Where's the substance?

I have just spent an evening rereading the blogs, and am sure revisiting the set up we have going right now. Catcher in the Rye is not bad as a site, and Memoirs of a Geisha is interesting insofar as comments and interaction go. Million Little Pieces, too. In fact, I think that Kasey, Taylor, and Godly Miss are great at reading and commenting - real comments about how they feel about the characters, authors, etc. Isn't that interesting? It makes me wonder still if others are really reading all of the posts, or are they just making a post and logging off? There are quite a few kids (smart ones, too) who aren't posting at all. There are others (Spirit) who are totally social, but have no substance or real content about the literature. Probably the best book for real conversation (Kite Runner) has no posts at all except mine, and I loaned my book out for another student to read (Scary Harry). I'm thinking that over the summer, I need to find a handful of titles, and try going for an old fashioned book talk one quarter to see how that works. Actually, it wouldn't be that hard. Looking for the positive, I do like the individual blog sites for each of their books. At least it feels like there may be a certain personality in each. It just smacked me in the face, though, when I went to Fear and Loathing and the first post I saw was something to the effect of "this is a friggin dead blog." What a wet blanket to throw on the whole group. That's how this student sometimes comes across. So afraid to be real, just an "I'm so terribly bored" persona. I wonder how that affects the others. It would affect me if I were a kid on that site. So...do I need to revisit manners?
Well, I have to say I'm disappointed overall in the lack of meaningful conversation
between bloggers, but in class I am determined to stay positive - on the good ones. Last week, we viewed the Catcher posts on the projector - also Million Little Pieces. Not to embarrass anyone, I simply read aloud a few of the empty ones..."I haven't started my book yet,"....."I just finished this book. It was really good. I love this author," ... and so forth. Kids agreed that anyone could say these things. I have scheduled in over TWO hours of reading in class a week. I think that's a lot. My thinking is that they aren't reading, so they have nothing to say. I think kids aren't reading outside of class. I know I can't account for that, but I am hoping that if they get hooked, they WILL read outside of class. Tomorrow is midquarter. I can't believe I actually have seven kids with no posts for the quarter so far. .....On a personal note, I realize in reflecting on my own learning process, the level of comfort that I have to have in order to see everything that I need to see. Sounds corny, but it's like learning to ride a bike at first. You stare at the road, or your feet, concentrating on the balance you have to maintain, and there's no way you can take in all the scenery, much less take a corner or honk the horn. You also fall down and crash. Hah! Looking back at the Jan 22 post made me feel like that. How could I have not seen that? I was just so darn happy that I could hook up the computers, log everyone one on, reset the breaker when it blew, that was plenty happy that everyone was posting to the blog - and even intellectually too. Oh, well, here's to the journey.