Dear George,

Thank you for your article on whether the blog is becoming a community public meeting place. Your summary of local, political, and news blogs illustrated that this is sometimes true. On the other hand, I found your description of personal blogs as merely holding "a voyeuristic charm" to miss the mark. For me, the value is in seeing through someone else's eyes.

For example, I don't have an older sister… a slightly wiser, cooler girl to show me how it's all done. But in the blogs of hip and inspired women I find glimpses of insight into women's lives. Penelope, recently married, wrote about both her wonderful experience of her wedding and her subsequent post-nuptial slump. Claire, mother of a toddler, wrote about how her daughter cries like a banshee at night, but plays with her dolls in the sweetest way during the day. Alex, who left a corporate job to become a freelance writer, described how she has come to miss the company of office mates.

As a young gal trying to figure out the impact of life choices like marriage, kids, and career, it is so insightful to read the thoughts and feelings of people who've been there and done that.

There are also subjects it is hard to be honest about, and some blogs have resonated with me for sad (but useful) reasons. I began reading a blog by a woman with an eating disorder around the time I learned that my cousin was bulimic. The amazing courage and expressiveness of this woman in recovery gave me both understanding and hope about my cousin's journey. (I do not include a link because this journal has since become password-protected.)

Sometimes the blog just speaks to your interests and helps you grow. I like to cook, and delight in finding food blogs. Heidi writes about recipes from her cookbook collection. Clotilde ups the ante with accounts of both her cooking and her culinary finds in my one-time hometown, Paris, France. And Pascale wins me over by writing about the same, but in French. I don't actually care what any of these women has for dinner, but their blogs connect-the-dots between my own interests, and I develop something in myself by reading them.

It is true that some blogs serve as public meeting places. But does every building on the street need to be a meeting place? Just because you wouldn't step up to a podium and talk about yourself in a town meeting doesn't mean that talking about yourself, on your own time, in your own terms, is useless. I find understanding of myself and others, and encouragement to be who I am, through personal blogs. There is nothing voyeuristic about that.

Kathryn (Electronic mail, July 22, 2004)

Editor's Note: If you would like to share your favorite blogs, please tell us about them.