Superhero in search of an identity...

So, I know you do not have any personalities, or bring any ideas to this forum, but I can hear you vigilant eyes asking one question, loudly and insistently: why are you writing this blog?

And the answer? I don't know. But I spend my life thinking about books: reading them, reviewing them, selling them, trying to write them. And being the humongously arrogant man that I am, I wanted to share some of my thoughts about them. And I don't mean share in the "you are my customer, you have just walked in the door so I am going to force my opinions on you" kind of way. I mean it in the internet way, where people can listen or not listen, free of compulsion or the constraint of being polite.

Though to all you machines out there, I doubt this applies. If you wish to read, I will be delighted, and if you read because it is in your programming, I am equally pleased. Perhaps this will be interesting, or informative, or entertaining. If so, please let me know. It is probably an accident that should be rectified as soon as possible.

So here we are. You have my introduction. I hope it suits you. Now to the big question:

What nom de plume shall I adopt? Sam Ruddock is such a boring name. This is the internet, and I want a superhero identity to hide the banality of my life.

So please, you impartial harbingers of content. Help me chose a new name. Here are your options:

1. Gabriel Syme. The poet and anti-anarchist officer of G.K. Chesterton’s comic jape, The Man Who Was Thursday. On the plus side, he is witty and ingenious. On the downside, I am not.
   However, the title of this blog is taken from a G.K. Chesterton quote in which he said:
   “Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about the things in my pocket. But I found it would be too long; and the age of the great epics is past.”
2. Mr. Stevens. The emotionally reserved Butler of Kazuo Ishiguro’s cavernously silent novel The Remains of the Day. On the plus side, his strength of character is mind-boggling. On the downside, mine is not.
3. Who? The poor pigeon lost on the Underground in Geoff Ryman’s revolutionary internet novel 253. On the plus side, he is a family pigeon. On the downside, he is about to be involved in a high speed train crash.
4. Chris-in-the-Morning. The verbose, philosopher DJ of Cicely, Alaska, in the American TV series Northern Exposure. An outside bet, but inspirational all the same. On the plus side he is self taught and passionate. On the downside, well, Norwich is a long way from the wilds of Alaska.
   
   

So, people (or mechanical eyes). In the hallowed words of our times: the choice is yours. I could say that the first to receive 5 votes will be chosen, but that would probably take decades, for I do not have many friends. So I will make it simple. First vote carries the day.

Hopefully, when I return tonight, I shall have a pseudonym to scurry about under. And then we can get down to the substance of this blog. BOOKS!

Until then, friends, adieu.