Favourite Blog Memery

So, over at Shaken & Stirred my pal Gwenda says some very nice things about this blog, and then tags me with one of those memes: list your top five non-book blogs.

This is both easier and much harder than “list your top five blogs”.

It’s easier since the vast majority of the blogs I followI do have literally hundreds of non-book things in my RSS Reader, but only a small number of them are really blogs–my hundreds of feeds from new agencies, for example, don’t really count. are books blogs of one flavour or another (by authors, by comic creators, by publishers, blogs about various genres, etc.) so eliminating book blogs really narrows the field. It also means that most of my friends’ blogs are exempt–including Gwenda’s!–which removes some diplomatic concerns.

It’s harder because lots of the blogs that pop immediately to mind as favourites would fit into the book category if I were being strict. So no discussing Making Light, or The Fate of The Artist, or Age of Embodiment, or Jonathan Carroll’s daily emotion bombs, or anything like that.

So, what things are left in my RSS reader after I disqualify everything that’s not a blog, and that is–at least significantly–about books? And what are my favourite five of the things that are left?

Hmm.

Well, political blogs are clearly a safe category. My obvious favourite there is Talking Points Memo. The sharp-eyed will have noticed it’s the only blog I link to not actually run by a friend. It keeps my hump of hate full by carefully following all the shady shit that the Republicans pull (and sometimes even the shady shit the Democrats pull).

I follow a ton of tech blogs, but I’m not sure any of them count as favourites. The editorial content in Gizmodo occasionally makes me laugh out loud, but there’s too much volume there I don’t care about. The really deep geek stuff is useful, but not usually fun. Oh, except Schneier. I love Schneier. Everyone should read his blog, and wouldn’t everything–but especially air travel–be a lot less hassle if everyone understood security like he does. So, that’s two.

Um… well, there’s economics. I think I can safely put Brad De Long’s blog among my favourites. It’s news and economic analysis, in a very clear and personal voice. So that’s three.

And science. Gotta have some science. The top pick there is clearly Pharyngula. Paul Myers is teh sienz. So that’s four.

Hm, what categories are left. How about “gossip-fuelled art”? For that one, the top pick is pretty clearly Gallery Of The Absurd. And that’s five.