Not reading so-and-so's blog? Where have you been?

On Sarah Weinman's blog, I caught up with a discussion of blog-cliquishness. I find the word "clique" even more pretentious than what it represents. Nonetheless, by the end of college, my Font friends and I were getting stuck with the label. And now it seems the same is happening to blogs. Here's my comment:

Blogs are a step closer than e-mail to true familiarity with people. I met Charlie Stella, Pat Lambe, and Jason Starr for the first time at a signing in February, but I was able to chat with them like old friends because I knew them through Sarah's blog.

I became part of a clique in college that grew around the formation of a literary magazine. It was impossible to see the people who regularly volunteered to read submissions and spent long hours hunched over Adobe PageMaker the same way I saw newbies.

Back to blogs: one blogger's opinion is one opinion, despite the fact that everyone who surfs the Web has access to it. I respect bloggers I've come to know better than others, but ultimately I make up my own mind about what I enjoy reading, wearing, doing, etc. A simple "me-too" surrenders too much individuality.