When a Blog Becomes a Book

When a blog becomes a book some very good things can happen. Someone who doesn’t have the patience to sit before a computer and scroll through pages of blog posts can actually get the opportunity to cuddle on the sofa, cup of tea in hand, and read an edited, easy to hold, well-formatted version of the blogger’s online antics in the form of a book. I once read a quote, “A book is a convenient package.” This continues to ring true. I found that reading Jenny Lawson’s Let’s Pretend This Never Happened was a much more enjoyable experience than scrolling through her blog. Well, perhaps sitting poolside at a resort hotel colored my perception.

Lawson is certifiably wacky. Her antics are hilarious. Her book includes the most outlandish tales from her childhood, adolescence, and marriage that include everything from sharing her childhood home with baby raccoons to exhuming her deceased pet’s body before the scavenging birds did. As I sat poolside enjoying this book, my poor spouse sat with a towel over his head trying to read an iPad for his poolside relaxation. I was laughing out loud as I enjoyed reading about Lawson’s purchase of a giant metal chicken. My husband was struggling to read an iPad on a brilliantly sunny day.

For my vacation reading I had also grabbed another silly little book, just for fun. I was enticed by the snarky allure of Allie Hagen’s Suri’s Burn Book: Well-Dressed Commentary from Hollywood's Little Sweetheart, a good-natured parody on the alleged musings of Suri Cruise. Only after I read the entire book, did I realize that it was spin-off of Hagen’s blog of the same title. So, when I chose to read just for the crazy fun of it, I coincidentally picked up two books that had begun as blogs. I enjoyed both of them quite a bit.

I have come to realize that there are lots of talented writers posting blogs. With today’s easy access to self-publishing and the publishing industry’s interest in taking advantage of the audiences that these amateur authors have engaged, I know that we can expect to see more blogs morph into full-fledged books. And, since books really do make a convenient package…and are easily read by the side of a pool, you may want to check them out. Then, when convenience isn’t the issue, or when you are sitting at your computer on your work lunch break, you might want to pop over to visit some blogs. There are lots of talented writers out there, perhaps with books in their futures. You can decide whether you want to spot the up and comers or wait for their books to hit the library shelves.

Review by Pat