How do you like the idea of taking the best of your blog, including lots of the comments, and converting it to book form? Mary Beard has led the way on this one:Mary Beard
. . . . The book reprints some selected posts, as well as including quite a few comments (and I think that debate actually makes the book). It also has an essay, by yours truly, on the nature of blogging -- and why I am a convert to the genre, despite many initial misgivings about dumbing down etc etc. . . .Sounds like an interesting experiment. Is this an example of the blog coming of age? Initially the idea seemed strange to me, but then one of the most enjoyable (to me) genres of book is the diary, something that initially belongs to a different forum than the published book, so perhaps it is not so daft.
So which biblioblogger would you like to see following in Mary Beard's footsteps? Or would this not work in our area? Are we all a bit too dull?
Hands down, it would be Jim West or maybe James McGrath
ReplyDeletePopular computer software blogger Joel Spolsky (http://bit.ly/1JpSpx) has also created at least two books out of posts from his popular blog.
ReplyDeleteIt's not clear to me whether any of the biblioblogs would transform quite so easily into a book. However, I could definitely see an edited compilation working really well in book form. Perhaps it could even be an annual thing...The Best of the Biblioblogs 2009!
I think it is a good idea. I do want to read sometimes the popular posts in a book form.
ReplyDeleteI would think that having each chapter by collecting posts of the same theme may be nice.
I think it's a good idea - I think there are a number of different ways of turning a blog into a book, depending on the type of blog. Blogs with informal article-like material can be transformed into a collection in a similar way to a newspaper column, whereas more diary-like blogs with shorter entries could be published in this format, with the comments, demonstrating the development of ideas over time.
ReplyDelete