15 Awesome Blogs (Part 1)

Char from Char of London, challenged me to name my 15 favorite blogs. That’s a hard one, so I decided to break it into several posts to give it a good thought. Meanwhile, I follow and regularly read the newly launched charoflondon.com and recommend her movies, music & book reviews plus insights of London living.

So this is my list of awesome blogs I read on regular basis (Part 1), in no particular order:

1. Fefes Blog

Language: German. Author: Felix von Leitner a.k.a. Fefe, is the founder and owner of an IT security company from Berlin. He’s famous in German speaking countries and has a lot of readers. I saw him once at an annual Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg, well, he’s probably your typical eccentric IT nerd, but he’s one hell of a speaker and has a huge awareness of the world situation. Contents: (Cynic and insightful) commentary on international current affairs. From Politics, Social, Economics, Environment, and of course, to IT security, privacy & other cyber issues. My fave thing:

He always says, “Bei uns ist Atomkraftwerk sicher (In our land, nuclear power plant is safe)”, whenever he writes a commentary on nuclear power plant’s incidents aboard. Sarcasm, much.

2. Reading My Tea Leaves

Language: English. Author: Erin Boyle, she’s a scientist by education and currently the owner and author of her blog-turned-to-professional-website. She lives with her husband and daughter in an only around 500 squarefeet (33 squaremeters–gasp) Brooklyn apartment. Way to be a minimalist! Content: Diary and guides to a minimalist and sustainable lifestyle, from wardrobe, food, living, travel, to parenthood. My fave thing:

Her versatile and elegant photography and word choices. And her collection of crips white cotton sheets. There is serenity in well-thought minimalism.

3. Sunnie Brook’s Blog

Language: English. Author: Sunnie Brook is a LA beauty blogger and hairstylist. Started out wanting to help and make people happy, she chose hairdresser as her profession. Now she is a famous celebrity hairstylist, with Lana del Ray and Colin Farrel as her clients to name a few. Contents: Hair & beauty tips and videos. She also shares her work travel fabolous pics and stories. My fave thing:

Her signature beach wave hairstyle. A lot of beauty bloggers write and do tutorial videos on this, but Sunnie’s tutorial and tips are my favorite.

4. Freakonomics

Language: English. Authors: Stephen J. Dubner (SJD) a New York author and journalist and Steven D. Levitt (SDL) an award-winning economist of University of Chicago. The two met as Dubner was assigned to write an article on Levitt. They have formed an unexpected partnership and been writing a blog together ever since. Their blog got a huge readership and turned to a website. Just like their analogy about selling water in bottles: despite being accesibly free for anyone, people don’t mind paying for bottled water — and so they sell their blog posts as books. Best selling books. Contents: Blog posts and podcasts on their thoughts and interpretations of things with the principles and theories of Economics in the back of their heads. My fave thing:

SJD & SDL speak to my heart, I nod a lot of time whenever I read their blog and books or listen to their podcast. They applied Economics theories and cold logical thinking to form their thoughts and opinions on current affairs or mere daily happenings. This making abstract issues more imaginable. Btw, this is the same vision I have for my blog, esp. for my “People & Their Money” series — beside making Economics theories and principles understandable & relatable to common people.

5. Hamburg von Innen

Language: German. Author: Verena, an architect living in Hamburg with her fiancé, “der Liebste” and a cat, Gandhi. Content: Interior design styling tips and sneak peek of other people home. The blog title Hamburg von Innen literally means “Hamburg from the inside”. Who doesn’t wanna see the life inside of a German (if not European) version of NYC — kinda. My fave thing:

Her series Schöne Lieblingsecke captures her fellow Hamburg citizens’ favorite spot at home. I love seeing other people’s space of living and their manifestations of sentiment. Last but not least, I love Hamburg, its young spirit and its tendency to Scandinavian design and lifestyle.