Quantity not Quality.....

Some pearls of wisdom for my fellow blogger friends :)).....According to a study conducted by Susan Jamison Powell of Sheffield Hallam University of Britain when it comes to making friends online or seek popularity in the virtual world...it is the quantity and not the quality of blog posts that matters...infact the most prolific bloggers stay on the top of blogs. This study was conducted on 75 bloggers from livejournal.com website where the analysis was based on number of friends each blogger had, number of posts that were made and number of words that were written in each blog and overall tone of the blog. The researchers' asked bloggers how attractive they found their peers' blogs and found that more words a blogger posted, the more friends they had and the higher their attractiveness rating. The tone of their blog positive or negative did not have any impact.

So if you want to go by this study and its results....start posting rapidly without giving any thought to subject matter or even trying to be original...simple cut-copy-paste will also do :P

Personally, I think one writes because you feel this urge to express yourself freely and unhindered and not gain populairty or make friends online. But then again different individuals...different motives...Whats your perspective on this? :))

The Reader

A must read book by Bernhard Schlink. Its not your regular run-of-the-mill holocaust novel. It is a deeply sensitive and moving story that would compel its readers to think precisely how many lives were affected by the holocaust and in how many ways?.. It is the story of a 15 year old kid falling in love with an older woman...an affair that lasts only a summer but leaves the kid emotionally affected for the rest of his life. A touching story that portrays both the physical and emotional part of their relationship in the post-war Germany. This story thoroughly examines the German guilt and the impact of the holocaust on the German conscience.

I have found this story especially moving since I am living in Germany currently. Those days have been left far behind..now it is one of the largest economies of the world...people are so courteous, polite and matter-of-fact that it is impossible to imagine that this holocaust ever took place here. I remember an incident where we all were standing outside a club and suddenly this Indian guy who was in our group got into a drunken conversation with a German guy who was equally drunk...after sometime, as happens normally when two drunk people converse, they started arguing....and suddenly out of nowhere the guy said " Why are you talking to me like that? Do you think I am Nazi?...I am not Nazi...I hate them and whatever they did"....this statement had a deep impact on me. This behaviour may or may not be common but goes on to show the deep seated shame that is felt even today in this society.

The movie "The Reader" is also amazing albeit slightly different from the novel due to creative reasons, I think. Kate Winslet has given one of the best performances I have ever seen and deservedly got an Oscar for the same. I would recommend that you watch the movie after reading the book for a deeper impact and understanding but incase you aren't much of a reader, atleast watch the movie lest you dont want to miss something simply amazing :))