Change, You Can Change

We don’t have to think up a title till we get the doggone book written.
Carl Sandburg

If all you know of Edgar Allen Poe is ‘The Raven‘ or one of the stories–maybe ‘The Telltale Heart‘ or ‘A Cask of Amontillado‘–you really should click on the image to the right and read the page-long subtitle to Poe’s 1838 novel.

Back then, before the invention of rotogravure, 4-color printing and high-speed rotary presses that made it cost-effective, subtitles served the same purpose as a fancy dust jacket does now–they sold the book. Poe’s is a riotous parody of an already over the top genre. (And one I fear, at times, that we are revisiting, especially when it comes to the subtitles of non-fiction books.)

All of which is a long-winded introduction to a less than earth-shaking announcement. Well, not even an announcement. That word has too much weight for today’s purpose. And update seems too bland and corporate a word for what I have to share.

So let’s just say I want to call your attention to a change in this blog’s subtitle. When I started this experiment (and like the song says, at times I have been one poor correspondent) I had a notion of what I wanted to do. It seems, though, I’ve gone in a different direction and there’s no point misleading anyone who stumbles into the space.

My interest lies–always has–in ideas. Primarily in ideas encountered in books. So I hope the new subtitle is more indicative of the less than organized material covered in this space.

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