Thursday, October 08, 2009
Blurbs from bloggers
Rob Riemen’s Nobility of Spirit: A Forgotten Ideal (which I haven't read and know nothing about), like many books, has blurbs and reviews on the covers. The only blurb on the front cover, however, is by Mark Sarvas, who maintains the blog The Elegant Variation, where I found this entry. Brian Sholis notes on his own blog the format of the citation is interesting:
::text of comment::
- Mark Sarvas, The Elegant Variation
Sholis writes that this is the first time he's seen a blog quoted on the front of a book. He then questions the format used for referencing a blog. "The Elegant Variation" is printed in italics, just like a magazine or book or other publication. He seems to be asking if a blog really deserves that kind of respect or recognition.
I wondered instead why the blog is referenced by its title and not its URL.
I also wonder how rare it really is to quote a blog on the cover of a book. I assume blurbs rely on an appeal to authority in trying to convince people to buy or read the book, so a quote from a famous blogger or blog would certainly be appropriate. Without getting into whether certain bloggers are famous for their blogs, for writings for online magazines, or for offline work they publish online, I looked at the covers of a few books I had in my library.
Just a few thoughts.
::text of comment::
- Mark Sarvas, The Elegant Variation
Sholis writes that this is the first time he's seen a blog quoted on the front of a book. He then questions the format used for referencing a blog. "The Elegant Variation" is printed in italics, just like a magazine or book or other publication. He seems to be asking if a blog really deserves that kind of respect or recognition.
I wondered instead why the blog is referenced by its title and not its URL.
I also wonder how rare it really is to quote a blog on the cover of a book. I assume blurbs rely on an appeal to authority in trying to convince people to buy or read the book, so a quote from a famous blogger or blog would certainly be appropriate. Without getting into whether certain bloggers are famous for their blogs, for writings for online magazines, or for offline work they publish online, I looked at the covers of a few books I had in my library.
- Rattled, by Christine Coppa (2009). Blurb from the cofounder of Nerve.com.
- Silent America, by Bill Whittle (2004). Only blurbs taken from comments on the author's blog, where these essays first appeared, cited as "Posted by XXX, date" with the blog's URL in the author bio.
- The Cult of the Amateur, by Andrew Keen (2007). Blurbs from founders and VPs of sites like Wikipedia, Citizendium, HealthCentral Network (healthcentral.com), CNET, Personal Democracy Forum, and ZDNet. Only HealthCentral has a URL. Blog names are not italicized.
- World War Z, by Max Brooks (2006). Blurb by the Onion's A.V. Club, which may or may not be considered a blog. Site is italicized.
- Hackers and Painters, by Paul Graham (2004). Blurbs from two co-creators of Slashdot.org. URL is in the same font as authors' names, but book titles are in a different font.
- Blog!, by David Kline, Dan Burstein, Arne J. De Keijzer, and Paul Berger (2005). Blurbs on the back by famous bloggers, described as "Celebrity blogger" or "Army blogger" followed by a name but no URL.
Just a few thoughts.
Comments:
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now. Keep it up!
And according to this article, I totally agree with your opinion, but only this time! :)
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And according to this article, I totally agree with your opinion, but only this time! :)
# posted by 
: 7:34 AM, February 20, 2010
: 7:34 AM, February 20, 2010