Absolutely no one has written to me saying: “Roger, why are you such a lazy blogger, asking your readers to do the heavy lifting by coming up with topics for your blog FOUR times a year?”
My answer would be that when the bloggers I know, such as Jaquandor – like clockwork in the beginning of February and August – and SamuraiFrog and Arthur the AmeriNZ ask for questions, I always oblige them.
In fact, this time around, I was chomping at the bit to ask Jaquandor about Mario Cuomo vis a vis other New York State governors, and about the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
My assumption is that, by doing this exercise on a regular basis, I can inspire your meanest, nastiest, rottenest questions to me. Since that actually hasn’t actually happened, I’m left with the conclusion that you are all rather swell people, which is also nice.
Last time out, I found questions from Melanie to be the most difficult because they were the most philosophical.
I feel throwing the floor open to youse folk – ah, the flaw of the English language – helps me as a writer, and a thinker, and a person. If this were a Nicholas Sparks novel, I’d write, “You fulfill me!” But it’s not. So I won’t.
The rules remain that you can ask me ANYTHING, and I will absotively, possilutely answer. Swear to whatever deity you follow, and relatively soon, within the month.
I promise to respond to your questions to the best of my ability and memory. Naturally, memory is a tricky thing – self-selecting, imprecise; ask Brian Williams. As always, a little obfuscation is allowed, because it’s more fun for me.
You can leave your comments below, or send them to me on Facebook (I’m the Roger Green as the duck) or Twitter (@ersie). If you prefer to remain anonymous, that’s OK; you should e-mail me at rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com, and note that you want to remain anonymous. Otherwise, I will cite you, or give you a citation, or…
Consider this a late birthday present to me. I LOVE presents.
OK, here’s a question:
Working in the librarian/information field, what do you see are your key professional challenges?
Here’s another one for you: You’ve written about your lack of enthusiasm for smart phones, but do you see a time in the future when you might be persuaded to embrace them, and, related, what would it take for that to happen? For example, some people say that the ability to pay for things using their phone (rather than cash or card) would push them. That may or may not be true for you, but is there something that might be?
Riffing on Gordon’s question: What do you see as the future of libraries? What do you think about the college (can’t remember if it was a 2-year or 4-year) that decided to go 100% digital with its library?
Follow up question: are those of us who prefer paper books going to be like dragons with hoards of inky treasure?