Stimulating Reading

My feed reader is often a bloodbath; I add to and purge my regular web reading ruthlessly, and yet it's always overstuffed and I'm perpetually behind. There are some mainstays; ego surfing my own feeds and some friends to whom I would feel embarrassed conversing In Real Life if I hadn't kept up with their online presence. I have obligatory web design and development reading, but I often mark them all read and just search if there's a solution I need, because if I spend much time thinking about work after hours my head would probably asplode.

My regular topic areas have shifted drastically as of late; I have now only follow two sites that deal with political issues in any form (that used to be my primary reading) and there are a large number of photography sites in my list. And lately I've been purging lots of high volume sites and sites that don't write original content. Gone are the link aggregators (I know that's ironic since many of my blog posts are that lately) in favorite of longer, in depth reading that I have to spend more time thinking about. I'm still having trouble keeping up with the reading, but it is at least more satisfying.

Here are a few of my favorites (most new and some old):

Where

The Urbanophile
Politically, I disagree with him quite a bit, but he does know his urban development, which is something I know very little about but find quite interesting. I think if I were to win the lottery, I'd get a masters in urban planning. And then run for mayor.

3 Quarks Daily

Ben and Alice

Roger Ebert's Journal

C-Monster.net

Tomorrow Museum

Neil Gaiman's Journal

Scouting NY

and of course Shakesville.

More and more I'm considering wholesale purging my feed reader of all but these select few, in hopes of actually staying on top of all my reading. Maybe someday soon.