Optimal timing for blog reading

Because I use blogs as one way of keeping up with the profession and, ultimately, as a method for gathering new book ideas, I try to keep current on my reading. Conferences, sicknesses, and an influx of manuscripts have conspired against me so far this year, however, and I am rather behind. My aggregator of choice is Google Reader, which organizes the incoming posts strictly by date of post rather than grouped by feed. This keeps me honest in reading a wide range of opinions; with my old aggregator, which organized by feed, I’d lapse into reading only a handful of my favorites. But, this by-date arrangement also makes it very obvious exactly how far behind I am.

For a while I was running two months behind, but once I got through all of the Midwinter Meeting posts, I quickly caught up to being at a steady one-month lag. And I must say, I rather like the view from here. After a month, I can read the post and all the comments in one sitting. And in case you haven’t been listening to the social software gurus, let me tell you, it’s all about the conversation. A so-so post can take on new depth when bolstered by comments and rebuttals. A post that seemed convincing and insightful when I was speed-reading it over lunch can look positively moth-eaten in light of another’s counterpoints offered after a more considered reading than my own.

Yes, I hear you—Subscribe to the comment feeds! you say. But it’s not the same. For me, getting the conversations in bits and pieces ruins the effect. So here I’ll stay for a while, a month behind the leading edge, but right in the middle of the conversation.