I ran a half marathon last weekend! And then collapsed in bed. I definitely got out of the reading routine, but I then I worked hard on my comeback. I don’t know if I was reading the right book for that comeback, but that is a story for later on.
Running has been really important to me for a long time. I fall away from it, but I always come back to it. It’s my time to think when I do it alone. It’s my time to socialize when I join my running group. I’m able to work out problems, either as a solo runner or making it a group project with my friends running with me. It gives me confidence in a way that I can’t find in other things. And it makes me a better all around person in the rest of my life. I love my runs and I wish I would stick with them more consistently. Maybe someday when I have fewer responsibilities. Oh who am I kidding? I’ll never have fewer responsibilities. So I guess I’ll just keep sticking it in around my life as I wish I could spend more time doing it.
As I am in this mind space, I guess it’s time to get to what I am reading this week:
Reading Social Media News
I may be alone here, but I LOVE when AI court rulings get announced. They’re clarifying such interesting topics, and we never really know where they’ll land. In this latest case, the courts determined that AI-generated art is not copyrightable. In other words, a human being who created art solely through AI cannot own that art. So anyone is free to use it without restriction, and they are not required to pay the person who used the AI to create it. Personally, that gives me a lot of pause as I look at what role AI should have in my marketing. It seems like keeping it on the ideation end and not let it slide in the creation end is still the best call.
This news seemed like common sense to me, but maybe it’s not. Most of the links AI Overviews is picking up come from deep pages and not the homepage. Your homepage is your generalist, whereas your deep pages end up being your content specialists. So of course when you AI Overviews is looking for specialist information, they are going with the pages that provide that. But that means you have to think hard about what kind of welcoming experience those pages are providing. It’s easy to do that on a homepage and a little trickier to do that on a deep page. And are you making sure they get connected to you on those pages so that you can develop a long-lasting relationship with them? Just these little details can make a huge difference.
Reading Books, Books and More Books
Past
So… Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe. I hesitate about this one, because so many people LOVED it. I used to love taking down books everyone loved, but there’s something about this book… It did nothing for me, but maybe I can see where it might do something for others. Maybe? To me, it was a trudge towards an uninteresting ending. I didn’t ever feel the need to pick this book up. In fact, I’d find anything else to do, so it took me a lot longer than usual to read. I set goals for myself to read every day. In most cases, I read more. In this case, I was struggling to hit my minimums, which meant that I just finished the book this morning. This is one that might actually make a better movie or show than a book, so hopefully that deal is in the works. This, however, was too happy and unrealistic for me. Score: C+
Present
I’m not excited to read right now. I don’t know what that’s about, but it seemed like a good time for a popcorn book. So when Pam Jenoff’s Last Twilight in Paris came in from the library, I involuntarily said, “Thank God.” I wasn’t a fan of her last book, but her other books have been great escapes for me. And that’s what I’m hoping for this book right now. Will it live up to that? I’m not even expecting that. I’m just hoping that it takes me on some kind of ride that doesn’t require a lot of brainwork. That’s more than enough for me.
What are you reading? What books are you looking forward to?