If one has an eternal life time, one should partake of all of mankind’s knowledge accumulated over centuries. But we do not have an eternal life time. If one has 10 years to spare, one should try to read at least all the 'Great Classics'. But in the current age, where does one have 10 years to spare? In the hustle and bustle of modern life, one can’t find sufficient time to finish even one classic. So what should one do to acquire knowledge? If you ask me, I would say, visit Stan’s Great Books Blog for 15 minutes daily. Stan, who himself has spent close to a decade going over the great classics serves to you small doses of condensed wisdom on his blog.
He writes poetry, philosophy and a lot of essays on really diverse topics. But most of his posts have some connection to the great classics. One of the things I really like about his writing is the way he interprets ancient classics in the modern context. He often tries to bring across the points raised in some of the 'Classics' in the context of happenings in his day to day life or some discussion he had with his children. That adds an endearing personal touch to the discussion.
My description so far may make the blog sound very serious and scholarly. But that would be doing injustice to the blog as Stan in fact has his own unique sense of humor. One can see this in the posts where he highlights some really unusual earthly aspects from the ancient literature. Consider these 2 titles for example – ‘The Great Book on Farting’, ‘Emulating Nude Philosophers’
As far as the blog aesthetics goes, I feel the theme has been chosen appropriately. A blog on books must have certain amount of dignity to it. One cannot have a frivolous background with widgets scattered all around. So the simple layout with the picture of the book case in the back ground goes pretty well. The background color and font are pretty clear making it easily readable without too much strain on the eye.
Talking about navigation, he provides two ways of navigation – one the archives and the other the labels. One can use the labels to quickly refer materials related to a specific author or book. However with 280 posts on varied topics, there are currently more than a hundred labels and it can be tedious to scroll through them to find a certain topic. I would suggest some kind of grouping of topics and leveraging the pages feature of BlogSpot to more effectively organize the topics. Alternatively some widget which adds search functionality to the blog can also be explored
Anyone who leaves behind a comment can look forward to a very interesting exchange of viewpoints. Stan goes over each comment in detail and gives a detailed reply. There is also the ‘Ask Stan’ section where the reader can ask Stan any general question related to the ‘Great Classics’. And the questions usually serve as the topics for his posts. So I would say this is one of the better blogs for deeper interactions.
This blog is ideal for the serious student of literature who wants to have a different perspective on the great works. A general reader seeking to learn something new may also find the blog quite interesting. Other bloggers may also get interesting ideas for blog posts from this blog. At times however, some of the posts can go over the casual reader’s head. It is difficult to relate with some of his posts. But in general, most of his posts make really interesting and enriching reads.
One suggestion to Stan would be to bring some recurring pattern in the posting say a certain type of post on a certain day of the week. This gives the reader a sense of continuity and improves the chances of the reader becoming a regular at the blog.
I present below 5 posts selected by Stan himself to give a glimpse into Stan’s writings. Do check them out and let me know your feedback on Stan’s blog and my review. I hope Stan continues his good work and I hope his followers double and treble in the coming months.
Bible and Hippocrates on hemorrhoids
I am no Jayadeva
Abish on female peaches
How to Build Ethos When Speaking
A Dialogue Between Enwombed Twins
If your a blogger and you like this review and feel you want a similar review for your blog, check out this post.
He writes poetry, philosophy and a lot of essays on really diverse topics. But most of his posts have some connection to the great classics. One of the things I really like about his writing is the way he interprets ancient classics in the modern context. He often tries to bring across the points raised in some of the 'Classics' in the context of happenings in his day to day life or some discussion he had with his children. That adds an endearing personal touch to the discussion.
My description so far may make the blog sound very serious and scholarly. But that would be doing injustice to the blog as Stan in fact has his own unique sense of humor. One can see this in the posts where he highlights some really unusual earthly aspects from the ancient literature. Consider these 2 titles for example – ‘The Great Book on Farting’, ‘Emulating Nude Philosophers’
As far as the blog aesthetics goes, I feel the theme has been chosen appropriately. A blog on books must have certain amount of dignity to it. One cannot have a frivolous background with widgets scattered all around. So the simple layout with the picture of the book case in the back ground goes pretty well. The background color and font are pretty clear making it easily readable without too much strain on the eye.
Talking about navigation, he provides two ways of navigation – one the archives and the other the labels. One can use the labels to quickly refer materials related to a specific author or book. However with 280 posts on varied topics, there are currently more than a hundred labels and it can be tedious to scroll through them to find a certain topic. I would suggest some kind of grouping of topics and leveraging the pages feature of BlogSpot to more effectively organize the topics. Alternatively some widget which adds search functionality to the blog can also be explored
Anyone who leaves behind a comment can look forward to a very interesting exchange of viewpoints. Stan goes over each comment in detail and gives a detailed reply. There is also the ‘Ask Stan’ section where the reader can ask Stan any general question related to the ‘Great Classics’. And the questions usually serve as the topics for his posts. So I would say this is one of the better blogs for deeper interactions.
This blog is ideal for the serious student of literature who wants to have a different perspective on the great works. A general reader seeking to learn something new may also find the blog quite interesting. Other bloggers may also get interesting ideas for blog posts from this blog. At times however, some of the posts can go over the casual reader’s head. It is difficult to relate with some of his posts. But in general, most of his posts make really interesting and enriching reads.
One suggestion to Stan would be to bring some recurring pattern in the posting say a certain type of post on a certain day of the week. This gives the reader a sense of continuity and improves the chances of the reader becoming a regular at the blog.
I present below 5 posts selected by Stan himself to give a glimpse into Stan’s writings. Do check them out and let me know your feedback on Stan’s blog and my review. I hope Stan continues his good work and I hope his followers double and treble in the coming months.
Bible and Hippocrates on hemorrhoids
I am no Jayadeva
Abish on female peaches
How to Build Ethos When Speaking
A Dialogue Between Enwombed Twins
If your a blogger and you like this review and feel you want a similar review for your blog, check out this post.
4 comments:
Thanks for the great review. I'll work on the navigability recommendations. It is nice to hear how one is perceived. Thanks for reminding me to avoid pedantry and being esoteric...I'm sometimes tempted towards both, for reasons that should be obvious. :-)
Glad you liked the review, Stan.
Another great review. I am now, as advised, going to read Stan's blog daily as I love literature...
@Santa - I am glad whenever my reviews get new readers for the blogger and a new interesting blog to read for the reader.
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