Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Happy 10th Birthday


This is a few days late, but on Easter Sunday we celebrated the 10 year anniversary of the first post on Flying Houses.  It's become my life's work (at times begrudgingly) and yet I always question the value of what I am doing at all.  It's gotten tedious to review books. 

I wanted to release the first 7 episodes of the Flying Houses podcast today.  But I have only just recorded 1 (two if you count the intro), about Our Band Could Be Your Life.  Who knows if it will come off at all.  Things are taking much longer than I thought they would.  

Flying Houses has not experienced any kind of boost in popularity this year, nor do I think it will ever.  I do think it might with a revamping, however, and at least a couple have suggested that I build a more unique website with squarespace or something.  Perhaps, but towards what end?  Promoting myself as a book critic without a publisher?  I digress.

Top 5 most popular posts of 2017:

(1) Top 10 Albums of 2017 (181)
(2) Chicago Marathon 2017 (147)
(3) The Rise, The Fall and the Rise (144)
(4) Slaughterhouse-Five (139)
(5) The Sellout (111)

We need not pat ourselves on the back to cite those posts we think most worth reading.  However, if pressed, I would cite Letters to Felice as the best post of the year.  Other highlights include the Vonnegut Project, the 2nd Salinger book to be reviewed, and the above popular posts. 

I don't think I need to say much more than that.  I always report my earnings to date though to show just how little I have advanced in 10 years ($35.72--It was $30.90 in 2 years ago).  I get more interest from my checking/savings accounts, and those are like 0.0005% and 0.00025%.

In short this is a total vanity project that amounts to a net loss of income in the form of hours of human capacity consumed.  It has been rewarding at times, and yet at other times I have felt like a voice that does not need to exist.  We are all superfluous and trying to find what we are meant to do, or good at, and I am not sure it is either.  Regardless, I am very proud of the work that I've done here, even if it imparts of a whiff of insanity due to lack of commercial success or other media-related consequences.  2018 should be the most interesting year yet for Flying Houses, and we hope it will not be the last. 


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