The first blog I want to highlight in my series on blogs that I love is John Scalzi’s blog Whatever. Scalzi is a science fiction author. I don’t really care much for science fiction, but because I am such a fan of his blog I gave one of his books a shot. I didn’t hate it, but it was still science fiction and I would much rather spend my time reading something I enjoy more so I won’t be reading any more of his books. His blog on the other hand I will continue to read until he stops writing it.

As is evidenced by the title of the blog, Whatever, Scalzi writes about whatever is on his mind. Sometimes the posts are dedicated to things in the world of science fiction writing. Those posts I tend to skip. He also allows authors to promote their books on his blog via his Big Idea series. It’s all the other posts that are the ones that keep me reading though. He often weighs in on issues occurring in the news. I often though not always agree with his views, which probably helps my enjoyment of his posts. However, what I really appreciate about his thoughts are how reasoned they are. Unlike the crazed vitriol that too often gets spewed around 24 hour so called news channels and the internet, Scalzi presents reasoned thoughts on the subject at hand. He’s willing to engage in civil discussions and not just try and brow beat people into seeing things his way. It’s for this reason I think that he has a lot of readers and many who request him to weigh in topics that they want to hear his opinion about. I suspect that even if I didn’t share his views I would still appreciate the way he approaches writing about often divisive topics.

In addition to newsworthy topics he also posts about just his life in general: his wife, his daughter, his pets, etc. I appreciate those posts as well as they provide a look into his life and make the blog feel human, which is something I gravitate towards. If you don’t already read Whatever I would highly recommend checking it out.