I went through my RSS feeds today on Google Reader, and I trimmed the list down to 30 feeds from the original 50 that I had. Sometimes, we get RSS feed happy, and we subscribe to anything and everything that looks interesting. But, a few weeks later we’re back to reading our stable blogs and news sources. I like to simplify my life as much as possible, and with the age of a million social networks and a billion different blogs about a billion different topics, information overload has become a bonafide syndrome.
Instead of randomly getting rid of feeds, I compiled a short list of categories of information that I want to read about the most. I narrowed it down to Current News, Finance, Blogging, Career/Life, Sports, Christianity and Politics. Then, I chose the most important blogs and websites for each category based on how much I read those sites. There were some difficult decisions that I had to make, but I can always do the old-fashioned web surf to certain feeds that I axed.
Some of you might be interested in the feeds that I kept. Here is a list of them.
Drudge Report: Love him or hate him, his site has up-to-the-minute links to the most current and important news articles
Fox News: I’m conservative, go figure.
USA Today: I am not like most people. I like to read news from a conservative perspective and a liberal perspective. Fox has more conservative writers and USA Today has more liberal ones. So, that’s my reason for having both.
Wall Street Journal: Is and always will be the best source for financial news.
Problogger: Definitely the best website for tips and tricks to improve and monetize your blog.
Blog Herald: News and tips site for all things going on in the wonderful world of blogging.
ESPN: Say what you want about ESPN’s sensationalist reporting and “beat a dead-horse with a stick” mentality of driving a sports story to the ground, but they have the best writers, and they are on top of their game all the time.
GatorSports.com: I love me some Florida Gator sports, and this is the home-grown website from the beat writers in Gainesville.
Brazen Careerist: The very best career web community on the internet. You need to check it out.
Escape From Cubicle Nation: She has some good stuff that keeps me coming back for more.
RedState.com: conservative political commentary and news.
Huffington Post: Liberal political commentary and news.
National Review Online: Founded by the modern father of conservatism.
Lifehacker: What would I do without this blog?
Consumerist: Keeps me informed about all consumer issues and written with a funny, intellectual style.
Relevant Magazine: A great magazine for twenty-somethings about God, life, and entertainment.
Christianity Today: The number one Christian magazine in print.
The Onion: Makes me laugh out loud when I shouldn’t be laughing out loud. (i.e. at work)
Consumerism Commentary: A great personal finance blog from a regular guy.
Free Money Finance: snippets of relevant information and links about personal finance and money from a Christian guy who loves helping people.
Get Rich Slowly: Definitely one of the godfathers of the personal finance blogging community.
Sam Putnam: He is a personal friend, but I wish I would have spent more time getting to know him when I lived in the same town as him. We share the same love of conservatism, reformed theology, and the Florida Gators. What more could you ask for? Sam has one-liners in his blog that make me cry with laughter and contemplate life’s most important questions. That’s why I subscribe to his updates.
Valerie Stonerook: Another personal friend. We’ve talked several times about going more mainstream and getting her writings about being a mom and frugality into the hands of more readers, but she’s been a LITTLE busy handling a new-born baby. That’s a pretty good excuse, but check out her site when you get the chance.
Ben Casnocha: Stumbled upon his blog one day and was intrigued by his personal story. I gained tremendous respect for him when I introduce myself over e-mail and he actually showed genuine interest in networking with me. His intellect and wisdom are beyond his years, and it shows up in his writings.
Ken Jennings: Yes, the Jeopardy millionaire geek. Feel free to make fun of me on this one, but his stuff is actually pretty entertaining and intellectually challenging. His “Ken’s 6″ column is freaking awesome. He linked Eminem to M&M’s!
Wil Wheaton: Again, another geek, but he’s a great writer, and I enjoy reading what he has to say.
John Piper: A great pastor and a great author.
Rob Pendley: My former pastor in Gainesville at Christ Community Church. He’s definitely one of the best preachers I have ever witnessed in person along with Joe Franks, but Joe has yet to discover the internet.
I always think it’s fun to know what other people are reading, so I figured I would share this list with you to get a better idea of who I am. After all, you are what you read. If you get the chance, write a comment below about your favorite and most read blogs or websites.
