Blogs-to-books keep written word alive

When I first heard Christian Lander speak about his blog-to-book “Stuff White People Like” on campus last fall, I was shocked by how quickly it all happened ““ and so, it seemed, was he. A few months after writing his first blog post, with the humble objective of entertaining his friends, Lander was quitting his job and had secured a book deal.

These days ““ and I say “these days” as if they are infinitely far from when Lander began blogging ““ many people are writing blogs with the sole purpose of getting a book deal. And who can blame them? From “Fail Nation” to “F U Penguin” to “Twitter Wit,” not to mention the numerous “mommy bloggers,” it’s becoming the new get-rich-quick scheme, more effective than a sex tape. From the perspective of a reader, the speed and success of the blog-to-book (aka “blook”) phenomenon is quite a perplexing movement.

When a new novel comes out, we often hear about the years-long endeavor of writing a book, the research, the arduous editing process, and it all seems so painfully slow that it isn’t surprising when writers are tortured, miserable people. (See the Feb. 25 column on “Genius and Heroin.”)

Then there’s those textbook-sized manuals with daunting titles like “Getting a Book Deal” and “Finding a Publisher” that seem ready to dash any aspiring writer’s hopes. So who are these recreational bloggers who have the audacity to get a book on the shelves at Barnes and Noble in the time it took F. Scott Fitzgerald to write a chapter? Do their books even count as literature? Are they good for the art form?

It wouldn’t be fair to lump them all together; sometimes blogs can be terribly self-centered and a bit of an overshare (content better suited for a private journal), but then you can also find some that are clever, insightful and just plain helpful. If nothing else, the ones that get published have gotten people talking about books and buying books. So for an industry that has long been suffering, blogs like “Stuff White People Like” and “F U Penguin” incredulously enter the ranks of “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” as a positive movement for literacy.

Because the blogs-to-books are published so fast and are already, by design, well-known by the time of their release, they enter the social consciousness in a very visible and reflexive way. Take Lander’s blog ““ it’s a reflection of culture already, bounced back at us, when we use “Stuff White People Like” as a coffee table book or subject of discussion and further reassess our purchases based on whether or not white people approve of them. I, for one, am squirmy now when pulling out my Moleskine notebook, which used to make me feel so literary and unique.

It may seem that I’ve lost sight of the purpose of my column ““ are these blogs deserving of the prestigious title of “The Written Word?” Certainly telling off cuddly animals, as they do in “F U Penguin” couldn’t be.

But I mention blogs and blogs-to-books in this column because it’s so easy to see their influence ““ they affect the way we talk, the way we think and the way we read. Fiction and non-fiction do this, too, just in a less visible way. Blogs-to-books are nothing if not evidence of the power of the written word, and this makes me hopeful for the future of literature.

It used to be said (I think I even said) that reading was a dying leisure activity, but how can that be when the ultimate sign of success for a blogger is to turn their blog into a book?

It almost sounds like a move backward, from the Internet to the printing press, but it’s really just literature evolving, adapting, modernizing, and enduring a little longer.

“The Written Word” runs every other Thursday. E-mail Bastien at [email protected].