Blogs I Like

I like blogs.  That could be why I've attempted to start my own...a few times.  I like blogs because I like reading, and blogs are much, much better than your average magazine article.  Some magazine articles are fine, but most have the following problems:

a) They basically don't exist.  The magazine is all ads.  (In an aside, I actually have my MBA, which means I've sat in business classes.  I knew I was a big ol' misfit that one day when the prof asked "why do magazines exist?"  Some other student promptly answered "to seel advertising."  My thought: What?!?!?  They are not for nice little writers to write nice little articles?)

b) They are way, way too short and trite.

or

c) They are way too serious and earnest.  This is absolutely fine if the topic is serious and earnest, and the writer truly cares.  But most are serious and earnest and pretty in a "look how pulled together I am" way that is dishonest.  (Mostly in parenting magazines.  Ugg.)  Blogs don't seem to role this way, or at least the ones I like to read.

So, without further ado, blogs I like to waste time reading:

A Little Pregant:  http://www.alittlepregnant.com
Written by someone named Julie, whom I've never met, and I suspect I never will.  She's a biggy in the mommy blogosphere.  I found her back when I was "trying" (to have kids) and it wasn't happening as quickly as sex-ed teachers had led us to believe.  She's the real deal in infertility, and her brilliance is how incredibly honest, vulnerable, and funny she is at the same time.   I rarely check her blog out anymore, but it's a good one. 

Smitten Kitchen:  http://smittenkitchen.com/
You'd think because I read this I'm actually awesome in the kitchen.  I'm not.  Cold day in hell I'llbe making my own goldfish crackers.  But somehow, because the blogger--Deb Pearlman--is honest and passionate and humorously self-depreciating, it works.  So I read it.  And drool.

Soul Searching at Starbucks:  http://soulsearchingatstarbucks.blogspot.com/
I read this because I actually know Pam.  I've even met up with her at Starbucks!  That kind of makes us awesome, doesn't it?  And her writing is fun and witty, and I promise she'll respond to your comments...at least until she goes totally viral and gets a million followers, then I'm not so sure.  But that will make me all the cooler for having Starbucked it with her.  (That's a verb, right?)

Parenting: Illustrated with Crappy Pictures:  http://crappypictures.com/
The title says it all.  Simple, funny, brilliant.  I wish I had thought of it first. 

Jason Good: http://jasongood.net/
He also does stand-up, but his pieces are sharp, insightful, funny.  Crappy pictures led me over to him.

People I Want to Punch in the Throat:  http://www.peopleiwanttopunchinthethroat.com/
OMG...she just posted today about the Golden Globes.  Must rush over and waste more time...Again, Crappy Pictures led me here.  Notice a pattern?  Curse you, Crappy Pictures!

Hooked on Houses.  http://hookedonhouses.net/  Apparently, I have some sort of nesty/house-wifey streak in me, as in conjuction with "Smitten Kitchen", you'd think I have a lovely, well-tended home and tasty, homemade meals all the time.  As if.  Man, is this one a fun time waster for a person who would rather look at nice homes than clean their own.  Honestly, I think I found this so I wouldn't get addicted to Pinterest, but I'm really not coming out ahead.


If there is a uniting theme among these blogs, it's this: the people write them with passion.  Most also have a theme or focus, however loose it may be, and have developed a nice "voice."  None of these bloggers take themselves too serious, even if they are seriously passionate about homes or food or their families or writing.  Many have hit it  "big", but I don' think most of them ever thought they would, so they still feel "real." 

And that's why I love blogs.

Perhaps next, I'll write about "Why Blogs Kind of Freak Me Out."