5th Textuscriptus Anniversarius of The Once Lost Wanderer

I know there is some convention for calling this a blogoversary, but etymologically, that doesn’t make sense.

Anniversary is the combination of the Latin annus (year) + versus (turning) = yearly turning, or yearly return of a specific date. So, blogoversary makes no sense – there is nothing in the term to denote annual. It just means blog turning.

It’s me – it isn’t you.

If you choose to mark your blog anniversary with a blogoversary, feel free. I just can’t do it. It should be textuscriptus anniversarius  (Latin textum (web) + script (record, log) + annus (year) + versus (turning))

Today marks the 5^th textuscriptus anniversarius of The Once Lost Wanderer. I forgot to make any special note in previous years, which is not nearly as serious as forgetting one’s wedding anniversary. I am told the best way to remember that – is to forget it once – but I have not tested that theory (36 years and counting).

Anyway, 5 years today. It’s been fun. A very few of you may remember when this blog was called The 100 Greatest Novels of All Time (and my quest to read them) 

That title was descript, but not very creative. Inspired by so many bookish blogs with wonderful, lyrical, imaginative names, I changed the name to The Once Lost Wanderer which is derived from two poems: Amazing Grace (more commonly known as a hymn) by John Newton and All That is Gold Does not Glitter by J.R.R. Tolkien. Like Newton, I once was lost, but now I’m found – though I still like to wander, and as Tolkien asserts, not all those who wander are lost. I like to wander:  through secret places of Middle Earth, courts of Imperial Russia, grand plantations of the antebellum South, the inner sanctum of a mad scientist’s laboratory, through deepest seas, farthest planets, and the occasional insane asylum.

Can you name the novels to which these descriptions apply?

I’m 70% through my quest, and in case you’ve wondered what I’ll do when it’s complete – I’ll just keep going. My list actually goes up to 350, so I’ll keep reading, though at a more leisurely pace and not so exclusively. I’ve forsaken most other literature during the quest, and I will take more detours once I’m done with 100. I may restart another quest that I forsook – to read a biography of every non-living American President (cuz the living one’s stories are not finished).

And – sometime after the 100 I hope to start writing MY novel.

Cheers

The Wanderer