Who do you like to read?

November 26, 2009 10:09 PM

What are some chatty, intelligent, funny personal blogs that I should be following? I used to love reading about people's daily lives on Livejournal, as well as knowing what music, books and films they were enjoying, but I haven't been back to LJ in years, and most of my friends have stopped updating. Something like a more regularly updated Defective Yeti is what I'm looking for.

I don't mind if the blog is about a specialised field, but I'm hoping for someone who is funny, who has interesting ideas, or can give me a good glimpse into another person's life.

Thanks!

posted by surenoproblem to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

One of my very favorite blogs is Awkward Things I Say To Girls. It's a great insight into this guy's personal life and all his wonderful problems. Although it's from a guy's viewpoint about girls, both guys and girls seem to enjoy his stories.

The only issue is that as of the last year or so, he's stopped updating with new posts. However, there's enough content to last about a week or reading or longer depending on your reading speed.

However, barring that, it is definitely worth a look-see.
posted by Atarah at 10:38 PM on November 26, 2009 [3 favorites]

GlitterForBrains is a gay graphic designer [for all things Dr Who/BBC] living and playing in London. It's won some blogging GLBT awards over the years. Disclaimer, also a friend. His witty facility with language, movie reviews, humour, sex fun etc is quite diverting, dahling.
posted by honey-barbara at 12:26 AM on November 27, 2009

I adore Mimi Smartypants. She's an excellent writer, funny, a bit dorky (in the best way), random (especially on No-Delete Thursdays), and has lots of good stories about weirdos on Chicago public transport and the awesome kid they adopted from China a few years back. And she's been doing it for ten years (TEN YEARS!), so there's a lot of back-reading to do if you get obsessed like me.
posted by KatlaDragon at 1:45 AM on November 27, 2009 [8 favorites]

Seconding Mimi Smartypants.
posted by martinrebas at 6:08 AM on November 27, 2009

Gus is one of the original online journal-ists, and he's still going strong.
posted by Rash at 6:57 AM on November 27, 2009

One of my favorites from way off the beaten path is The Deep North, written by a pair of professors from the University of Aberdeen, who live in rural north Scotland and entertain a variety of interesting and intellectual house guests. Both are published and very capable authors (and somewhat renowned authorities on various historical topics), and it's a treat to read their day-to-day accounts of living in (what is for me) a very different world.
posted by nonliteral at 8:02 AM on November 27, 2009

Maybe this is too obvious, but have you checked out Dooce? She's a funny, irreverent, former-mormon mom with hilarious stories about her day to day life. She also tends to recommend really good music.
posted by vytae at 11:23 AM on November 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

My favorite blog currently is R A N T W I C K. Despite the implications of the title, he really doesn't rant all that much and when he does it's usually in a good-natured way. Being Canadian, his Thanksgiving rant is a good example. One of his primary interests is bicycles, so sometimes he gets into technical stuff about navigating a bike in traffic and stuff, but many of his posts are just general observations on life.
posted by Doohickie at 11:59 AM on November 27, 2009

Oh, he also does short but amusing videos.
posted by Doohickie at 12:08 PM on November 27, 2009

Response by poster: Wow, thanks for all of the suggestions so far: these are great!
posted by surenoproblem at 6:16 PM on November 27, 2009

Thirding mimi smartipants. Am I the only one who wants to adopt her daughter's sibling?
posted by arnicae at 9:25 PM on November 27, 2009

It just started recently, but I can recommend Monkey Face News. It's ostensibly about fishing in the Bay Area, but the author is an entertaining writer who really gets in to whatever it is that he's writing about, whether it's canned mudsuckers, SF history, homemade 2 string slide guitars... whatever.

On the more ladylike end of things, Yarnagogo does a pretty good accounting of her life as a novelist, 911 dispatcher and enthusiastic knitter.

(full disclosure, I know both of these bloggers IRL)
posted by smartyboots at 11:23 PM on November 27, 2009

nthing mimi smartipants. Her writing is awesome.
posted by dyslexictraveler at 1:02 PM on November 28, 2009