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As long as it's easy to see what the author's books are and where to purchase them, then the website serves its primary purpose. Books are best shown on a widget on the side, or on a separate page with a tab or link that is very visible... authors should make it easy for first-time visitors to see this link to their books.
For author sites that I tend to visit though, I don't mind the personal and controversial stuff if they're topics I'm interested in, but it probably repels other readers. It's up to their author and what target audience they're trying to attract. Stuff that I think would detract from an author blog are:
-music
-awful text and background colour combinations
-flash
-hateful rants about trad publishing/trad published authors. I'm a big indie supporter, and I've been reading mostly indies these days. But if an author says "trad pub only has crap books and aren't open to any new ideas" I go *headdesk* and wonder how well-read this person is and whether they've read anything in the past 5 years. Is trad pub the best business model? That's up to debate and I'm happy to read well-argued points from all angles. But dismissing books based on business model? That's just crass.
-hateful rants about indie epublishing/indie authors. Same goes for trad authors calling all indies crap. Again, dismissing books based on business models is crass. There's bad books and good books on both sides of the fence, and that fence is very permeable. I don't care about business models, I care about quality books I can enjoy.
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