Too Many Blogs

At first I thought blogging was silly. Arrogant rants about vacations, politics, breakfast menus, celebrities, skiing, tree-hugging, you name it, you can find it (sort of like eBay). But that's the beauty of it, too. Blogs are internet Op-Ed columns. No matter what the subject, someone has an opinion on it. Try it. Think of the most ridiculous idea and Google it. You'll find a blog about it. I don't want to plug weird blogs, but you can read about marshmallows, dryer lint, even anteaters.

Thanks to a tip from a fellow writer, I recently visited redroom.com, an author community website. Published authors can set up web pages and blog. You can read reviews of the latest books. It's a one stop publicity frenzy. Amy Tan blogs there!


But if you're not careful, you can spend all day reading blogs. Although I read mostly writing blogs, pretty soon I'll be clicking a link to another blog to understand the first blog. Then I'll see another interesting link, say, to writing the perfect query letter or reading what really ticks agents off (rhetorical questions, spelling their names wrong). Then I'll go to some of my favorite writer's blogs. Many have links to their favorite blogs: literary critique, e-Mags, author friends. Fascinating stuff, all of it. But if I'm reading blogs all day, guess what my word count for the day will be.

So, I visit the blogs of a few agents (still reading the pitch critiques even though her taste baffles me!), writer friends, and authors. But I limit my time. And when I start feeling envious of the writers with books on the docket, I stop reading and get back to writing.

By the way, I'm much more careful about word echos when I'm working on my novel. Count how many times I wrote the word blog!

Do you blog? And what are your favorites to read?