Blogs on Blogs on Blogs

After perusing through many of the recommended blogs, I think I have decided that my favorite one is The Mumpsimus by Matthew Cheney.  There a couple things that I really like this blog in particular.  First, you just gotta love the name.  “The Mumpsimus.”  It’s one of those names where I just looked at it and thought, “what the fuck could that be about?”  The weird name made me want to look at the blog and figure out what was up. 

Another thing I really like about the blog was the way it is laid out.  Notice that he uses the same template that we do on blogspot.com.  The layout of this blog is very clear and simple.  With sections like “teaching”, “fiction”, and “videos”, you have a very good sense of where to find the posts you are interested in reading about and expectations that hold true when you look at a section of posts.  He has a very distinct archives section if you want to look at different posts from a particular time period.  The clearness of the blog was great and contrasts with some of the blogs that I didn’t like so much.  But I’ll get into that later.

The style of writing was additionally terrific.  The majority of the posts were pretty short in length, which I really think helped keep my attention.  Often times if posts are too long it will loose my attention or I will just look for the shorter posts to read instead of the longer ones.  At most the posts run about 300-400 words and some are as short as a sentence with a fitting picture.  There’s also a phenomenal range of topics explored in the blog.  Some posts are editorial reviews, some are suggestions for things to check out, and some are just whatever is on Cheney’s mind.  The wide array of topics keeps me interested and intrigued to see what the next post will be about.  Along with the briefness of the posts, the variety really contributes to this being an excellent blog.

The Mumpsimus in my mind contrasts with one of the blogs I did not like so much: The Millions.  The Millions is very confusing right from the start.  When I first opened the homepage, I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at.  With a lot of pictures, lists of stuff, and just chaos, I still have absolutely no idea what the blog is about.  Unlike the clearness of Mump, this one was just too muddled for me.  Maybe I was tired and in a pessimistic mood when I turned to it, but that was my take.  For sure though, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out The Mumpsimus!!!