Read 'em and weep. Or laugh. Or think. Whatever.*

* See updated thoughts below.

This weekend, I continued with my new Saturday-morning research ritual and registered for accounts with Bloglines and Google Reader, enabling me to easily track sites outside the confines of my blogroll and experiment with RSS feeds so I can pretend to know what I'm talking about in class this fall. The goal was to mostly focus on blogs that boasted reputable followings on the Internet but conjured up in me a sense of detached fascination, either because I felt distanced from the content or the layout of the blog itself. Sometimes both. Or neither, sometimes I'd come across an entry that truly touched me, that caused me to lift my fingers off the keyboard and lace them together while sifting through parts of my brain that had been jolted awake, and yet a good two weeks could pass before I felt compelled to visit again. I don't know why.

What I do know is that the relationship between a blogger and a reader is just like any other; both sides have to overcome various preconceived ideas in order to understand each other, ideas about appropriate subject matter, language, religion, hell, even color scheme. Chemistry plays a role as well, because there are times when a blog falls short of even your most basic literary criteria and still, it sucks you in. Maybe it's the cheerful manner in which the writer responds to your comments. Maybe her brother looks like your husband. Maybe you're just that nosy. No matter what your hang-up, one of the marks of a successful blog is its ability to take you through all that background noise and call attention to its core.

But don't think the burden of proof is all on the blogger's shoulders; I think there's such a thing as a successful reader, too, one who's not so hung up on fonts and column sizes and picture quality, one who's willing to look beyond the first couple of posts just to make sure he/she doesn't miss out on something really spectacular.

Apparently I have several layers of superficial judgments to work through, because in the last few days I've been struck by how many of my newish finds, once so intimidating to me, seem more accessible through the standardized layout of a bare-bones feed, allowing me to forget about their sophisticated navigation and larger-than-life branding persona and concentrate, really concentrate, on the core.

Meanwhile, I'm falling in love with my favorite reads all over again, revisiting entries that caused me to look at a slice of the world from a different, often funnier piece of pie, or simply appreciate another human being's ability to tell a good story, whether or not that person has ever identified himself/herself as a writer.

All of that to say: Wanna see a couple of posts I like?

I THOUGHT YOU'D NEVER ASK.

Holly's reminiscing about her grandmother at Nothing But Bonfires

Linda's inside look at the workings of a funeral home at All & Sundry

Mrs. Kennedy's open letter to her downstairs neighbor at Fussy

Danny's unfortunate use of a crotch trimmer at Dad Gone Mad

Amy's non-packing packing diary at Amalah

Matthew's refining of the cliche at Defective Yeti

Liz's journey from social worker to librarian at Quiet in the Stacks (you should also check out the cell phone exchange with her husband because really, so hilarious)

Stereolabrat's hardcore coffee preferences at Stereolabrat

The evolution of Scrabble at The Show with Ze Frank (bonus video blog; also Luke's new favorite time-waster)

Lena's musings on age and marriage at Cheeky Lotus

Molly's thoughts on her husband's big 3-0 at Lost A Sock (at her former Blogger stomping grounds)

Isabel's experience with division of labor post-baby at Hola, Isabel

Jessica's under-bite tale at Kerflop

Heather's labor story at Dooce

You're quite welcome.

Now it's your turn to give Momma some sugar. Which blog posts do you find yourself coming back to time and time again? Any recently strike your fancy for the first time? If somebody were to ask you for the best example of online writing, where would you point them to?

Amalah's doing this over at Club Mom, but I swear, the idea was festering in my head all weekend. Seriously.

Edited to add: Don't be surprised if you check back and find new links sprinkled into this entry, because by the time I published this post it was two-fifteen in the morning and dude, that's pretty damn late to remember every single gut-buster.

Edited to add again: Culotte's comment really struck a chord with me, because she's right; my choices primarily come from blogs that most of the Internet is already pretty familiar with. That's not to say they're not wonderful reads, but according to Technorati, there are 70.1 MILLION blogs out there, and yet the same thirty to fifty mainstream sites receive the bulk of the praise.

Part of the problem is accessibility; you can't search for a new blog the way you can a book. In that situation, I can search the online catalogs available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble or simply walk through the doors of any bookstore and scour the shelves myself.

The Internet doesn't have a reliable method for cataloging personal sites. If I'm interested in "picking up" a new blog, there's no database to tell me what's currently available, no comprehensive way to provide information on up-and-coming bloggers. My choices are to either google the word "blogs," which results in 356 million searches, or search by topic--again, another crap shoot, even with Technorati, since there's no way to successfully weed out unrelated results.

This collective mess is the main reason I hope the convenience of RSS feeds don't eventually trump the traditional blogroll, because blogs need other blogs to survive.

Comments

[Stacey]

That was a great post, and I plan on reading some of those entries you listed. That is, after I CATCH UP ON YOUR BLOG. I am sooooo lazy...I kept ignoring "Frema" on my bloglines because I knew I would want to comment and just didn't have time. So I am here, and will be here for the next hour, I'm sure!

[Liza]

Hey Frema - cool idea! In addition to the RSS readers you're trying now, I hope you'll give EarthLink's Reader a try (http://reader.earthlink.net/ - requires free registration). Yes, I work there, but I get not bonus for referals. I just like it better than Bloglines. And in case it isn't obvious, I don't speak for EarthLink.)

As far as favorite posts go, I'd have to include LookyDaddy's post "against" gay marriage: http://www.lookydaddy.com/weblog/2006/12/you_may_have_no.html

[Molly]

Ooh what fun! All these "best of" entries. Thanks for listing me! I can't wait to sit down and read the rest!!

[Silly Hily aka The Hilarazzi]

I like this post from Stacey. I agree with her 100% and am really interested to see what happens with this teacher.
http://2manybabies.blogspot.com/2007/02/that-embarrassing-little-soap-opera.html

[culotte]

I think you've definitely hit on a few well-known/popular blogs that are easily accessible. I read about 90% of the blogs you just listed, or I've heard of them.

How about a few not-so-well-known blogs? I find it hard to believe that there are MILLIONS of bloggers and yet I keep going back to the same twenty or so.

A challenge to you, Frema... bring me something new!

[Isabel]

I love reading new blogs. Especially if someone I trust (YOU) suggests them.

I just went and read the cell phone exchange one. Can I say, AWESOME!!?

I am going to have to think about this one and come back to offer my suggestions.

(And I recently started to use bloglines. I like it because I can use it at work without it looking like I'm reading blogs. But I hate that you can't comment via it.)

[SJ]

I absolutely love Linda's post at All & Sundry that you linked - I think I read it like five times when she first published it....

I will have to think of more and come back!

[cagey]

I agree with the concern about blogrolls going by the wayside in favor of feed readers. I have mixed feelings about this because the whole blogroll thing has become so politically charged in some ways. If you put someone on your blogroll these days, you better be damned sure you will never want to delete it or else feelings get hurt. I do prefer Bloglines in some respects because of this - I don't have to worry about hurting someone's feelings if I quit reading a certain blog.

[David McNelis]

Not that I see any real revenue...but the biggest negative to using RSS feeds soley to read blogs is issue of never needing to really SEE the site again. With the rss reader you never see anything but the actual posts which means you don't see design (good or bad) and the writer completely loses out on any possible revenue (that is not from ads within their posts). While most write for their own purposes, many of the bigger bloggers would probably forgo blogging if they didn't see any revenue from it.

[takin chances]

All I know is that the blog I heart the most is Miss Doxie and missdoxieDOTcom. She is creative, hilarious, well-written AND gives wonderful indie gift links at Christmas which are TO DIE FOR!!!

[Silly Hily aka The Hilarazzi]

Oh my gosh I just read the funeral home post. Oh my gosh! I don't think I will ever be the same.

[Fraulein N]

Read it and weep:

http://oncemore.typepad.com/once_morewith_feeling/2006/06/curris_me_all_o.html

Weep because you're laughing SO HARD, that is.

[mjd]

My favorite Frema entry is from September 2, 2005, "How Useless Clutter Changed My Life." One of my favorite blogs, Back in the Day, is written by a good friend, Gawilli. She has gentle way of wrting about a wide range of topics. Her posts frequency include beautiful pictures and song lyrics woven with the story of the day. Two of my favorite posts, "The Creek Also Rises" and "On the All Night Radio" are from September, 2006. In the creek story, Gawilli stands in front of a bulldozer to stop changes in a stream that flows behind her family home. In the radio story, she writes about a long-time addiction to music.

[Erika]

Does my little secret club of a blog show up on your bloglines? Isabel was having some issues. Just curious!

I too read the funeral home post. Thanks for the list but...yeeow. That was right before lunch (a mistake)! I had a sorority sister in college who went on to mortuary science. So much respect! I can't wait to check out these posts in your comments.