Title: Essential Blogging
Author: Cory Doctorow, Rael Dornfest, J. Scott Johnson, Shelley Powers, Benjamin Trott and Mena G. Trott
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 244
Rating: 5/10
Cory Doctorow and others – Essential Blogging
I should preface this review by pointing out that this book was published back in 2002, back before social networking and before blogging went mainstream. In fact, the book was written and released before Google bought Blogspot and before WordPress was even launched, both of which happened in 2003.
Sure, the authors are all active in the blogosphere in some way or another, and they explain things with relative simplicity, considering you have to mess around with cgi scripts and command lines. It’s just that it’s no longer relevant, and unfortunately this is an example of a book that hasn’t aged. I still have big respect for the writers, particularly Cory Doctorow.
Saying that, there are a lot of typos, and that’s part of the reason for its low score. I’d be more inclined to forgive it if it was error-free, but the ‘Blogging Voices‘ chapter at the end had clearly been copied and pasted from e-mails with little-to-no copy editing. “I have met people because of my weblog, even I got my present job because of it,” for example. Or “You can find related informationat the fog density you feel comfortable , or ask the author a question.”
Still, worth a read if you’re interested in the history of blogging. But not, if not.
Cory Doctorow
