The book of the blog

Several times in this blog's history, as various milestones in its existence have rolled past, I have considered the possibility of getting a printed version of it. Like with photos, while there are many advantages to digital records, there is something inexplicably different about the tangible 'hold it in your hands' version of things.

The latest milestone was in early May when I published my 300th blog post, and I decided that finally investing some time in editing a printable version of my blog might be a good lockdown project to get my teeth into. Whereas in the past it has never got beyond a vague idea, this time, I committed a bit of time to making it happen.

So I researched blog book websites (realising in the process that I have written A LOT of words in the last 9 years, and some sites are certainly better suited to volumes less substantial than mine was going to be!) These sites do a lot of the work, but I wanted to have some editorial control and chose intorealpages, one that offered that possibility.  

Admittedly, there were some minor formatting frustrations: straight text posts transferred across really easily; poetry, not so much!) but with a little bit of assistance from a very helpful person on the other end of an email address, and quite a number of hours, it was done.

On the whole, it was an amazingly enjoyable process: rereading and reliving adventures from the last nine years has been a really fun way to spend a significant number of hours. I smiled over people and events scarcely thought about for a long time, I recalled much which had long been consigned to the cobwebbed recesses of my memory. In places I could see how my thoughts and reflections have developed over time, in others, the strands of "me" that are still very much the same and run throughout. I watched myself grow.

Individually printed hardback books do not come cheap. And even after all the hours of editing time, when it came to the final moment of pressing the button to order it, I did wonder whether it was really justifiable to spend so much on something which I acknowledge to be be simply an extravagance. But I did it anyway. Yes, it's a luxury, but it is also the product of, over the years, a lot of thought, and time, and effort, and creative energy. It stands as a tangible record of nine years of life hopefully well-lived.

 

From then to now there was an interlude, as I tracked its progress through printing, dispatch and failed delivery. And then, yesterday, it arrived. I don't often await packages with quite so heightened a sense of anticipation ... and I am glad to report it completely lived up to my hopes. The quality is excellent (of the product, others should be left to judge that about the writing I suppose!) and there is something deeply satisfying about seeing this very professional looking version of something that is entirely my own work. Perhaps that's mainly about ego, I don't know, but for now at least, I'm not going to analyse too much, I'm just going to enjoy it.