Blog Poll.... I don't usually ask for opinions but...

Sometime ago I removed the followers list from my blog because it is rather public and searchable and a number of my followers appeared to me to be blogging private matters that they might not wish to have so broadly shared.  I just did it; I didn't ask.   For similar reasons, I seldom mention names in my blog.  I use initials so that mutal friends and family usually know of whom I'm writing but the more public readers will be left guessing.  I'm assuming everyone knows that DMP is my husband, David, since that information is rather public but DMP doesn't preview and approve my blogs and he's not on facebook, so I offer the same courtesy to him that I do to others.  Frankly, I enjoy playing at the old literary tradition of Lord A... and Lady L... of ....shire.
I don't usually ask for opinons.  I'm quite decisive and I've found that if I ask for an opinion and then do something else then those I asked may be disappointed or even offended.   It only gives people an excuse to offer comments that I don't care to hear.  But I do have a dilemma regarding my blog and would appreciate some input from its readers, even those who are anonymous to me.

 I am posting a poll on the left sidebar but before you vote let me share a few thoughts: 

• Because of the book reviews in my blog, I'm under a bit of pressure--I'm receiving personal emails from the book vendors I often use for out-of-print materials in addition to the usual stuff from Amazon,  AdSense, and Google--to "monetize" my blog.  I've bought from some of these vendors so often and for such a long time that some of them feel like friends so it's hard to ignore their pleas.  I rather think that the referral fees that I'd receive are too small to be anything except a bother at tax time and using my blog as a way to make money is of no interest to me.
• Because I think of my blog primarily as a part of my academic pursuits, I have rejected overtures to monetize thinking that they might create the appearance of a conflict of interest.  It has been my policy to provide links in my blog text to free and public sources whenever possible.  My intention is to maintain that policy.
• I also have a "Miss Mannersish" concern that seeming to solicit sales from my friends is just tacky.
• But I can also make a case that a link to a vendor where I decide what appears on the link might be a convenience rather than an imposition for my readers.  The Amazon carousel, filled with only those items that I have read and personally recommend,  might be helpful since it's often possible to sample a book before buying.  I really enjoy having a bookstore at my fingertips. 
• A few of my favorite websites and blogs provide portals which I "click through" and I have felt grateful rather than offended.  Since I have not thought it tacky in others perhaps I'm  being a bit "missyish" or "snobbish" in regard to my own behavior--a flaw which has been mentioned to me more than once.

So let me know what you think by taking the poll or offering comment if you prefer.  Thank you and please don't take offense when I make the decision.  As I have told several of my blogger friends:  "It's your blog; do with it what you will."

Dynamic Bibliography

After several years of working in solitude, I'm enjoying a small academic community with a trio of doctoral candidates in English literature. Last week I enjoyed a cup of coffee and a visit with BD (Rice U) at the lovely Brochstein Pavilion. Having mentioned an article that I thought would be of interest, I sent her a link to the citation:

Spurlock, John C. & Magistro, Cynthia A.: “Dreams never to be realized”: emotional culture and the phenomenology of emotion. J. Social History, Vol. 28, No.2, Winter, 1994
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/%22Dreams+never+to+be+realized%22%3a+emotional+culture+and+the...-a016350993

Spurlock & Magistro (psychology) have published some rather interesting work on the development of women’s emotional consciousness, their societal roles, and the history of gender equality.

This article concerns the diary of Gladys Bell, (early 1900s) and note number 42 mentions Laddie by Evelyn Whitaker as describing the Victorian ideal of manhood. However, when I first came across this article in early 2004 the author of Laddie was listed as anonymous. Now the author is identified and is linked to the Wikki article which I wrote and edit now and then.

Bibliographies and footnotes are no longer static. WOW! (this is the sort of thing that really excites a librarian) Even an old citation can be corrected and expanded and the web of knowledge grows. It's nice to play a small part in the weaving.

Should you wish to view that description of ideal manhood from Laddie, on-line versions are available from Google digitization (descriptions of Dr. Carter on Chapter 2, pages 20 ff. and pages 64-67 where he confesses his momentary weakness to the ideal Victorian woman, and again during hospital rounds page 81 ff.) and from archive.org both of which are linked from the digitized titles page at http://www.evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/