There’s quite a trend in books springing from blogs lately.
: I’m already enjoying Tom Evslin’s Hackoff, the online novel playing itself out on a blog. It uses the faux-reality of online to let us dig through the tale, the clues, the personalities, and the process. Unlike other fiction — just plain words on pages — this is inventive not only in the story but also in the form. Go enjoy. I am. (I’m meeting Tom for lunch today; I’ll make him promise not to tell me whodunit, no matter how much I beg.)
: I started reading my copy of John Battelle‘s The Search\ and particularly enjoyed the humble beginning, in which Battelle confesses that he blew up and blew up with the bubble and here he is writing about the next one, the Gooble. John was similarly transparent in the process of writing his book, revealing and talking through and listening about the facts and findings of his research. It makes us all feel more involved in the book that results.
: Also just got a copy of Julie and Julia, the book born of a blog about following Julia Child’s footsteps and recreating her work in her seminal work. Can’t wait to tuck in.
: And I got a galley of Blog! by Dan Burstein and David Kline. Among other things, it compiles interviews with a host of bloggers (me included), among them: Scoble, Shirky, Cox, Huffington, Denton, Wheaton, Curry, Ito, Trippi, Kos, Rosen, Simon, MacKinnon, Calacanis, Lee (the agent), Teachout, and more. If only it were a podcast!
And there are others out there. The point is obvious: Blogs are a new source of proven talent, ideas (and promotion) in words-on-pages publishing. Other media should view them similarly.
