Thursday, August 16, 2007

Bookaholics' Guide to Book Blogs

Dear Lit-bloggers, there is a new book out about you. Yes, YOU.

Bookaholics' Guide to Book Blogs, to be released later in September, calls the book blogs "The New Literary Force." Not much news on it, but from Amazon.com:

With the current craze for blogs, the phenomenon of book blogging is of interest from an objective standpoint as well as to those keen to read book reviews. How much influence do these bloggers have? Is there any kind of censorship or quality control? Are booksellers aware of them? Does Oprah Winfrey take note?

Many people develop a real fondness for book bloggers who write reviews for love and not money. Taking in small, quirky Web sites like Book Slut, dovegreyreader, Bluestalking Reader, and MoorishGirl as well as large, well-known sites like salon.com, this book will show readers how to investigate literature from distant lands, to find the sites of authors who are yet to be discovered by the mainstream, and to find the pages of book industry pundits who have opened their daily lives to a wider world. Welcome to the honest world of book blogs.

Well, at least it appears to actually know some of the more popular blogs around. I'll probably take a look inside when it comes out - just to see what it says and whether there's any new blogs they want to recommend. Otherwise, it's not on my reading list.

9 comments:

Mailyn said...

Why am I not surprised? There is a book for everything nowadays. I', waiting for the Complete Idiot's guide to making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something. Those get more and more ridiculous!

Baklava healthy. Hmm. Good point about the protein. Mehehe.

Heather said...

wow! have we all finally made the big time? hehe

Gentle Reader said...

that's one I wouldn't have predicted, though I should have. I agree with Mailyn, there's a book for everything nowadays!

Imani said...

Haha! I'm saving my pennies for the Idiot's guide to making a PB&J sandwich.

Couldn't the theoretical audience of this book just use Wikipedia?

Anonymous said...

That's an unexpected book. Seems kind of weird to have a book about book blogs. I assume it is meant for readers who don't spend time on the internet? I don't think I'll bother, but I am interested in what you think. So be sure to report back once it's at your store and you get the chance to look at it.

Anonymous said...

I was once writing book reviews and posting them on Amazon.com until I realize that some of the reviewers have cheated the system to boost their "reviewer ranking." Browsing through some of the reviews on that site it's not difficult to spot empty, plagiarized, and misguiding reviews. What got to my final straw with Amazon was when the editorial team censored a couple of my reviews on the subject of homosexuality that I decided to break away from them.

I find book blogging community so much more genuine, devoted, and book-loving and appreciative of the reviews.

darkorpheus said...

Mailyn Hear, hear. I was very amused when I saw the book. I wonder who came up with the book proposal for the book? And how much are they paid?

Heather Yes. Litbloggers are the new rock-stars of book reviews. :)

Gentle Reader It's unexpected because it's -unnecessary? I'm thinking it will languish more or less unread.

Imani I actually picked up Blogging for Dummies. Not very helpful.

If if someone is interested in book blogs - why not just go online and click the links - and read?

That's what I did. And look where I am now. ;p

Stefanie Sure. It'll flip it when I see it, then bitch about it here. But it's not going to be a big priority though.

Matt I agree that the book bloggers are nmore genuine - and there's a more personal engagement with the books too. There is also a sense of an actual person responding to literature.

But I'm curious about the crtieria for censorship on Amazon. (It's obvious that not all the reviews on Amazon are genuine or helpful.)

And reviewer ranking? How does that work?

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