Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Note to Self in the Age of the Internet: A Necessary Reminder

You do not need to like Animal Collective. You do not need to finish that amazing new novel that everyone is talking about. Or even start it. You do not need to click on every link or link to every click. It's okay to mark all as read.

You do not need to optimize your stats. You do not need a URL.

You do not need to own your own home. (But it would be nice.) You do not need to furnish said home with Eames rockers. (But you can if that's what you like.)

It's okay if Green is your favorite REM album. It's okay if you organize your bookshelves by color. Or if you don't organize them at all. And that you occasionally say no to parties. You do not need to turn up at every one.

You do not need to superpoke, or update, or hit shift+refresh.

You do not need to consider Barbados when you really want to be in the Hebrides.

You do not need to like Helvetica. You do not need to be into DIY. You do not need to try this great new restaurant.

Just because they said so.

posted by zan at 10:50 PM

|

<< Home


      About

      a cup of tea & a wheat penny is written by Zan McQuade, who lives in New York and occasionally translates Latvian fiction. a cup of tea & a wheat penny is Sunday Zen and nostalgic to a fault. a cup of tea & a wheat penny is [zan at thatcupoftea dotcom].

       Get fed (subscribe)

    On Flickr

    On Twitter


      ()
      a cup of tea on twitter

      Recommended Books (Support Your Local Independent Bookstore)

      Possession: A Romance
      A Mercy
      The Graveyard Book
      The Power and the Glory
      Cold Granite
      Vilnius Poker
      To Siberia
      2666: A Novel
      The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
      Dubin's Lives
      A Light in the Attic
      Revolutionary Road
      Netherland
      The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 2
      The Sundial
      Madame Bovary
      The Summer Book
      The Yiddish Policemen's Union
      The World Without Us
      Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems, and Abandoned Rock Operas
      The Invention of Morel
      The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
      Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
      Gilead: A Novel
      Brother, I'm Dying
      Darkmans
      Out Stealing Horses: A Novel
      The Accidental


      Powered by Goodreads.com

    On Blip.FM

    Links

    • Alex Chilton Is My Nerd Boyfriend
    • Apollo Run
    • Atlas of Butler County, 1875
    • The Big Picture
    • blurbomat
    • Bookdwarf
    • Bookslut
    • crooked house
    • Design Observer
    • Dooce
    • Door Sixteen
    • emotionaltoothpaste
    • evany's extended cake mix
    • Exurbitude
    • Finslippy
    • Fussy
    • ISO50
    • John McGrew
    • kottke.org
    • Laid-Off Dad
    • Largehearted Boy
    • Maud Newton
    • MBV
    • Mighty Girl
    • The Morning News
    • nice bird.
    • No Pasa Nada
    • Nothing But Bonfires
    • Oedipal Beatdown
    • Old Hag
    • Pinky's Paperhaus
    • Que Sera Sera
    • Ronckytonk
    • So Many Books
    • Sweet Juniper
    • Syntax of Things
    • Things Magazine
    • Three Percent
    • Tomorrow Museum
    • tried to live forever every day of the year
    • Vaneska/Vanesite
    • Whoopee
    • Words Without Borders
    • WOXY
    • The Written Nerd
    • You Look Nice Today

    The Reader

    • Joan Didion - "Goodbye To All That", "On Keeping a Notebook"
    • Louis Bromfield - "My Ninety Acres" from Pleasant Valley
    • Vladimir Nabokov - "Gods"
    • Ian McEwan - excerpt from Enduring Love
    • Grimm's Fairy Tales
    • Emily Post - "Longer Letters"
    • Mark Twain - "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"
    • George Saunders - "Manifesto: A Press Release from PRKA"

    Copyright © 2006-2009 by Zan McQuade.
    All Rights Reserved.

    Powered by Blogger


    I want to go to Dollywood.