david hieatt

I met Al Humphreys at last year's Do Lectures.

He did a wonderful talk that inspired me.

The reason I jump into rivers when I run is down to him.

He kindly put me in his fave blogs, which made me feel a bit guilty cos I had forgotten I had one.

So he got me writing again. (Cheers Al)

Here is his list.

He asked me to write my list of fave blogs too. (working on that).

Sign up to his blog. Watch his talk. Buy his book.

Cheers,

David Hieatt

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’d 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’m 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’ve 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 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 ormonthly newsletter for my site right now.