Blogger Identification

I just noticed that John Hawkins at Right Wing News a href=”http://www.rightwingnews.com/mt331/2008/03/my_favorite_40_bloggers_for_20_4.php”has posted /ahis favorite blogs and mine is on the list. How nice! I often wonder what motivates people to read certain blogs. I think I read recently that many blog readers identify with the blogger and therefore, enjoy reading someone who views the world in a similar way. I think this is true to some degree. But sometimes I think people read blogs because the blogger has a personality or has traits the reader aspires to have but does not, or has in a very small degree but the blogger has it in spades. br /br /Let me give you an example. I recently started reading a href=”http://www.rachellucas.com/”Rachel Lucas’s blog./a She blogged a while ago, I think, and quit and then recently came back. My husband was the one who started telling me to read her blog, and I would, occassionally, look at something she posted and then I realized one day that I was…hooked. Lucas writes rants, about everything from her dogs humping to why people don’t treat their parents better and she does it with such flare that her subjects might be better off if she actually used a sword against them, rather than her pen–or in this case, her keyboard. br /br /Do I admire that? You better believe I do. Could I do it or would I do it? Doubtful–it’s not my style but it is a style that I admire. There is another side of myself that I wish I had fine-tuned more but didn’t. When you spend years in a PHD program and in my profession, you learn to restrain yourself from ranting at people, and instead, try to be objective without letting others know too much about how you actually feel. Lucas does just the opposite; there is no mystery about how she feels, it’s obvious. br /br /Do you have a favorite blogger who serves as your a href=”http://www.answers.com/topic/alter-ego?cat=health”alter ego,/a with the traits you wish you had, but don’t for whatever reason–such as your profession, family, not your style, but wish it was? etc. Which blogger is it and why do you admire or want to be like him or her?br /br /Update: a href=”http://rachellucas.com/index.php/2008/03/31/most-people-have-to-pay-a-psychologist-for-this-kind-of-mental-help/” Rachel responds:/a Most people have to pay a psychologist for this kind of mental help.