Travels with Johnson

Eric, sitting across the aisle from Saul, is curious about the fact that Saul is highlighting every page.

...
Eric: What is that you're reading?

Saul: Johnson. He's been with me for the past two flights I've been on.

Eric: Good?

Saul. He wrote a dictionary. It's the story of that. So engrossing that I read it slowly.

Eric: I see you highlight certain sentences.

Saul: I do that to slow me down.

Eric. Cheaper to carry a book for several flights?

Saul: And lighter to carry.
...

Naming a cat

Annabelle advises Gretchen on naming her new resident.

...

Gretchen: No idea what to call him.

Annabelle: The naming of cats is… how did it go?

Gretchen: A difficult matter.

Annabelle: He looks like Hodge.

Gretchen: Who?

Annabelle: Samuel Johnson’s cat. Hodge.

Gretchen: Hodge. Hmm. He looks like a Hodge.

...

More writers than readers

On arriving in London Samuel faces the hard realities of being a writer.

...

Samuel: This street I lodge in. It's full of writers.

James: What did you expect? This is Grub Street.

Samuel: I go to the coffee shop and everybody is writing. Nobody is reading.

James: It’s a hard road you’ve got to hoe.

Samuel: But mark you, there’s a lot of words they read that they don’t understand.

James: There’s an opening. Write them a dictionary Sam.

...

bloggist

The suffix "-ist" added to a verb turns that word into a noun, generally describing someone who does that sort of work as a job like a scientist or an artist, or someone who holds certain beliefs like a Baptist or a Buddhist, or even someone who has certain abilities like a conversationalist or tendencies like an exhibitionist.

A person who writes a blog can therefore be, and often is, described as a "bloggist" although it takes time for newly minted words to become universally accepted. But "diarist" is an accepted term and since blogs are a sort of public diary, their rapid spread should make "bloggist" a respectable word quite soon.

Granted there are some people who are professional bloggists, but for most people blogging is an addition to other things they do. Some converse through their blogs and others may do it to indulge their exhibitionism.

Could blogging be a genre or a movement? Bloggism, anyone?

And would Boswell, diarist of Samuel Johnson, have been a bloggist?

James Boswell 1740-1795