The Boy Can't Help It!

After over four years of blogging, I'm pretty tuned in to how often people I know visit this bell curve. So for that group who check in faithfully, I apologize for this past week's emphasis on reading. Until someone pointed it out, I didn't realize how my focus had narrowed over the previous five posts.

But that observation got me wondering. If you were a blogger - and you wanted to be as eclectic as I've tried to be - what subject (s) might unknowingly push to the front of your queue more often than others? Do you find those same subjects dominating your conversations? What strategies do you use to push yourself to step outside those familiar areas? How important is it to you to do so?

About twenty or twenty five years ago I recall noticing how my newspaper and magazine reading had gotten a bit narrow over my lifetime. That is, if an article of general interest was far afield of my experience, e.g. engineering or accounting or dentistry, I would routinely skip it. I'm not sure what triggered my realization but I do remember thinking at the time that I wasn't doing myself any favors being so exclusionary in my reading habits. Though I did not subsequently take up reading Architectural Digest, I am also no longer as inclined to be as dismissive when encountering an unfamiliar subject. And that small shift has made me happy over the ensuing years as well as helping me better relate to people with different interests.

Consider the crux of this post to be your answers to the questions posed in paragraph #2. Ignore the fact that I somehow reverted back to reading - yikes!