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List of my favourite blogs

Books for India

I love reading books, and think that I always will. Thanks so much for all your suggestions on books for me to read back on Monday.

But the explosion of quality blogs in recent years means that I now also spend about 10 minutes each morning scanning through the list of blogs I subscribe to. (Still don’t understand RSS? You should. Click here for an explanation.) Blogs that teach me, bring important things to my attention, entertain me, and challenge me to think.

Today I am going to share a selection of some of the best blogs that I read regularly. But I am also asking for suggestions again. I’md love to broaden my reading and my education, so please do post links to any good blogs in the comments section below. Don’t be shy to promote your own blog too! Let’s try to build a good, broad resource that will be helpful for lots of people.

In no particular order, here’s a list of the best blogs that I dip into regularly.

  • Mark Twight. He’s a climber, he’s angry, he’s elitist. I’mm none of those things. Perhaps that’s why I like the jolt his caustic writing gives me.
  • Seth Godin. Writes about marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread.
  • David Hieatt. I like this blog for the same reason I enjoy Seth’s. It makes me think a little differently about my work and how I work.
  • Make “someday” today. The best writing I’mve found about long bike journeys.
  • Stuff White People Like. Makes me laugh every time.
  • Flickr Blog. Photography and a whole world of different topics. I like seeing different photographers, different approaches, different ideas.
  • The Big Picture. Astonishing images from the world’s big stories.
  • Andy Kirkpatrick. Thoughtful, unusual, entertaining writing about climbing, making a living from climbing, and trying to fit a life around these two things.
  • Kate Harris. Poetic and exultant adventures. Travel and expeditions do not need to be written accisotret.com about monotonously like a police report. After all, Annie Dillard and Antoine St Exupery knew what they were doing.
  • The Adventure Blog. News, commentary, and insights on adventures, and adventurers, from around the globe.
  • Rock Monkey Art. Cool expeditions and the kind of videos I am aspiring to learning to make.
  • Philip Bloom. A great resource for learning about DSLR film making.
  • The Barstool Romantic celebrates the wanderers, explorers, vagabonds, beats, carousers, rebels, hell-raisers and originals of the world. Those great ideas of freedom and the open road; drinking, laughing and loving like hell; getting out there and into it.
  • The Creative Penn. Lots of stuff to get me thinking about life as an author.
  • The Economist. Taut writing, comprehensive analysis.
  • Escape the City. Stop dreaming. Start planning.
  • The Roaming Dials. The definitive packrafting blog. I hope my life can become as cool as Roman’s.
  • Those Who Dared. Two hundred years of adventure journalism.
  • Time to Eat the Dogs. On Science, History, and Exploration.
  • Vimeo HD. Movie-making inspiration.
  • Kottke.org. I don’t really know what this site is about but it’s usually interesting!
  • Strange Maps. A cornucopia of different things to delight or make you think. Like this one.

Clearly I would not have the time or the inclination to type in the www… for each of these sites to see if anything has changed on them. That’s the beauty of RSS feeds, and why you should subscribe to the RSS feed or monthly newsletter for my site right now.

Let me know your favourite blogs in the comments below…

And if you can’t be bothered with RSS feeds why not get just one old-school email per month with the best bits from my blog and any latest news.



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Comments

  1. Renen Ozturk who creates some of the videos at Rock Monkey Art also posts on http://verticalcarnival.blogspot.com together with Cedar Wright who also creates great videos.

    Reply
  2. Cass Gilbert’s While Out Riding is the best adventure cycling blog by a downwind country mile http://whileoutriding.wordpress.com/

    Reply
  3. A bit of self promotion. http://www.hapworkingtheworld.com is my blog that is dedicated to my goal I set out to achieve in 2003, To live and work in every continent before 30. My mum reckons its pretty good.

    Next year I turn 30 on the 11/11/11 and have Africa as my 7th and final continent to live and work on. I have set myself a new challenge for Africa, to cycle through Southern Africa and then work along side my Charity Bicycles for Humanity implementing a sea container full of disused bikes that we sent from Melbourne into a bicycle workshop, where the bikes will be given to aid workers and orphans.

    My blog use to be about my working the world misadventures, but now it is dedicated to my planning for my final continent expedition, fundraising for my charity, gaining sponsorship, inspirations for the cycling world etc.

    Al, I have been meaning to email you back after you helped me with my book writing questions, but i was waiting until I had news about my contract. My editor has just put the book proposal to the big cheeses, so all going well should have a contract to sign in the coming month, fingers crossed. cheers for the help.

    OK, back to applying for the Hillary Expedition Grant.

    Hap

    Reply
  4. Another guy who writes amazingly well is Hirsch, but unfortunately he’s not updated anything since August this year.

    http://makesomedaytoday.blogspot.com/

    Reply
  5. “Don’t be shy to promote your own blog too!”… Sounds like an invitation to get shameless… http://www.cyclingthe6.blogspot.com

    It’s the story of my five year bicycle adventure across six continents

    Reply
  6. Jordan Posted

    Nice list!

    Have to back up what somebody above said. AND one that is already on your list.

    i think Hirsch (http://makesomedaytoday.blogspot.com/) has the best blog I have ever read. I get the impression he is in equal measures: completely nuts, a genius, self-indulgent, fascinating, and one of the nicest considerate people on the earth. He is not “borderline” anything. A great read. A couple of months back I printed off his entire archive and read it like a book. Amazing.

    Reply
  7. Helena Posted

    http://www.cyclingthe6.blogspot.com is a great read, i’d definately suggest you check it out!

    Reply
  8. Will be a helpful list 🙂
    Ths~

    Reply
  9. The School of Life is pretty good – http://theschooloflife.typepad.com

    Reply
  10. james harris Posted

    http://thunderinthenight.blogspot.com/

    great photos, great mini adventures. Ultra lightweight in Norway.

    Reply
  11. Roman Dial Posted

    Thanks Alastair.

    This is a flattering honor to be on your list….

    Keep butt-boating! And adventuring!

    Roman

    Reply
  12. sz Posted

    Yet another travel blog tip: http://www.goingslowly.com/

    Tara and Tyler’s bike and road trip from Scotland to Malaysia. Exceptionally good writing and great pictures.

    Reply
  13. Chuffed. Thanks. Incentive to keep up the writing schedule too!

    Reply
  14. You said that there’s no need to be embarrassed about shameless self-promotion so here you go…

    Bored with waiting for an interesting job to come up which gets us out the rat race, my boyfriend and I have taken it into our own hands. We’re far from Basil and Sybil Fawlty but we are currently attempting to purchase a guesthouse or B&B in South Cornwall. We’re not retiring, merely trying to do something which gives us job satisfaction and a great quality of life.

    Living somewhere that resembles a picture postcard seems like a dream come true as I stare out the window at the Soho back alley my office overlooks. However, I suspect it won’t all be fantasy and long walks along the beach, that somewhere along the way it might be quite hard work.

    The blog charts our journey, maybe you’ll think we’re nuts, maybe you’ll envy us… maybe you’ll come and stay.

    http://porthminsterview.wordpress.com/

    Thanks for the article.

    Lee

    Reply
  15. A great list from the Esc the City guys:
    http://blog.escapethecity.org/team-esc/favourite-blogs/

    Reply
  16. Matt McD Posted

    This is a great site: http://www.ted.com/

    Although it is not a blog in the traditional sense, it is a series of seperate short talks of ideas worth spreading which is what a blog is at its best. Let me know know if you like it.

    I also really like Stephen Fabes site as shown above (http://www.cyclingthe6.blogspot.com), it is a very ambitious journey, well written and great photos.

    Since I am at it thought I would mention my own blog too. Far from a classic just yet but hopefully interesting enough: http://www.thecyclediaries.com it is the story of my friend and I cycling from London to Australia, hope you enjoy…

    Matt

    Reply

 
 

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