Everybody Blogs

I was thinking and talking about blogs for almost the entire day yesterday.

I should assure you that this is not typical of me, lest you worry and alert the authorities.

But blogging, you see, was the topic of a short interview Monday morning on one of our local radio stations.

Every Monday morning at 7:15 Pete Nicols of WILI-FM calls and tells me what we’ll be talking about in 20 minutes—he gives me time to grab a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun. Pete is incredibly smart, although sometimes as a radio jock he doesn’t get to show it, and one of the most erudite and funniest men in Connecticut. We’ve been doing this routine for years and it’s a hoot. As former New Yorkers around the same age, we get each other’s references and play well together for the 10 minutes we spend on the air. We’re also honest about everything and since no money changes hands, I can really say what I want as long as it doesn’t frighten the horses or the FCC.

But when Pete told me that we were talking about blogs I was overcome by a combination of by guilt, trepidation, and eagerness.

I felt guilty, you see, because I haven’t been keeping up as well as I should be with the blogs (as soon as I get these two introductions into the publishers, I swear I’ll be better).

I was overcome by trepidation because Pete defined the topic as “Everybody blogs—but who on earth reads them?” How should I know? Apart from the good souls who respond in the comments section, I haven’t a clue.

Finally, I admit to feeling a certain eagerness because despite my recent  spotty performance in  the Web world, I really do enjoy writing—and reading—blogs.  

So once we got on the air, Pete said “everybody blogs” in the same tone of voice that people use when they refer to the children’s book Everybody Poops, thereby making blogging seem as if it’s just as thoughtful and intellectual of an activity as the subject of that children’s classic.

But certainly the blogs I read regularly have far more to offer. Some I read for information, some to get me thinking about a topic and to inform me what others have already thought, some to amuse me, some to delight me, some to make me angry, and some because I am trying to find yet another way to distract me from finishing those introductions, although only God and my shrink know why.

I’ll tell you what I read—but don’t judge me. And if you’ll tell me what you’re reading, that would be great.

Here goes: I always read my colleagues here at Brainstorm, of course, and several  (but certainly not all) of the other writers for Psychology Today. What,  you’re surprised?

And you won’t be surprised, either, to know that I believe blogging has become a strong forum of feminist and women writers. I regularly read many of the folks at wowOwow, including one of my favorite bloggers, Liza Donnelly—who has now started her very own blog (http://whendotheyservethewine.wordpress.com/). I also find SheWrites to be a really interesting community, although occasionally infuriating. Feministing is a fantastic outlet for women to find out about what’s happening. 

I read Betsy Lerner and Colin McEnroe.  I follow many of the blogs off the Huffington Post. I read some folks at The Washington Post, The New York Times, and of course I’m in love with Gale Collins (but who isn’t?).  I go to Cracked.com for a laugh (and especially enjoyed this recent post, titled: “The History Channel’s Strange Definition of History.”) I read The Onion, That British Woman, The Valve, Stuff Hipsters Hate, www.MySoCalledSensoryLife.com,The Dating Goddess, Nicole Hollander’s Blog, and Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn.

 So, to answer Pete’s question “Who on earth reads them?”

 I do.

Photo: Flickr user striatic