A summer reading list

We originally began our blog--Only Planet--because we wanted to chronicle our huge trip, and thought it would be a way to keep in touch with the folks at home, and truthfully, it wasn't a hard sell to get me into the blogosphere. While the idea of reading someone's log, complete with every burp, fart and grunt emitted during their day seemed a self-indulgent bore-fest; some bloggers could be funny, clear thinking and most importantly good writers, and I could only hope to join their ranks. Recently Alternet, which is not a blog, but a newsgroup subscription I receive, had an article about the death of the blog. While I've not noticed a death of blogs, I have noticed a phenomena where many start, only to stall out. Which is kind of a death in the blogosphere. We had our own hiatus, and I can't even begin to count the number of blogs I've visited where the last entry was in 2004.

There are some amusing and useful blogs that I regularly enjoy reading. Not that you've asked, but I'm happy to share. My topics of interest range from appreciating all aspects of cupcake consumption, to the musings of Clinton's former labor secretary, to local politics, to national politics, to a sociological study of white folks, to the little moments observed by my writing instructor, to the political choices involved in my food. I like to think of my blog choices akin to viewing someone's pile of magazine subscriptions. You can tell a lot about a person by the magazines they have laying around--whether it be Outside, Oprah, In Style, The New Yorker, Mother Jones or the Rolling Stone. Are there any blogs that you find compelling and wish to share?

Will I keep blogging, even if it's no longer cool? Probably, since my idea of cool is singing Bohemian Rhapsody at a karaoke bar (which rates a 3 on the cool-meter!), but mostly because I am a writer, and writers write. It's what I have to do, kind of like breathing for some folks. It's especially nice to have an audience to write to, but not necessary, as demonstrated by my hundreds of pages of journal entries I've kept over the years. So, I will continue blogging and reading blogs I find entertaining, or compelling or useful, because more than being a writer, I'm a reader.