Why Do You Surf?

A while back I wrote a bit about why people would want to set up author sites and what both authors and readers could expect from them. Recently, I ran across this post over at Lit Soup, in which Jenny Rappaport takes on some readers who have gotten on her case about the fact that she hasn't been posting about "agency issues." In other words, people were only reading her blog in order to get information that might better their chances of gaining representation.

Well, okay. I'm a big proponent of research, as I've probably said here a time or two. And I think agents who are willing to take the time to blog deserve a lot of credit. But that's not the only reason I read their blogs. There are far too many of them out there to read them all, even if I wanted to! No, I read them for the same reason I read anything--they interest me.

Now, I don't read all the posts on any blog (except, of course, the ones I post on), which is why I have a feed reader. (If you don't know about feed readers, I have some information on them at the bottom of this post.) But it would never occur to me to take a writer to task for not writing what I want to read. If I don't want to read something, I just...don't.

And even though I have an agent now, I still read Jenny's blog. And Kristin Nelson's. And Nathan Bransford's. And, of course, the BookEnds blog. Not because I am desperate for advice, but because I am interested in their views on both the business and life in general. I skip a lot. Right now, for example, Nathan Bransford is posting on "The Largely Indispensable First Paragraph Challenge," and Kristin Nelson is running a blog pitch workshop. Since those don't thrill me, and, being honest, they are no longer of use, I don't read them

So, yeah, some of what I used to read I read for research. But I didn't "tune in" just for help.

And then there are the author blogs. Some of the mystery writers I love keep blogs I don't love. And, believe it or not, some mystery authors whose fiction I don't like at all write blogs to which I am completely addicted. My personal blog has been obsessed--for weeks now--with the plague of hives. I don't expect most people to be interested in that at all. (If you are interested, all the easy stuff has been ruled out and we are now on to new and fancy doctors with multi-syllabic titles.) I am of two minds about that blog. One day I am pretty sure I'm going to close it, the next I think I'll keep it around. One of these days, I'll make up what little mind I have!

What about you? Do you read any blogs specifically for research? Do you read blogs where you skip a lot of posts? Do you read some because it's like watching a car wreck--you don't want to, but you can't seem to look away? (Sometimes, the query competitions are like that for me; I don't want to read the horrid things, but I just can't help myself.)

What makes you want to read a blog? What keeps you there once you run across it? Do you want to know your favorite author's political stances, or should that be kept out of things? Do you want to know if their kid has measles, or should that stay off the web?

And you, do you want your readers to know that you broke your leg in an embarrassing escalator incident last week, or would you prefer to appear the consummate professional, only posting on things having to do with writing?

C'mon, tell! I want to read your comments!