I have spent the past 2 hours clicking around your extensive blog and I am quite impressed. Is there a good place to start or is a random trail just as likely to be fruitful?
There’s a post called “Guided Tour” which will give you an overview of all the main sections and features; it also explains how I schedule things (which is extremely regular by blogging standards). My post “IF” explains my very thorough indexing system, “House Rules” lays out my comment policy, and “How Not To Get Your Comments Posted” elaborates on that further.
But if I’m reading your question correctly, what you really want to know is how I suggest a new reader tackle the back-catalog of almost 1100 posts. It used to be possible to start with the old ones and slowly catch up, and a few brave and dedicated (and perhaps a bit masochistic) readers still do that. But if hacking your way across the Amazon Basin with a machete is not your idea of fun, there’s a way that’s probably less daunting. First, subscribe to the blog and read the new columns as they come out; most of them contain links to older columns, which you could then read as they come up. Every Saturday I publish a news column entitled “That Was the Week That Was”, made up of about 16-20 short subsections; each item has its own title, and the vast majority of those titles refer back to older posts (each containing a link to the referenced post). This will lead you to a lot of older columns every week, assuming you have the time! Also, every Sunday I publish a “Links” column, and the bottom section, “From the Archives”, contains links to the posts from that same week for the past two years; you could click on and read any that sound interesting.
You can also follow me on Twitter, where I share lots of interesting links (many of which later end up in the TW3 and Links columns) and also remind readers of my columns from that same day one, two and (very soon) three years in the past. Furthermore, at the end of July I’m introducing a new monthly blog feature (as yet unnamed), which will look briefly at all the columns from that month three years before. Finally, this autumn I plan to put together an e-book where each chapter will be a synthesis of several important columns on particular subjects; this will let newer readers catch up on some older posts in a more convenient format. I hope to have it ready before Christmas, and I’ll announce it in a special column when it’s ready.
I hope all that helps, and that I continue to impress you and all my readers for a very long time to come!
(Have a question of your own? Please consult this page to see if I’ve answered it in a previous column, and if not just click here to ask me via email.)
Oh HELL no. Start at July 2010 and read a months’ worth of archives every night until you catch up, like I did. NO CHEATING!
Jes’ kidding 🙂
Off comment, but you made an excellent choice in posting The Moon’s Rapture by Frank Frazetta.
I thought it worked for the situation. Look for another Frazetta next Wednesday. :-0
As a minimum – I think you have to read the first year’s worth of columns. There’s a lot of background there that you need for everything else that comes.
Have to agree with Krulac. In addition to providing the framework, the first year coherently conveys both the zeitgeist and the spirit of crusading Maggie.
That’s what I really meant. All of her columns are really stand alone – so you don’t have to go back and read that first year to understand them. If she mentions something and you need to read something else to get the full picture – she always links to the past post that applies.
But … to become a FANBOI of Maggie McNeill … you really need to know where she came from and that’s mostly in the first couple of years of articles.
I mean … a newbie reader can tackle this blog much like an Indiana Jones crusade. Just start at the beginning and go from one to the next – she peppered nude pics of herself all along the way so that’s an incentive to check out every single post! 😀
You don’t want to miss one of those!!
That’s exactly why I want to do the book; I figure it’ll be a good way to get new readers caught up.
I came over here a few weeks ago from a blogroll. I’ve basically read the introduction and just subscribed to the RSS feed. The subject and point of view intrigued me and so I’ve enjoyed every post since then. Although the comments here about reading from the beginning to understand you better are certainly compelling.
Thank you Maggie, your detailed instructions have been very helpful. I even got a twitter account (slowly being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century . . .) and follow you there.
Looking forward to a book from you — there are people I know who’d read a book better than trawl through a blog archive, and who really need to read what you have to say. I may buy several copies.
I’d love to start at the beginning, and I don’t think it’s masochistic to do so. But, I do have a time constraint. I wish you had a check list, so I could figure out what I’ve covered. But that’s my OCD talking.
You could print out the title index, and check them off as you go. 😉
I made an Excel spreadsheet of Maggie’s posts. I have the date, the title, and a blank space, initially colored red. As I start on one (I’m in the neighborhood of two months behind, plus LINKS posts), I color the space blue when I start reading it, and green when I’ve read it, the comments on it, and made at least one comment or reply to a comment myself.
If Maggie doesn’t mind, I’ll send her a copy, and she can put it somewhere and link to it. You can then DL it and check them off as you read them.
If Cynthia wants that, I’ll be happy to upload and host the spreadsheet. 🙂
Let me copy it and make all the blank spaces red, and I’ll send it ere the week is out.
I thought that looked like a Frazetta painting. A lady pen pal of mine was a big fan of his… and I made the comment to her “I think he is one of the few painters to have ever seen a real woman with her clothes off.” She found my comment quite hysterical at the time.
Whenever I use an actual painting, I enter its name and year so you can see it by hovering your mouse over it. 🙂
It’s a good one, even for Frazetta.
*Spits out a mouthful of leaves, and thwongs machete into treetrunk*
C’mon now boi, Master Chief Krulac says “Five posts a day will make you a Real Marine”. 😎 Hoo-rah.
Start from the beginning, and pass me that hair shirt and my celice, willya?
* mutters “Cmon boi, halfway there!” as he thrashes off into the foliage*
Thanks for awesome bloggyness, y’all. 💕