What makes you read a blog?

Monday night, after a ten hour drive home from Arizona, I took a hot bath in my big bathtub.  It was a $3,000 upgrade to our house for that big bathtub, and I'll tell you this much- it's the best $3,000 I've ever spent.  But that's a subject for another day.

I was soaking in the tub trying my best to relax, but my brain kept trying to remind me of stuff I had to do now that I was home.  Laundry! Grocery shopping! Work in the morning!  Blog post!  My brain is such a jerk.

Blog post, hmmm?  What kind of things was I going to say in a blog post?  Who was going to notice if I posted or not?  Who was going to be disappointed?  Who was going to read?  Who was going to even care?

The weird and very hard thing about a very public blog is that you have no idea who is reading or not reading.  Not on a personal, intimate level, at least.  You know a pageview number, yes, but that doesn't mean much.  You don't know when someone decides they don't like your blog anymore and stops reading.  You don't know why they stop reading.  You don't know when someone new starts reading and becomes a forever reader after that.  You don't know what it is that makes them keep reading through the good times and bad.

The internet isn't going anywhere, but I sometimes wonder if blogs are.  Are they?  Or aren't they? Can someone settle this question once and for all?  I know that I read considerably less blogs than I used to.  I used to follow lifestyle blogs that I don't read now because I can't relate anymore.  I used to follow some fashion blogs that I don't read now because I follow on insta and don't need the blog anymore.  Most blogs I've stopped reading because they have stopped writing.  They haven't stopped posting, but they've stopped writing, you know?  Like there's no more substance behind anything, just links to sweaters and pictures of their toes on the beach.  I can't blame them, though, because you can't always write about the hard stuff, the stuff you want to write about.  Sometimes it's easier to post links to sweaters than to divulge your hopes, dreams, pains, vulnerabilities to the cruel and nameless internet.  Sometimes you have to protect the privacy of yourself, your job, your family- and that means less real writing.

But there are some bloggers who still write.  These are the blogs I still read regularly- my favorite writing blogs.

The Daily Tay
Danakin Skywalker
A Handful of Peanuts
Nat the Fat Rat
C. Jane Kendrick

My all time favorite might be Elizabeth Ivie but she has stopped writing and pulled all of her archives.  Offering up your personal life to the internet is tough.

What are your favorite writing blogs?  Please share with me.

And on a deeper level, what makes you read a blog in the first place?  What makes you eventually quit a blog?  Or stay with a blog through the hard times, the lulls, the giveaway and sponsored posts mania?  What makes you loyal?  And what makes you call it a day?

These are the things I think of while relaxing in my $3,000 bathtub.