Blogging about Blogging, Part 2

Yesterday I posted about my warped need to feel that someone is reading my blog. I myself frequent many blogs and there are different reasons I like them. I would venture to guess that 98 percent of the blogs I read are visited more often than mine. However, there are a couple that leave my mine in the dust. On a daily basis (provided something is posted every day, of course), these are the blogs I read:

• Fat Cyclist—I don't need to explain this blog to most people who are cyclists, but since I have a few noncyclist readers, I will try to give a brief overview of what his blog is about. Fat Cyclist chronicles the life of a a forty-something guy named Elden Nelson who is a mountain biker in Utah. He has a sharp, sarcastic wit that is punctuated with facetiousness. He has been known to write sardonic letters to famous people or companies in the cycling world and post them on his site. He also has a wife (who I think is the most awesome wife in the world) with cancer and four (two boys and twin girls?) kids. He's not really fat, although I think he believes that because he weighs more than he used to. Fatty's site has a tremendous amount of advertising and he is constantly getting cool cycling-related stuff which he usually gives away. He also has a line of tremendously slick cycling apparel produced by the coolest cycling apparel company eva, Twin Six. He uses proceeds from donations and sales to fund his wife's ongoing battle with cancer and, as he says "to buy her anything she wants."
• Jill Homer—Jill is a biker who lives in Juneau, Alaska, works for a newspaper and rides around in ridiculous weather conditions. She's completed some epic races, such as the Iditarod Trail Invitational, a 350 mile trek on the Iditarod trail in February. She's tough.
• Danielle Musto—Danielle is a local (Grand Rapids, about 45 min. away) endurance racer. She has a cool story. Basically, she decided to be a bike racer one day when she was riding with her then boyfriend. She wasn't athletic at all and had no background in riding, but she went out and raced and immediately started tearing up the trail. (This is a little bit of an oversimplification, but you get the general idea.) Danielle lives with her husband Scott and her Greyhound Naomi. She just came in 2nd place at 24 Hour Nationals. She also has a younger sister, Toni, who is an awesome road rider.

These are some of my most commonly visited blogs. I have to think a little harder to tell you why I like them.

I like the way Fat Cyclist writes. I like his wit and his wisdom and the fact that he has an interesting story to tell. His writing is compelling and his is the only blog that has ever made me cry, but of course, that is also because of the hell he's going through with his wife right now. I also feel like he, just like many of the people whose blogs I read, is someone I would like if I actually knew him.

I think the biggest draws for me to Jill's site are the quality of her writing and photography. Being in Alaska, she has cool things to take pictures of every day and I love looking at her photos. She's also very introspective at times and I particulary like to read those posts. I enjoy reading about her training and wondering what challenge she can possibly take on next.

Danielle's site is just real. I have to admit, I'm a little bit of a groupie. I like reading her race reports, following her season and cheering her on. She's so good at what she does, it makes me feel like a winner to cheer her on (okay, I realize this is a really dorky statement, but it's the truth). I also like the fact that's she's local and she's a real person I actual see around sometimes. She's also just really funny and not afraid to laugh at herself.

Yet again, it's 8:00 and I'm still not finished. I promise I will finally put this topic out of its misery once and for all tomorrow when I attempt to compare my blog to these examples and try to figure out how to make mine more appealing.

By the way, there were 21 visits to my blog yesterday.