I finished Petite Anglaise’s book last night, and I have to say the second half made me like her more. I actually found myself, for the first time in a long time, coming home and continuing to read instead of just turning on the telly, so that says a lot for her ability to tell a story. I also fell head over heels for her daughter, who is described so adorably it almost makes me broody. I thought ending the tale before she was sacked for alleged ‘gross misconduct’ was a really interesting thing to do. It stopped the book from becoming a feeble, finger-pointing attempt at payback, and (of course) made me want to go to the blog to find out more.

In other news, this new ‘people you may know‘ thing on Facebook is beginning to drive me mad. It may as well be called ‘people you don’t want to add‘ or ‘people who don’t want to add you‘ or ‘people who used to bully you in school‘. Or in my case ‘people you’re having a silent battle of nerves with concerning who will add who first‘. See there are loads of people on the list that I know vaguely. Obviously we share mutual friends. But who’s going to cave in first?

I really need to get out more.

I’m currently reading Catherine Sanderson’s ‘Petite Anglaise‘ book. I must confess I’ve probably only stopped by the blog a handful of times, and even then only because it was so famous in the blogosphere that I felt I was missing something by not taking a look. I don’t know much about her history, so I’m able to read the book without any preconceptions.

The truth is, I’m not particularly taken with the heroine (though I think she’s incredibly brave for being so frank) but I do think the book is an interesting look at personal blogging and how easily it can swallow you up. It’s actually a very selfish thing, to blog about your personal life, and this book demonstrates that brilliantly. Though I’ve never been as unlucky as Petite (who lost her job thanks to her blog and started an affair with a commenter) I did, for a very long time, live for my blog. It’s hard to think now that there was a time when I’d update daily simply with news of my life. I don’t know what I’d talk about now!

But I was a silly teenager / student with a completely different readership. My stupid mistakes were easily forgotten and can now be put down to an immaturity that I can look back and laugh at. I said far too much on my blog when I used to recount tales of my (dull) life every day. Now I blog for a living, I’m far more reserved about what I put down on my personal site. I suppose that’s because I know if I muck it up here, it puts everything else I do in jeopardy.

The irony is, the other day my boss told me she missed my old personal blog. Crazy woman!