Like a lot of obsessive-compulsives I watch my sitemeter traffic to see who's coming here and why, and what I've discovered is that there are three main subjects that bring people to this blog when they're not looking for info on one of my books. (Which, let's face it, is most of the time.)
1. The first is the picture of Libs I posted on her first birthday, a candid snap of her big blue eyes framed by a towel, since I'd just taken her out of her bath. For some reason there are a lot of hits on this pic from India and the Middle East especially. I'm curious what search terms people are using that bring up this photo, but more than that I'm no longer comfortable wondering what folks are doing wtih this pic, so I'm deleting it. I don't want to see it used for some ad campaign for diapers in Lahore. It was fine when a few random friends were only reading this blog, less so when the entire world can find it.
2. The second most frequent search is at least book-related: "everything is illuminated why did grandfather kill himself" (or "why did grandfather commit suicide" or "was grandfather a jew"). I'm actually #9 on Google for that search term. Now I love that book and thought the suicide, though not explicated in the text precisely, was intuitively done. (Not so the movie, alas.) But what does it say about that book that roughly 1/2 the people coming to my blog are looking for some insight into the ending?
3. The other most popular search is, without a doubt, "cement garden review." I'm actually #2 on Google for that search term. In fact, nearly every hit on my blog from the Netherlands or from England is looking for this term. I didn't think my response to that book, while honest, was all that earth-shattering. Are there no other places on the web for The Cement Garden? It's too excellent a book to leave all of you with my semi-profane thoughts on the subject. Maybe I should do another, more detailed review for the edification of the poor bastards who find their way here looking for that book?
At any rate, it's become apparent that I need to watch what I say, and post, more carefully. In some ways that's not a bad thing. But you can't have that pic of my baby girl, folks, sorry.
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