Learning from the best

So The Manual's been written for music, but a how-to manual hasn't been written for blogging yet. The closest thing is Rebecca Blood's Weblog Handbook, which is the best blog book ever written, even at four years old.

If you want a more bloggish example of how to be a better blogger, though, you can't do better than her series of interviews about Bloggers on Blogging. The list includes several of the greatest bloggers of all time, especially since Rebecca's one of the greatest herself and asks appropriately insightful questions. Interviewees include Matt Haughey, Jessamyn West, Heather Armstrong, Rashmi Sinha, Glenn Reynolds, Adam Greenfield, David Weinberger, Megan Reardon, Fred First,and most recently Jason Kottke. Jason illustrates the strength of the interview questions well, if you compare his recent "How I Blog" post to Rebecca's interview:

Jason's self-descriptions are useful but brief, but his responses in Rebecca's interview, while equally considered and thoughtful, sound more like the real person I'm friends with. Part of it is the difference in tone that Jason has on his own site, but I think part of it is the intelligence and thoughtfulness of the inquiry.