was going to join the 'real world' I would need to find a job that paid me enough to live. Unfortunately, although I found the bookstore environment to be heavenly, it was not paying me enough for rent alone. So I had to call it quits. I have worked for two different types of bookstores in my past. My first being Coles (owned by the same people as Chapters and Indigo), which is a large corporation bookstore with people in Ontario determining which books we should have in a store in Saskatchewan. And the second was McNally Robinson, an independently owned, family bookstore that originated in Winnipeg but grew to have a store in my hometown of Saskatoon. The biggest difference between the two stores, from the perspective of an employee, is that after 7 years in the corporate bookstore, I had not gained any respect from management (even though I worked for the company longer than they did in many cases) and that I was just a number to people down at head office. Swollen heads and lack of respect made me leave that job with a “good riddance!”. From there I mutinied to the local competition store. The family owned bookstore that was heaven. I had often stated when I worked there that I would work there forever if they paid me better. But I was paid minimum wage until the day I left, almost 3 years after I started. And I cried that day. A lot. I think my manager thought I was a nutcase. Actually, scratch that. He KNEW I was a nutcase, but that was one of the joys of working there. We were all nutcases, and we were a family because of it.

My original intention for this blog has changed somewhat since I first thought of it. I was initially inspired to do this blog from the Staff Picks section we had at the family owned store, McNally Robinson in Saskatoon, for July and August each year. The first year, I won. Well, not that there was a contest or anything. I didn't win anything at all. But at the end of August, the inventory manager would send out an email with a count of all the books that were sold. One of my co-workers had forewarned me of this when he told me he kept coming in second every year. That summer he came in second again, that time, to me. Score! Anywhoo, everyone had to pick a title or two and write a little blurb about them that got posted next to the book on the Staff Picks wall. I put a great deal of effort into my blurb. Probably more effort for this one paragraph than any of the essays I had written in University. My blurb helped sell my choice book when I wasn't working, and I also hand sold it like there was no tomorrow when I was. This was the basic premise of my blog initially: write blurbs about any books that I had read that I liked and hope other people would read them as well.

I started writing this very post in probably 2008, when a vast majority of my spare time was spent reading. I probably polished off, on average, a book every week then. Now, however, things have changed. At this current time in my life, I don't have any time to read. In fact, I started a book over 6 weeks ago, read part of the first chapter and then haven't had time to read any of it since. The other night, I picked it up again to restart this book, I completed the first chapter, and now I don't know when I will have time to read any more of it.

So the initial premise is out, but will still remain an integral part of this blog's posts.

Premise #2: There have been times when things have happened in my life or in the news that I REALLY wanted to talk about, but never had the proper medium or listener available to talk about it to. I have often been tempted to do this through facebook, but I find that no one looks at notes unless they are tagged in them and it seems inappropriate and too long to do it in status form. So VOILA! The blog is my new medium. I have created my own channel. Hurrah!

Premise #3: to talk about what is going on in my life. This is what a vast majority of blogs are used for as far as I can tell. But here is my thing about blogs that just talk about a person's life: they are boring. ESPECIALLY if you have no idea who the person is. Sometimes, I come across a blog that has a central issue or theme, or someone that has gone through something big or scary that I am interested in reading about, those can sometimes be interesting, even if you don't know the person, but generally I lose interest pretty quickly. For the most part, I do like to read blogs of friends of mine. There are some people that talk about HUGE things going on in their lives that the never talk to you in person about. That kinda pissed me off at first (“Why on earth wouldn't you tell me this in person? Why did I have to find out on your blog? Am I not a close enough friend? Did you not want me to know, or think I wouldn't find out?”). But as much as it annoyed me, I do realize that writing about important, or grim, or difficult things to talk about is somewhat safe on a blog. And to be honest, it makes me never want to miss a post. Because I DO want to know what's going on with my friends even if they can't, or won't, tell me in person. This will not be a vast portion of this blog, but on occasion, it'll happen. I apologize in advance for the boredom that will ensue.

I had intended on starting this blog ages ago, but I am the queen of procrastinators. I am also one of the flakiest people on the planet. So if you start reading this blog and then I don't post on it for eons, my apologies. I probably got bored of it, but I will be back. I promise. Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but someday...

But I hope that you will stick around for the ride. I will also take requests. (Wow that sounds cheesy...) If you have a book you would like to read, and know that I have read it (or you don't know and would like me to) I will do my best to write a review on it. OR if you know me, and something happens, or goes on, and you want me to expand, or explain, or whatever I will do that too. Dickens took requests, so why can't I?

In conclusion, I apologize for the length of this post. Generally, I don't think they will be this long. In fact, if anyone has read all the way to this point, I congratulate you. I probably wouldn't have. But to test to see if you have read this far: the answer is 42 (and if you can tell me what book that is from you get bonus points)

Cheers!