I’ve been reading blogs for a good few years now, and writing one as well. I’ve read a few books-by-bloggers in that time as well: the 2005:Blogged collective, the Random Acts of Reality one and the Coppers Blog one being good examples. But they’re good examples of blog-books: books written like a blog, often with no central theme or story to tell beyond the short (hundred word) tale on the page you’re looking at. For all the talk of hard work going into some of them, I couldn’t really see it. It looked like someone had just picked their best hundred posts, submitted them to a publisher and waited for the money to roll in.
Of course, this is probably a necessary step in the evolution of books-by-bloggers. Bloggers stick with what they know, and transfer it into a new media without change. Which never really works.
Happily, the next step seems to be well under way. As evidenced by Rob the Bouncer book.
Unlike most I’ve read, this book-by-blogger has a single story to tell. The events being told may be recognisable to a regular reader, but they’re told slightly differently, and other things are told for the first time. There is a natural flow to the book, a beginning, a middle and an end. And it’s a good story, and well written to boot.
In short, it not only works as a book-by-blogger, it could easily stand alone as a novel. Which is a giant leap from the other examples I’ve read.
Let there be more like it, please. We know that there are many bloggers out there who can write well in blog format; let’s see some more make real writing as well. Rob – a meathead in a suit – has shown that it can be done, and done well. Here’s hoping that others follow suit.
This includes the Waiter; going by his writing style, I’d expect him to produce something as good. Bring it on.
If you can read most of his exploits on his blog, why read the book?
Because the book is different to the blog; it’s like reading a book and then watching the film.
At least, in this case it was. A few others I’ve sampled have been nothing more than a ‘most popular post’ compilations.
That is impressive. I’ve read some blogs that are created after an author has published a book and they are very disappointing blogs. Some are that bad they’d discourage me from reading their books.With some they just insert chapters from the books into the blog. To write a good book and regularly post equally good blog posts is impressive and hard-ish work.