A year ago today George Murray posted for the last time at longtime-favorite literary weblog Bookninja, and in the National Post he now reflects on eight years of blogging, in Exit the Bookninja.
The Literary Saloon is almost exactly a year older than Bookninja, but along with an old guard that included the original incarnation of MobyLives, Maud Newton, then-still Moorish Girl Laila Lalami, and Bookslut, Bookninja was there when the whole literary weblog scene really began to take off, in late 2003 or so, and was certainly a vital part of it during that heyday.
George notes the changing scene in recent years, and writes that more recently:
And I'm surprised and impressed to hear that:
The Literary Saloon is almost exactly a year older than Bookninja, but along with an old guard that included the original incarnation of MobyLives, Maud Newton, then-still Moorish Girl Laila Lalami, and Bookslut, Bookninja was there when the whole literary weblog scene really began to take off, in late 2003 or so, and was certainly a vital part of it during that heyday.
George notes the changing scene in recent years, and writes that more recently:
Bookninja was still well-read, but it wasn't really "needed" like it once was. The void it had filled was no longer a void.I disagree; yes, there is an abundance of alternatives out there -- more literary weblogs than you can count (or I can keep track of), but Bookninja has been sorely missed this past year. (Well, a bit longer -- there was a sense of winding-down at the site for quite a while before posting finally came to a complete halt.)
And I'm surprised and impressed to hear that:
At its peak, Bookninja's unique brand of comedic literary commentary reached more than 10,000 people a day.The entire complete review site rarely manages to sustain that level of traffic for any extended periods of time .....