Serendipity

I didn't know this

I was reading a book “The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction” by Alan Jacobs, when I came across a passage where he describes the origin of the word “serendipity”. It seems to be an “invented” word by Walpole. This Wikipedia post explains the origin.

I came across Alan’s book I think in a post by Austin Kleon, but I don’t remember and it doesn’t really matter. The point is that more and more, I keep stumbling upon books, movies, articles, essays, etc and my consumption, especially of written words (outside of the articles I read professionally) has gone up exponentially over the last 2-3 years. Perhaps it is a COVID-19 effect…perhaps it is an age-thing.

I don’t know what I want to do this blog, but I do want to document what I read and view…I am just that type of a person.

Why 300 words? Generally, 300-600 words are enough to say what you want to say. Not too short like a tweet and not too long to lose the reader’s interest, though you could argue there that the length of an article or post should not come in the way of expressing your thoughts in their entirety. Having said that, long posts have a tendency to encourage rambling…just as I am doing now.

These are not reviews. But as a friend who doesn’t have the time to read told me last week…she will try and read vicariously through me. Perhaps a little curating can be of help.