Once more into the breach...

If a man is going to start spewing words into cyberspace for public consumption, he should probably make some effort to explain why.

I suppose you could call me a reluctant blogger. This is my second attempt at the craft; the first, a little rag called The Exotericist, I discontinued about a year ago after an OK run. I had envisioned it as a forum for my scattered thoughts on the passing scene, as well as a way for friends and family to keep up with me as I started out in New York. I stopped because I couldn't find a way to make of it anything more than an undisciplined, infrequent expression of whatever was on my mind at the moment.

I had a sense going in that blogging would be a risky experiment. Ours is a narcisistic age, and the ease and instancy of communcation has already caused too many reasonably intelligent twentysomethings with limited life experience to believe that what they have to say is automatically worthwhile. I found myself lacking the discipline to avoid that trap, so I stopped.

So, why the comeback? Maybe Twitter has something to do with it. The bar for meaningful communcation is now set so low that any blog would seem scholarly by comparison. If a United States senator is allowed to address the president like a 13-year-old girl, then I'm sure as heck entitled to try stringing together a few meaningful sentences now and again.

Besides, it's good practice. I write nearly every day as an editorialist for the New York Post, but I started my first blog largely to keep in the discipline of composing in my own voice, with my own original ideas. That's still worthwhile.

This blog, though, is going to be a bit different. It's a book blog: I'll be limiting myself (as much as I can) to short, discrete thoughts based around a book I'm reading or a movie I've seen. Keeping it simple, in other words -- and far less topical. But be warned: This could cover everything from Scripture to Steinbeck to the latest episode of "The Office." I promise at least two a week, and I'll keep the comment sections open. Who knows? Maybe I'll say something useful. If not, feel free to pass on by.

Deal?