Happy New Year! 2006!

We here at Stevereads began this whole web-experiment with a fair amount of scepticism. The Interweb? We scoffed at it - a gigantic, amorphous collection of mouth-breathing virgins in black concert T-shirts, too busy-handed to settle down of a candlelit evening with a good long book.

But our admirers insisted, and eventually we conceded and started this blog-spot. Almost immediately, we were convinced it was a bad idea, a losing proposition. We'd post and post, and there'd be no reply at all - just a bunch of well-wishers calling me on the phone and telling me how much they enjoyed what I'd written the day before.

And we complained about it, liberally! Many's the time we'd catch Sebastian just before he left for yet another late dinner at the Drones Club and yak his ear off, only to have him plaintively commisserate, "I KNOW! I KNOW! The world just ISN'T fair!"

Wiser heads, such as our aforementioned dear John, counselled us in patience. We were told over and over that blogs build their audiences slowly, by word of mouth, one reader at a time.

And so we kept posting, and gradually we drew responses - including those maddening few who insist of remaining anonymous. Gradually, something like a DIALOGUE came into being, and here at the close of 2006, this is a very satisfying state of affairs. (Also a HUGELY satisfying state of affairs: being able to Google ourselves!)

In 2007, we hope to elaborate Stevereads in every way: more entries, mastering that damned elusive hot-linking technique, aggressively inviting various and sundry other web-addresses to link back to this one, and of course, a steady supply of photos of stone-cold super-hottie moi!

But in the meantime, we here at Stevereads want to thank all of you who've waded into the comments field and made this so much fun! It's surely a small sign of success that so young an undertaking can already boast of such a rich gallery of distinct voices: steadfast Jeff; Kevin, who's self-evidently sweet despite being wrong about everything, all the time; dear Beepy, who occasionally drifts in from her shallow lagoon to share her manatee-thoughts; John, adding a touch of class to our sweaty endeavors; the always-peppy Sam, still the only person to use the word 'pullulate' on this site; semi-feral Elmo; the magnificent Hippolyta, who graces us all with her comments but who pines only for John; Sebastian, posting his comments from various Cambridge cafes because the sprawling home estate has no Internet access; acerbic, winning Locke, who's been sparring with me on aesthetic matters since most of you were in diapers; and yes, even the Reichmarshal (who is not, I assure you all of you who've wondered, me), who got piled on but good and still stood his ground.

And then there's the silent chorus out there! Honorees who get mentioned in these entries and who sometimes read them, but who've as yet refrained from making themselves heard - such celebrities as my esteemed colleague Cy, or The Mama Chan, or Party Grrrl, or the Nose, or My Lady Disdain, or TS Bacon, or my archnemesis Pepito, or Shy Guy, or the enigmatic Boopella. May 2007 be the year when we hear from ALL of you!

This has been great fun, and you may rest assured, we here at Stevereads are marshalling many more marvels for your mastication in the upcoming months! Tonight we head off to our little cabin at Montauk Point (with Leni and Blondi sitting quietly and obediently in the back seat, and then reposing gracefully by the roaring fire), but we shall return!

In the meantime, we wish a Happy New Year to all of you. See you on the other side!