A Modest Sketch of a Bloggoal

If one can be so immodest and deluded as to have a goal for a blog and one may be so forward as to state it directly, mine would be to inspire readers to realize that what they had abandoned long ago as a lost cause, as a search through a jungle of meaningless symbols, as an exercise in mental frustration, as just plain boring, dull, and dry can actually be a source of intense reading pleasure.  Through my reading life I have wandered the wide roads of what is available, staying away from certain shady nooks and alcoves as too dark, dangerous, and defiled as to attract the attention of so tenuous a scholar as I tend to be.  And now, I have a mild regret that I have not challenged myself with these works--mild, because I found my challenges elsewhere and perhaps honed my skills to return to the great works of the expanded canon and because of this training am better able to appreciate the beauties contained therein.

Not to make too fine a point of the mission: if by posting here I could encourage one person who has been an avid reader but avoided the classics either through fear of incomprehension or dread of the doldrums to reengage in his or her own time and own way, to read one page, one story, one chapter of a book that they have left alone, to apreciate beauty and humor and sheer mastery of the language wherever it may be found, then the purpose of the blog is fulfilled and I can be happy at my labors here.

I am too tenuous a scholar to contribute deeply to anyone's understanding, but I am a sufficient reader, I hope, to help contribute to other readers' appreciation of the fine art of writing.