My Reader

Would you be surprised if I told you that I don’t read very many blogs on a regular basis? Or that usually when I read other blogs it is in downtime, not a specified blog reading time? I don’t know how it is for other writers but I find that writing my blogs takes a lot of my energy, and then writing and editing my books takes even more. So usually when I find a spare moment when I’m not doing something else I will flip through my reader and check out a few of my favorite blogs.

And just so you know, I enjoy reading good blogs, the type that are solidly themselves. For instance, there is a blogger who writes about recipes and while I wouldn’t try too many of them (I can’t cook for anything) her expertise shines through in the way she writes about what inspired each dish. Another of my favorite bloggers writes very infrequently but when she does write it is spectacular, and all about her family. I also have a blog about reading in my reader, thoughts on what it means to be a reader and how we appreciate it differently as individuals.

I love to read every single blog that shows up in my reader but I just don’t have the time to keep up with each one all the time. A select few I subscribe to through email, and that makes them easier to read when they post, and still others aren’t even on WordPress so I bookmark them in my browser and cross my fingers that I check them out when the bloggers have updated them.

No two blogs are the same, either. I have two travel blogs in my reader and both have amazing insights on going abroad, but both are seen through the lens of personal experience. It is amazing to me how people can go to the same places in and around the same time period and yet see many different things and have vastly different experiences. Yet when I find a moment I read both of them and I can go on the journey with them. It is magical.

My reader has blogs about world affairs, popular culture, writing, positive vibes, sports, dream analysis, music, books, food, multicultural families, and many more. I add blogs sparingly to the reader, usually as a result of one of my blog readers recommending them. Ocasionally I will take some out of the reader as well, usually because they have stopped appealing to me for whatever reasons.

I recall a while ago I read a blog post (probably from the Daily Post) that said in order to drive traffic to your blog you should interact on other people’s blogs. It suggested visiting several new blogs and leaving five solid comments on blog posts each day. That was supposed to ensure that they read your comments and follow your blog in return. But that seemed less than genuine to me. I want you to put my blog in your reader because you like what I have to say ON my blog, not because I pandered to you on yours.

I enjoy my reader because it isn’t the result of people begging me to check out their blogs. It is the culmination of my own searching for what connects with me, and as it grows that one point will always remain true. What’s in your reader? And why is it there?

Sam