[Note: Every Friday on First Thoughts we host a discussion about some aspect of popular culture. For the next few weeks, we'll be highlighting lists of the best of 2010.]
With an estimated 200 million active blogs written in the English language, choosing the best blogs of the year is a daunting task.
Fortunately, I know which ones they are.
Listed below are the top 50 blogs that I have found to be the most convicting, enlightening, frustrating, illuminating, maddening, stimulating, right-on and/or wrongheaded during 2010.
The selection process is, by necessity, intensely personal and unapologetically subjective. There are a number of blogs that are written by brilliant thinkers and stylists yet, for one reason or another, have not captured my imagination in the way that the blogs on this list have done.
The list is also reflective of my rather narrow field of interests and associations. The bloggers that are included are primarily from the conservative wing of evangelicalism and Catholicism. There is also a peculiar range of focus. Religion, philosophy, and economic blogs are overrepresented, for example, while sports, tech, and pop culture blogs are all but excluded. (Blogs from the First Things family (The Anchoress, Evangel, Postmodern Conservative, Spengler, and Secondhand Smoke) were also not included since it is a given that they are among the best.)
While the entire list won’t be to everyone’s taste, there is something to be gained from searching out the unfamiliar names. Each is worthy of being included on any list of essential blog reading.
The following (listed in alphabetical order) are the 50 best blogs of 2010:
8. Boing Boing
10. Christianity Today Liveblog
11. City of God
12. Cranach
13. DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed
14. Edward Feser
16. Flash Points
19. Geekosystem
20. GetReligion
21. Hot Air
22. Instapundit
23. io9
24. Leithart.com
26. Megan McArdle
28. Mere Orthodoxy
29. millinerd.com
30. Neatorama
34. Ross Douthat
35. Siris
36. Text Patterns
38. The American Conservative‘s Blog
40. The American Spectator‘s Blog
41. National Review’s The Corner
42. The Imaginative Conservative
43. The League of Ordinary Gentlemen
44. The Politics of the Cross Resurrected
45. The Presurfer
46. The Scriptorium
48. Tim Challies
November 19th, 2010 | 1:09 am
I hope you consider adding http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/
to your reader for 2011. :)
November 19th, 2010 | 1:16 am
I hope you consider adding http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/
I hate to admit that I wasn’t even aware of that one. I’ve added it to my RSS reader, though, and look forward to catching up on it.
November 19th, 2010 | 2:30 am
Wow! So many blogs, so little time :)
November 19th, 2010 | 3:18 am
A couple other suggestions.
http://www.scifiwright.com
tofspot.blogspot.com
November 19th, 2010 | 3:19 am
I know that I didn’t make the top one hundred thousand, but being the millioneth should count for something!
Thanks for the list! I will certainly check them out!
November 19th, 2010 | 6:48 am
thecatholicthing.com has distinguished contributors: Fr. James Schall, Hadley Arkes, and others
November 19th, 2010 | 7:44 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Contemplari and Acton Institute, Andrew Walker . Andrew Walker said: Congrats to @MattLeeAnderson and MereOrthodoxy.com for making First Things' Top 50 blogs for 2010! http://bit.ly/9V9E3S [...]
November 19th, 2010 | 7:48 am
I hope you will also consider adding http://www.aoiusa.org/blog/
November 19th, 2010 | 8:29 am
Cool. I now write for blog 43, FYI for anyone who values my contributions to the comment threads here.
November 19th, 2010 | 9:08 am
Why isn’t Father Z’s blog, What Does the Prayer Really Say, on the list? I encourage you to check it out and add it to your list for 2011.
Fr. Z’s blog can be found here:
http://wdtprs.com/blog/
November 19th, 2010 | 10:38 am
Joe,
Thanks for perusing our blogsite, The American Catholic!
November 19th, 2010 | 10:46 am
Just Thomism
http://thomism.wordpress.com/
November 19th, 2010 | 10:47 am
Do you read any UK blogs?
November 19th, 2010 | 11:56 am
Well crud. Where’s the lady what talks to trees and cetaceans? Huh?
http://blog.diannerobbins.com/
November 19th, 2010 | 1:40 pm
YOS,
Is that your website? Are you James? If so, I love your work and think the site is excellent.
November 19th, 2010 | 2:29 pm
Amazes me you didn’t include Richard Fernandez’ iconic Belmont Club in your list, Joe, but I understand History can be dull – but instructive – at times. The high caliber of his posts and analysis are generally quite impressive.
November 20th, 2010 | 12:06 am
Great list Joe;
. . .from the comments, ones I know well:
*like*
http://www.scifiwright.com
http://thomism.wordpress.com/
http://www.thecatholicthing.org/
November 20th, 2010 | 9:22 am
Awful taste is blogs. Wow!
November 20th, 2010 | 7:56 pm
[...] Links in lieu turkey (for Americans, Canadian Thanksgiving is sooo last month). First things first, we are flattered. [...]
November 21st, 2010 | 10:35 am
Don’t forget Pamela Geller’s blog atlasshrugs.com which fought the good fight against the Ground Zero mosque in N.Y. City among other highlights.
November 22nd, 2010 | 1:05 am
I’m ashamed to find that no one from the League has bothered to thank you for including us on this list. So: thank you! It’s tremendously flattering to make the cut.
November 22nd, 2010 | 5:40 pm
It probably means little but the link on 47 is the same as 45, nevertheless I certainly don’t mind, since I’ve always been a fan of the Presurfer and in my books is on par with Boing Boing and neatorama :-)
November 23rd, 2010 | 4:01 am
[...] via The Best Blogs of 2010 » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog. [...]
November 24th, 2010 | 3:46 am
What about micro blogs? That’s what I consider my Facebook page:
http://facebook.com/literarymom
November 24th, 2010 | 5:50 pm
[...] Carter’s best blogs of 2010 (HT: Gene [...]
November 24th, 2010 | 6:27 pm
Can I lobby for PP? (Phoenix Preacher dot net).
I guess I just did ;-)
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