A New Name

The last couple of weeks have been interesting for me. A lot of high points, but some not good very things happened too. Let’s get the bad things out of the way first. 

On 6 August Meta decided that the link to carosbookcase.blogspot.com was spam. I suspect it happened when a link to a review on my blog was shared on one of the Meta owned sited, but I have no way of knowing how or why it happened. It may be that AI is to blame, or it could be due to human error. I hate to think that anyone reported the link as spam, but I supposed that too is a possibility. Regardless of how it happened, the result was that I could no longer share the link to my blog in my bio on Instagram, or anywhere else on Meta's platforms, and neither could anyone else. I have filed a complaint through Instagram. However, I did this in the past for another issue and never heard a word from them.

The experience has been upsetting. Embarrassing, too. Unless you or someone close to you has had a similar issue, it's easy to assume that Meta is in the right when they say someone has gone against their ‘Community Guidelines’. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. But what can you expect from a social media conglomerate that sounds like it is straight out of a George Orwell novel? I spent a lot of time trying to come up with a solution to the problem. I considered creating a new blog, changing the domain name. The more research I did, the more daunting it felt, especially when the same thing could easily happen again with a new website. Then all of that work (and expense) would have been for nothing. 

For now I have opted to shell out for a custom domain, removing “blogspot” from the web address. Now you can find me at carosbookcase.com. If you happen to type the old address, carosbookcase.blogspot.com, into your web browser, it should reroute to the new address automatically.

Needless to say, this issue has greatly diminished my interest in creating content for a company that has no interest in its content creators or its users. When I joined Instagram I wanted to create something beautiful. I wanted to bring joy to others, but also to myself. And I have to tell you, this incident has left me searching for the joy. 

Here's where we get to the good things...

This incident has also reminded me of all of the kind people I have met since I started posting about books online. I just wanted to say that I appreciate all of you who reached out to me with offerings of kindness, commiseration, and brainstorming, when I shared the issue in my Instagram stories. The flood of messages I got was overwhelming.

I also want to thank you—the person reading this right now—for finding your way here. There are a lot of other ways you could be spending your time. It’s a blessing and a privilege to get to spend some of that time with you.

More good things

Two of which are featured in the photos accompanying this blog post. The bookcase was designed and built by my talented husband. The inspiration for the design comes from Michael Rothenstein’s 1933 painting of Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden. You can view that painting on the National Portrait Gallery website. It turned out a bit larger than I had expected, so at some point I hope my husband will make a smaller version. That is, once his memory of what a hassle it was to make this one has somewhat dimmed! 

That second good thing I mentioned is Clark, of course. I am so thankful to have this little man in my life. He has always been a big supporter of spending hours in our armchair reading. Somehow, I'm the one who has to encourage him to get off the couch and take a walk!

I hope you have a lovely weekend in store. Can you believe it’s the last full weekend in August already? I’d like to know how summers seemed to last an eternity when I was a child and now they seem to be over in a blink. Whatever you are up to this weekend, I hope you have time to put your feet up and enjoy a good book while sipping on a comforting cuppa. 

Wishing you all the good things this weekend, and beyond!