I’ve been cleaning out the closet in my office, which means going through letters, manuscripts, magazines, newspapers – all the detritus of a life, as they used to say, in letters. And I’ve been struck by how much has shrunk since I began my career. I’m finding New Yorkers that ran to over 100 pages, New York Times Book Reviews that were thick with ads, newspaper Travel sections that featured not only travel stories but reviews of new travel books. And not that long ago. My second book, which came out in 2003, got mentions in the travel sections of the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. This would be OK, sort of, if everything that used to appear in print now appeared online, but it doesn’t. Of course, I knew there was a diminution in the world of books and literature, but seeing it so starkly, in the recesses of my closet, is making house cleaning all the more unpleasant.
(Note: My computer has been so unreliable I bought a new one, which is going to be installed on Thursday. So if there are no blogs next week, you'll know why.)
