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I honestly don't have time to read. The books I am reading tend to deal with business, coding and SEO or other things to enhance sales. So I can't comment on this at all. I'm also reading to keep up with my wife and son and they have been reading Trilogies like Divergent and Maze Runner. I am reading the book Why Your Five Year Old Could Not Have Done That, which is about art by people like Pollack and helps me to strengthen my point that some classic art sucks, lol. I have to be honest though, I'm not reading many books of fiction.

I've only read 2 on the lists; "Between the World and Me", by Ta-Nehisi Coates and "God Help the Child" by Toni Morrison. i don't read a lot of books any more, either. Sorry to say, very little fiction captivates my short attention span these days. An engrossing biography or documentary, however, can still pique my interest... . I've reached the conclusion that I am tired of living. There's so much about the world and the people in it that turn me off; I even get on my own nerves. I'm becoming a misanthrope. I hate that marriage clerk in Kentucky and everything she stands for, not to mention ALL of the Republican presidential candidates who fill me with disgust. I'm not crazy about Hillary and don't think Bernie or Joe Biden have a chance. There I go, digressing again. Nice new profile picture, Chris. There! I found something positive to say about somebody. Just being the dedicated person you are, is my positive thought for the day about you, Troy. ZZZZZZZZZZ

Hi Shannon, We all feel the exact same way. I've been writing about how Social media has decimated the personal blog for pleasure and for business. That is the whole goal of what we are discussing; how to begin building better blogs. Looking at your blog, you seem to be still active and that's a good thing. I guess you are saying you aren't as active as you once were. Here is a chance for the idea I'm thinking about and I've mentioned before. AALBC has a blog platform. If Troy took the time to add those of us who are contributing to the discussion, as writers, we bring our traffic to AALBC and we have a common platform that makes AALBC more like an Examiner or Huffpost. In each of our post, if we can use our own Amazon codes for books and film, we benefit. Troy benefits with his adsense account and we all build links to our sites. I think this is really the only way to begin getting traffic to our sites consistently. Literally this is what will have to happen for any of us to see any benefits. I'm more than willing to add people who write and have really good blogs like yours.

Hi all, I saw the initial message from Troy and opened it immediately. This is my first time commenting on any of the related posts, but I've been following every conversation since they began over in the How Can Bloggers Support Each Other? forum. And I suspect others are "watching" these conversations as well. Eight months ago, I would've jumped right on this initiative but this line from Troy's initial message,"I know many good writers who no longer blog, because they were unable to attract readers or effectively monetize their blogs." is exactly where I am at the moment. I'm on an unofficial hiatus and trying to determine if I will blog again at all. I don't know that I've ever been drained at anything but with the 5 years I've spent nurturing my blog, I can say that the return has not been worth it to me - honestly, there has been no return. I can articulate several reasons that I'm drained but this space was created for solutions not venting. It is in that vein that I have not contributed to these discussion. I am not mentally sharp enough to do so thoughtfully during this down time. That said, if you all roll out something, I may be willing to participate. Shannon/Reading Has Purpose