The Tiger doesn't read?

Or rather, I don't read enough.

Silly way to put it -- I spend all my days reading. I do almost nothing but.

However... I have a bad habit. I have a whole stack of books I have bought this year and not read the whole way through.

Mainly they're political and historical, but some novels are in there, too...

Right now, I've got a book on foreign policy by Bush and Scowcroft, a biography of Cheney, and others just kicking around, collecting dust... The last book I read through was John Fleming's "The Anti-Communist Manifestos"...

So that's why I haven't been posting over the last while -- I felt guilty.

But I shall feel guilty no longer -- I shall make all the non-political posts I want, whatever their topic.

Even if none of them are about reading...

A mission statement

I can't not write. Even after abandoning and ruthlessly deleting my various previous weblogs, the urge is there.

I am therefore starting up this new site.

What will it be? A collection of book reviews -- nothing more, nothing less. (Well, maybe a little more. There always tends to be mission creep in these enterprises.) I have a stack of books on my bedside table, and some of them will spur me to write something and to share it with the world.

***

Unlike its predecessors, this blog will not be political --I know what I believe, I know what my friends believe, and we're not for turning.

To quote Agent Bedhead's excellent bio section:

In summary, I vote Republican, but please don’t ask me about it. This isn’t a political blog and I have no desire to argue that irrelevant crap with you, who will never change your ways or beliefs. My mind is not so deluded to think that I can change the world by arguing politics online, and I won’t entertain your need to push people’s buttons. Go argue elsewhere, jackass.

Well, with one caveat -- I have quite enjoyed arguing politics online, and I don't think it irrelevant or crap. It just is explicitly outside the focus of this particular forum.

Any political comments will be ruthlessly deleted. Along with any I simply do not like.

Is this hypocritical, given my longish comments elsewhere? Yes. I reserve the right to be hypocritical in my own space. If you want editorial freedom to hold forth, create your own. It is, after all, a free country. (And these sites are free!)

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So keep your eyes on this space -- my first book review/reaction will go up... well, whenever I feel the urge.

I suspect it will be soon.