How Many Blogs Do You Read?

(playing in the background- Mud on the Tires- Brad Paisley)

There is no right or wrong answer to this question. It is just my own curiosity. Time is a cruel master and I know that my own time constraints prevent me from reading as much as I want to. Prior to marriage and children I routinely read three or four books at a time and I could usually finish all of them within a couple of weeks. Of course I only needed about fours of sleep each night and I was good to go.

Now it is a different story. I average about 5 to 5.5 but would do better with 6 to 6.5 a night.

Anyway I have tried to limit my blogroll to blogs/sites that I read consistently but maintaining that schedule is rather tough because even though I read quickly there is often a ton of material to review and some of those posts require/demand more time. You know the ones that I am speaking of, they fall into two categories.

The first are those posts that tug on my emotions and touch something inside me. I like to stop and read them slowly to make sure that I really am understanding what I am reading and sometimes I am just blown away by it all, so much that I have to stop and catch my breath.

Some of the posts written by parents who have lost children have rocked my world. I often finish them and head straight to hug and kiss my children, wherever they may be.

The second category are those posts that are chock full of information and require that I read, review and read again. Sometimes that is because the topic is something that I am not as familiar with and I need to proceed carefully so that I can be certain that I understand it all. Sometimes I am well versed in the topic but there is so much information there I get sidetracked.

(playing in the background- Minnie The Moocher- Cab Calloway)

The web lends itself to that, sidetracking. In this particular case what I am referring to are the posts where the author refers to other posts written by themselves or others that lend support to their assertions. Sometimes I have to stop reading the original post so that I can go check out the links and then return to the post which started it all.

All told it comes back to the same place, how much time do I really have and where do I want to focus that time.

So I look at the blogroll and I ask myself which blogs are getting the most attention and which are getting none. Do they deserve those rankings or should I make an adjustment. When I consider making an adjustment I always ask myself what happened and why am I spending less time there.

Has the blog jumped the shark or am I just bored with it. I am sure that people do the same with this one too, but that is a different story.

Sometimes I find that I am really focused on a couple of blogs and their blogrolls. A blogroll is interesting to me in the same way that looking a person's books and music is. What do they like to read? Are there blogs there that I am unfamiliar with and if so, should I be reading them.

(playing in the background- Danny Boy- The Celtic Tenors)

This much I know is true. I haven't reached a place/moment in time in which I am content with my education and I haven't found a place where I am sick of the blogosphere. One way or another I need to find more time or to further streamline my blogroll.

The blogroll is always going to be a work in progress.

What do you think?