In a sardonic post announcing his reluctant embrace of the blogosphere, Edmonton author Todd Babiak (The Book of Stanley, The Garneau Block) expresses his instinctive distaste for self-serving author blogs:

I used to make fun of writer friends who had websites and blogs. Given our busy lives, with families and jobs and leaves to rake and, most importantly, BOOKS TO READ, where was the time to express unconsidered opinions about, say, chocolate? Besides, it always seemed an embarrassing exercise in self-love. “Shoot me,” I remember saying, to my friend, William, “if I ever get a website. The sound of it: toddbabiak.com. Tasteless! Boorish! Actually, don’t shoot me. Stab me, with something that isn’t even sharp. Just press really hard, again and again.”

Three months later, I had a website.

Maybe Babiak is on to something here – after all, so few Canadian authors’ websites are truly compelling. That may be because, these days, the blogs people actually read tend to be more akin to news aggregators than personal diaries. All of the self-obsession of first-wave bloggers has generally migrated to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

For now, though, Babiak shares his thoughts on chocolate, airport security, and watching a man throw up on a bus here.