TresSugar

Puzzling Trend: Blogs to Books

TresSugar — Thu, 06 May 2010 06:00:00 PDT

The Awkward Family Photos blog got a book deal back in August, which seems like forever ago in Internet-meme time. This week, the Awkward Family Photos coffee-table book is finally out, along with Sh*t My Dad Says, inspired by the brilliant Twitter feed of the same name.

I'm happy to see my favorite blogs and microblogs succeed, but I must admit, the blog-to-book concept puzzles me somewhat. The beauty of sites like Awkward Family Photos and Stuff White People Like is that they are perfectly suited to the blog medium, with its constantly updated, collaborative nature.

Sure, some blog concepts can be reimagined for print, but taking a vibrant blog and essentially reproducing it in static book form seems counterintuitive. My friend has a copy of the Stuff White People Like book, which was fun to read once, but every time I pick it up, it's the same - no updates! - while the blog keeps going.

That said, if anyone wants to give us a book deal, I'm sure we can work something out.

Meet This Year's James Beard Media Award Winners

YumSugar — Mon, 03 May 2010 10:45:12 PDT

The James Beard Foundation Awards - the culinary world's Oscars equivalent - kicked off last night with its media portion. Among the winners? In books, Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home nabbed general cooking book honors (the award will look good next to last week's IACP nod). Travel Channel's Andrew Zimmern won in the television category for Best TV Food Personality, beating out Alton Brown and Rick Bayless. CHOW took best food website honors, and Serious Eats won the top food blog category.

See the full list of winners, after the break.

How Tech Connected Is Your Child?

LilSugar — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 06:00:00 PDT

Children grow up these days with technology in hand. From the television remote to durable digital cameras made especially for them, many youngsters have a good grasp on the latest and greatest items companies have to offer before their parents! There are numerous ways families stay super connected, but we're curious how your kiddo ranks?

Yummy Links: From Pumpkin Seeds to Carbonara

partysugar — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:15:35 PDT

Ten ways to spice up pumpkin seeds.- Chow
Kale and bacon make one delicious combination. - The Epi Log
Josh Ozersky questions the patriotism of the humble hamburger. - Vanity Fair
Fabio Viviani's latest gig? Pizza delivery man. - Grub Street NY
Cook's Illustrated's editor, Christopher Kimball, is ready to wage war on the blogosphere. - Eat Me Daily
The Bocuse d'Or USA is now searching for its next national team. - Eater
Jazz up classic pasta carbonara with peas and ricotta. - Serious Eats

Website du Jour: When Love Breaks Down

TresSugar — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:00:00 PDT

"Before there were blogs, there were zines," writes the blogger behind When Love Breaks Down, a bitter but hilarious breakup blog with a twist. The breakup happened more than 10 years ago, and the blog is based on pages ripped from a zine the writer published back in 1998.

Each post features a page from the zine in all its cringe-inducing glory, complete with modern-day commentary, like this annotation on the entry above:

I really thought once you had a kid, you would grow up. Or at least have a conversation about leaving your family, at least a conversation, before you just up and do it. Before you just cheat and leave. I mean, that’s Lifetime movie plot, not real life.

Zines were totally the blogs of the 1990s; everyone was doing it! To learn more about the back story, keep reading.

Book Bag: Awkward Family Photos Blog Gets a Deal

TresSugar — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:00:15 PDT

One of my favorite web finds of the past few months, Awkward Family Photos, is moving from photo blog to photo album. In a fairly predictable development, the bloggers behind this brilliantly funny site just scored a book deal with Three Rivers press. So now you can have not only your awkward family photos adorning your coffee table, but other people's, too!

Bloggers Mike Bender and Doug Chernack have been hearing from agents every since the blog debuted in May; the book is slated for release in May 2010. If you need something to read between now and then, I've got you covered.

I'm glad to see quality blogs getting book deals, but I'm also skeptical. A concept like Awkward Family Photos is so perfect for the web - why confine it to the more static book format? Then again, it worked for Post Secret and Stuff White People Like. What do you think?

Source

Blogging For Nothing: Matthews Rejects Blogs as Sources

CitizenSugar — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:30:20 PST

Chris Matthews has limits! When he's not saying things like MSNBC "is the network of the 21st century," he's upholding archaic journalism standards.

Last night on Hardball, he cut off a reporter from the NY Daily News when she introduced blogs as the source of rumors - and, yes, she clearly presented them as rumors - about Caroline Kennedy. He said, "Let's stick to journalism. I don't do that here. If it's just blogging, let's drop it."

Bringing us to the - when did blogs become big, 2002? - 7-year-old question: Do blogs have any place in news? I thought it was answered with a "yes if used properly" at least five years ago. Apparently not!

Should Chris Matthews get with the times, or should more journalists follow his (albeit one-time) return to old-school journalism?

Does Turning a Blog Into a Book Make Sense?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:30:09 PDT

The fella behind the ubiquitous blog Stuff White People Like has published a book based on the blog. I've been interested in how this might turn out and stumbled across this review of the book in Variety:

Anyone who reads Stuff White People Like without perusing the blog it is based upon first, might well wonder what all the fuss is about. Stripped of the blog's media riffs, hyperlinks and swiped photos - its very blogginess - the tome must rely on the wit and insight of its "research findings," and there's not much of that.

This review taps into something I've been suspecting: that a blog format isn't necessarily all that translatable to books. The Fug Girls have a book out and I have to say, while I love their blog, I'm not sure I'd like it in book form.

What do you think? Are you hesitant to buy a blog in book form? Or do you think the mediums complement each other well?

Iran Considers Death Penalty for Bloggers, Russia Jails One

CitizenSugar — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:00:42 PDT

The beauty of the Internet is getting to say exactly what you want in a public forum, right?(Well that and stalking ex-boyfriends and shopping at work, but I digress.) The ability to speak one's mind in bytes and blips has landed one blogger with a jail sentence for extremism. A Russian man who called the local police “scum” and calling for the clean-up of the force he blogged that the police should be burned in the town square twice a day. For this posting, was convicted of “inciting hatred or enmity” and given a one-year suspended sentence.

Free speech activists said the ruling is creating a dangerous precedent: “This was an absolutely unjustified verdict ... This verdict means it will be impossible to make rude comments about anybody.” News of the sentence permeated Russian blogs yesterday leading some to say, "I don't know now if I should be writing here or not." For his part, new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said he prizes free speech and that Russia should use a light touch when policing the Internet. That's not the case in Iran. To see what's happening there,

In Iran, they have a somewhat different interpretation to "light touch" - the death penalty. Their parliament is debating a bill that would call for death for anyone “...establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption. . .” Though the government itself will decide what would constitute “promoting corruption." Among other death sentence crimes in Iran are apostasy (leaving a religion, in this case Islam), prostitution, rape and armed robbery.

No word on the world's reaction to the ultimate crime against blogging - starting one and then never posting again.

Is cyberspace the next battleground for free speech? Can speech on the Internet be protected as a vital outlet for those in countries with state-controlled media or oppressive governments?

Source

Army Deletes Soldier's Blog: In Line or Censorship Online?

CitizenSugar — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:15:52 PDT

Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal (subtitled: Embrace the Suck) is embracing no more. The blog, kept by a soldier who wrote under the name LT G in Iraq, known as one of the most honest and compelling dispatches of blogging from the warfront, has been shut down by those above his pay grade.

Kaboom's LT G wrote often about his periodic wide-open disregard for military decorum (sometimes openly questioning superiors online) and just as often mused on the daily personal exploits of time in country - like the time he almost went out into the warzone sans pants.

But after a passionate posting inspired by being asked to become the company XO, his superiors had decided he'd gone too far. The last posting reads, "I have been ordered to stop posting on Kaboom, effective immediately. . . it was too much unfiltered truth. I’m a soldier first, and orders are orders. So it is."

In 2007 the Army passed new rules governing what soldiers could and could not say online, being required to "consult with their immediate supervisor . . . prior to publishing or posting information in a public forum." The rules are framed as a way to protect operational security, though in the instance of Kaboom, all events were described after the fact, and all identifying details changed. Supporters of the blog think the removal of Kaboom exposes a blackhole of censorship in the blogosphere. Did the Army go to far, or were they right to remove Kaboom?

Source