My company's CEO is about to start blogging and solicited input on what blogs we read. Ever mindful of an opportunity to work "double-time" I decided to blog about what I read here and send her a link...

I do not sit around reading blogs all day. I use Google Reader to follow about 20 blogs. I also scan AllTop for interesting things. The key idea here is that, as I realized for my own readership, if the title and first sentence don't pull me in, forget it. I don't "curl up with a good blog" or follow certain personalities as a member of their writing fan club.

The only exception to that rule is Penelope Trunk's Career advice blog. While I do not always agree with her, I find that she challenges my assumptions and stimulates a lot of controversy about ideas and issues that matter to me. Her blog is about the intersection of career and life; my writing is about what I call the mash-up life. Her post today about twitter, social media, and personal branding is on the same wavelength. Penelope is the person who suggested I start blogging almost 2 years ago.

Other blogs I follow...first the "muse" blogs:

• Modite - Rebecca Thorman is a female, extrovert, version of me if I were 26 years old and not working in technology. :) She writes from a Millennial/Generation Y perspective about career and life and "walks the walk" as a community organizer in Madison, WI. Her recent post about What Generation Y Fears Most is right on with what I felt when I was 26 and still do today. It's not just career advice, but how you engage with your community to make a difference. I return to her site because of her passion and authenticity and because her younger perspective is reaffirming or inspiring to me at a different stage of life.
• Escape from Cubicle Nation - Pamela Slim writes about entrepreneurship and is an authentic, reasonable guide in front of much of this kind of writing that just trying to sell a scheme. Her audience is people looking to start their own business. I return to her site because she is a good "curator" of ideas--I believe she is not just trying to sell me something.
• All About Cities - Wendy Waters lives in Vancouver, BC, and works in urban planning/research. She blogs "all about cities." I found her blog early in my writing, in connection with Richard Florida's books and Penelope Trunk. I contribute occasional book reviews to Wendy's site. I follow her because I'm interested in the subject matter and I relate to her situation as an urban parent who is writing and raising two kids...and I find her writing more interesting and accessible than more purely academic sites that cover this topic. She, like I also do, looks for the social connections and implications in economics and urban change.
• Employee Evolution - Ryan Healy and Ryan Paugh created this site as a voice for Millennials who want more out of work than a paycheck. Then, they joined forces with Penelope Trunk to create Brazen Careerist, a network of young bloggers talking about work, life, etc. Frankly, I've been less enthralled by this stuff lately. The authentic voices of the founders and good writing of certain key contributors stands out; I read because they stimulate my own thoughts.

Then there are the practical blogs--kind of like news sites--that give me useful information I can use in how I write or what I do at work versus how I think:

• ProBlogger - Darren Rouse became famous as a blogger who makes enough money blogging to support himself with a six-figure income. His blog is all about tips for bloggers on how to make money blogging, plus blogging advice. I scan the headlines and follow him on twitter because he often has useful advice about the craft of blogging or the mechanics of monetization.
• Social Media Today is an aggregation of bloggers like Paul Gillin and others who write about social media. The sheer volume of posts on this site is overwhelming. Too much to read, most of it good. This is where to go to find someone blogging about how to encourage social media adoption in an organization, lessons learned, etc. Scan, copy url, paste in email to team.
• Guy Kawasaki - Marketing Guru Guy Kawasaki surfaces useful companies and provides his entrepreneurial insight based on his insider knowledge working with companies. I don't follow this as much as I used to because I've got my hands full with the company I work for, my "emergent media empire," and family. I don't need to know about more cool companies I might want to work for or start!
• Seth Godin - same deal as Guy Kawasaki...I would find this blog very useful if I were responsible for marketing and needed ideas. But I'm not, so I don't have time to read it anymore.

So now I have just spent more time writing about these blogs than I have probably read in the past 3 months. I really cannot emphasize enough the fleeting attention span--even though I have a clear and deep connection to these sites, most days I spend perhaps 30 seconds on them. But if I see something that catches my attention I will read and possibly comment on it.

The way I "use" blogs is to:

• gather inspiration
• gather information
• engage the community of writers

I don't just read the blogs; as I comment a few times, the bloggers write back to me. Or they comment on my blog. We sometimes email each other too. Despite how Ethan Klapper dismisses blogging as a one-way medium--"barely social media"--I think it can be very, albeit selectively, social. If I were doing this full time, I'd spend a lot more time with a longer list of blogs, but these are the ones I frequent for now...