Every time I see a new post in my inbox from Penelope Trunk, my heart skips a giddy little beat.

Why? You ask…

Because I know she's going to say things that shock me, make me think, and unhinge my jaw at some point in almost every post.

I read a lot of stuff. I have a book collection that shames the Barnes & Noble business book shelf – and my parenting and self-help/psychology collections are just a few books shy of that business shelf. I read zillions of blogs, haphazardly, maybe like you do. I know many of us who spend a lot of time online skim the blog world throughout the day.

So, I'm saying, with all this reading I do, I rarely get shocked… flabbergasted…

…awed by the sheer gall and brilliance of an idea or connection between ideas like I do with Penelope Trunk. I love her writing because I can count on this amplified emotional experience that also teaches me some kind of otherwise mundane life lesson. I just dig that.

I dig it so much that if I see the post arrive when I'm already way past my bedtime and my eyes are dried out and I'm barely able to read, I still stay and read the whole thing. I miss the first five minutes of dinner if that's when the post arrives – it's so enticing to me. Even if I'm really hungry.

Not all of my friends read and like Penelope Trunk.

In fact, I have forwarded her posts, touted her audacious writing and passed her url onto almost everyone I've talked to for more than ten minutes about blogging. Three of my friends actively dislike reading Penelope's blog, which totally blows my mind. They say they “don't get it” and that it's just too much oversharing about  her personal life. Which is what I love about her blog, in large part – along with the way she ties in sex, parenting, personal relationships and career so unexpectedly and (mostly) brilliantly.

I keep wanting to convince my friends who don't love Penelope to read her because I know they'd see how great of a writer she is if they just read a little more.

Then I remember that they don't have to love her.

In fact, that they don't is a sign that she's doing a bang up writing job after all.

And that's the part I want to learn how to do even better – write so that some people don't like it.

What about you? Do you write knowing that some people won't like it? What's your strategy?

Thanks eschipul for the photo of Penelope speaking. I was going to grab one from her site, but I'm afraid she'd get mad and we all know how scary it is to have the wrath of Penelope.