I've been passing a few moments of spare time each day chasing links on several of my favorite blogs. You know, those links along the sidebar that tell us something about a blogger's tastes and preferences while revealing much about their own perceived literary subgenres.
Some of these distinctions are immediately obvious. For example, don't look to DailyKos for politically conservative bloggers; don't look to the National Review's Blog Row for liberal thinkers. The type of media being consumed often defines the content of the sidebars when it comes to politics. Liberals shill for other liberals while conservatives refer readers to other conservatives. "Know thine enemy" clearly isn't a blogger's commandment when it comes to cross-posting.
More interesting to me are the artistic, literary, sociological, and parenting bloggers. You can tell a whole lot about Terry Teachout without reading more than a post or two, just by looking at his blogroll. Terry led me to Critical Mass, who most interestingly includes a link to Instapundit, whose wife Dr. Helen is obsessed with the "war on boys" and other feminist conspiracies. I don't find many of her links too interesting, so I start over by chasing links from a different blog...
You get the picture. The triathlon blogging community is perhaps the most incestuous of the ones I read regularly, and some of them are regular (and positive!) commenters even though we've never met in person. For a gateway into their world, begin with RaceAthlete and go from there. It's a little crazy to me how easy bloggers have made it, by linking to just two or three other people with similar interests, to create a whole community surrounding a topic. (The massive numbers of crochet and knitting blogs out there, whoa...).
So, bloggers: what's your favorite blog that you DON'T link to on your own site?
4 comments:
yours
of course.
Mostly mine are similar to the ones that are reflected in my sidebar, except their the blogs of other family members or mommy-friends who give too much detail for my taste. Like my brother-in-law who gives full names and addresses. I don't like being quite that easy to find.
Oh man. That should have been they're, not their. I hate when I hit publish before I proofread.
I have to agree with Staci and if I like one I put it on my sidebar. I feel the same people that enjoy mine (if they exist) will probably enjoy similar ones. Over and over I get a kick out of Dooce and RockStarMommy. I like their ability to say whatever they feel. I can't do that...too many family members read mine.
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