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Paul Guyot has an excellent guest post over on Bryon Quertermous' blog. (Bryon just got married. Congrats, man!!)
Having blogged for almost 5 years now, I agree with almost everything he writes about the enterprise. It's seldom useful, always self-indulgent, of limited educational or promotional value, and probably a great big waste of time.
Yet I do it anyway. It's a kind of sickness when you think about it...
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David J. Montgomery writes about authors and books for several of the country's largest newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and Boston Globe.
In the past, he has contributed to such publications as USA Today, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Kansas City Star, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and National Review Online.
He lives in the Washington, DC suburbs with his wife and daughter.
I figure it's better than smoking, which was how I used to use spare time. And is reading them or writing them the greater waste of time.
Posted by: Patti Abbott | February 27, 2008 at 01:01 PM
Oh, good question... For most blogs, reading them is definitely the greater waste of time. (That's primarily the purpose I use them for.) At least the act of writing them feeds the writers ego. For us, they're just empty calories.
Posted by: David J. Montgomery | February 27, 2008 at 01:15 PM
Hey, reading blogs are great when you're losing at Solitaire.
Posted by: Elaine Flinn | February 27, 2008 at 01:22 PM
I'm with Elaine on this. Reading blogs can be enormously informative about people and trends.
And WOW! on Bryon's marriage. I used to read his blog in the days when he was oh, so lonesome and sad. :) Yes, he shared his feelings of romantic despair freely, and those posts always got him lots of consoling comments. (Smart guy!)
I'm very happy for him.
Posted by: I.J.Parker | February 27, 2008 at 01:50 PM
This is going to sound terribly pathetic, but blogs are my way of adult interaction. Yes, some may be immature, juvenile even, but I have never seen one of my regular bloggers mention poop and expect me to laugh about it.
Posted by: Christa | February 27, 2008 at 03:56 PM
I started a completely self-indulgent blog in 2000. I didn't expect visitors, because, it was just the way things were back then. I don't think commenting had been invented yet.
I just wanted my diary to look pretty. Seriously. He missed that bit, but then maybe that's a girl thing. ;-)
Nowadays, it's therapy and community. It's like ... having a drink at the local pub every day and shooting the shit with friends.
Except I don't know where that cool writer's pub is, so I blog.
Posted by: spyscribbler | February 28, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Coming a bit late to this thread, but throwing in my 2 cents anyway: I totally get that blogs and blogging can be a total time-suck, and yet.....
Were it not for some great blogs / forums / chat rooms, I would not have met a few people who have become dear friends. I think we occasionally take for granted the role that cyber-world plays for those with shared interests who would otherwise not find each other. As spyscribbler says, "it's therapy and community....and shooting the shit with friends."
Posted by: Rae | March 02, 2008 at 09:01 PM