…let’s write a post about OTHER blogs! (But don’t stop reading this one—more entries coming soon, I promise!)

It came to my attention recently that I was not using Google to its full capacity. Aside from having to politely nod and pretend I know what “Google Buzz” and “Google Wave” are (I’m still not quite sure what they are, even after…uh, Googling them), I realized that I had nothing to say when other people started talking about their Google readers. Back in July, I resolved to set up a Google Reader but didn’t get around to it until a couple of weeks ago.

So now I have all the blogs I read, including the ones I constantly forget about and only manage to check occasionally, in one place, and damn, is it addictive. Whenever I’m online and my mind starts wandering, immediately, I think, “Ooh! Google Reader!” After I’d been on it for about a week, a friend informed me that you can also friend people on Google Reader and share items with them and view their shared items. When I went to add people to share things with, I discovered that nine people had already added me.

Since it took me about nine months to set up a Google Reader after resolving to do so, it will probably take me about as long to set up a blogroll on SSTS. In the meantime, I thought I’d share with you some of the blogs I have on my Google Reader. Over half of them are written by people I know, but some are blogs I discovered on my own or through word of mouth. Here’s a sampling:

Jezebel
Jezebel floods my Google Reader every day. I find about one out of five of their entries interesting, but since theyupdate so often, that’s a lot of readable content. Some of it is celebrity gossip I don’t care about (I really don’t need to read any more posts about Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan), but they also have a lot of well-written, feminist-perspective takes on pop culture and current events.

White Whine
Complaining about the large number of posts on Jezebel, I think, would qualify as a White Whine. Rebekah introduced me to this site awhile ago, and since then, I’ve constantly been referencing it. Have you ever heard someone complain about something like an iPhone app and thought, “Dude. You have an iPhone.”? That’s the whole idea behind this site. Example: “just arrived in Tokyo to find out that my BB doesn’t work here. Nice. I loathe using my laptop.” It’s hilarious not only for the dumb things people complain about, but because you can probably hear yourself in a lot of them. We all white whine sometimes.

What Claudia Wore
I’ve already blogged about this.

Tomato Nation
Sarah Bunting, aka Sars, is one of the founders of Television Without Pity, a site I used to spend a lot of time on and met some great friends on. She posts about all kinds of things, but she also has a semiweekly advice column called The Vine. While I dislike her opinions on baseball immensely (she’s a Yankees fan) and don’t always agree with her taste in TV, her advice is usually spot-on. The Vine also serves as a lost-and-found of sorts—people write in asking the readers to help identify a book/movie/song/product they’re looking for, and the readers are usually able to help.

So Much: A Diary of Decadent Desserts
Julie’s awesome blog on the sweet treats in her life.

Smart, Pretty, and Awkward
Rebekah finds a lot of cool blogs. She just introduced me to this one (via Google Reader!) this past week. Each post gives you three tips: one on how to be smarter, one on how to be prettier, and one on how to be less awkward.

Pamie.com
Pamela Ribon, aka Pamie, used to write Gilmore Girls recaps for Television Without Pity, but now she writes for TV itself. She’s been a writer on Samantha Who, Mind of Mencia, and Hot Properties and has written three novels, the most recent of which I just finished. She’s been blogging since 1998, back when she was a struggling twenty-something, and it’s encouraging to read her archives and see how far she’s come since then.

Notes on Popular Culture and Dissection and Introspection
These two blogs are written by Media Maven, a fellow twenty-something blogger who writes in a funny, accessible voice and has her own thoughts on the death of the song lyric away message.

Mjsbigblog
The largest and most popular American Idol blog out there.
….What?

Looks and Books
This is co-worker Jill’s blog, a very cool site about clothes and books…just what it sounds like.

Double X
Slate’s blog for women. Not updated quite as frequently as Jezebel, but they often have some good, female-focused posts. Just avoid anything by the obnoxious Amanda Marcotte, who’s a terrible writer.

Blonde Champagne
A few years ago, I read a wonderful book called 20-Something Essays by 20-Something Writers. One of those essays was by twenty-something Mary Beth Ellis (although I think she’s in her thirties now). Her essay was a funny yet poignant ode to living with OCD, and I’ve really enjoyed her blog as well.