A New Place To Ramble

February 18, 2015 2 min read

Time for a new personal site.

My personal site has been a short sentence and some links for a few years now. I’ve been working on a new version mainly for myself, to record thoughts about things: life, books, movies, shows, things, places, people—whatever’s passing through my head.

I started working on this site when Readmill died. Readmill, if you never saw it, was a beautiful and perfect book reading app for iOS: part bookshelf, part reader, part note-taker and highlighter, with just enough social interaction to see what others are reading, highlighting, and taking away from books. It was a perfect thing that got me reading more, until Readmill explained that it wasn’t working out and shut down.

I went through a bunch of reading apps and didn’t find anything nearly as elegant and focused as Readmill, and after trying a few services I decided I’d just carve out my own little space for a reading list and thoughts related to books—no future shutdown, walled garden, or frustrating design to worry about. It dawned on me that I could do the same for movies, tv shows, and even places I’ve been and people I’ve met. In addition to aiding my terrible memory, it’d be a growing repository of potential writing material, nudging me along the path to reading and writing more overall.

So that’s what you’re looking at. I started by tediously compiling a list of books and films/shows I’ve been through since I could remember, and I’ll be journeying backward through time—probably re-reading and re-watching a lot of stuff—to assign thoughts and ratings. I’m also keeping my “reading” and “watching” lists up to date.

Right now I’m limiting public access to a brief list of recent stuff, but over time I’ll expose more listings and search for the throngs of visitors this site won’t see every month. This is something I’m doing mostly for myself, but if you’re a human being reading this I’m delighted that you’ve joined me.