Ultimate Blogs: Masterworks from the Wild Web (Vintage Original) |  | Author: Sarah Boxer
Publisher: Vintage
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Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 863064
Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 6.3 x 0.9 x 0.5
ISBN: 0307278069
Dewey Decimal Number: 006.7
EAN: 9780307278067
ASIN: 0307278069
Publication Date: February 12, 2008
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Product Description
âWhat are you working on?â
âAn anthology of blogs.â
âI didnât know you had a blog.â
âI donât. Itâs an anthology of other peopleâs blogs.â
âHow do you find good blogs?â
âI read. I surf. I look at blog contests. I follow links. I ask people about the blogs they like.â
âIs a good blog hard to find?â
âYes. Very.â
A Book of Blogs? WTF!!
Sarah Boxer, a former New York Times reporter and critic, travels through the blogosphere (more than 80 million blogs â and counting) and finds some masterpieces along the way. Among the bloggers in the anthology are:
two fashion critics mocking the inexplicable âfuglinessâ of celebrities
a Marine Corps lieutenant stationed in Fallujah in 2006
a 19-year old student in Singapore cheerfully pining for her ex
an illustratorâs tiny saga of a rodent and his ball of crap
Odysseusâs sidekick telling his side of the Iliad and Odyssey
Revealing and deceptive, grand and niggling, worldly and parochial, these blogs comprise a snapshot of life on the wild, wild Web.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Good info for those new to blogging April 12, 2008
armchairinterviews.com (Minnesota)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Reviewed by Sharron Stockhausen
While this book may appeal to those who don't have time to sift through cyberspace looking for intelligent or even cohesive commentary in blogs, it doesn't quite deliver on its promise to point out the ultimate in blogs. As a writer for the New York Times, Boxer gives a valiant effort in taming the Wild West mentality the permeates many blog writers, but such effort is better suited to the lifespan of a periodical than the lifespan of a book. My point is underscored by the fact that one of her ultimate blogs, "El Guapo in DC," posted its last entry on August 7, 2007, a full six months before this book's publish date.
Another problem with this book is it doesn't seem to know who its audience is. Boxer may have had a tough time figuring this out by virtue of blogging being so new that it still doesn't know who it appeals to. Boxer offers something for the uninitiated with her general statements, but she risks turning off blogging fans, many of whom already have their own ideas about which blogs qualify as ultimate.
Since this book comes in the print medium, hyperlinks don't work, nor do time-sensitive entries. That precludes Boxer from including blogs on politics and those that rely on links to video or other content. There are pages and pages of graphics, most of which are not very satisfying to see reproduced in black and white on photocopy paper weight stock. Given the unappealing cover design, it follows that the interior should be unappealing as well.
That leaves the writing to serve as the stand-out feature for this book, but Boxer cannot be blamed for the writing, as she is the editor, not the author. Few bloggers are known for their writing style. It's their ability to be publicly snarky, even reckless, while keeping their identity private, that provides them the opportunity to be either brilliant or sophomoric.
If you're looking for a one-stop place to get familiar with blogs, this book serves that purpose, but it doesn't offer much for those who've already discovered blogs.
Armchair Interviews agrees.
 Ultimate Blogs: a video review February 19, 2008
Kevin Hodgson (Massachusetts)
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2W6WBC4WGZACY
Some Ultimate Blogs February 19, 2008
Robert C. Ross (New Jersey)
With 15 million active blogs to choose from, Sarah Boxer has picked 27 genuinely interesting examples. She brings a generalist's curiosity to the task, and has clearly read thousands of blogs to come up with this set. She is an intelligent, interesting friend, handing you links to outstanding bloggers, and explaining why you might like them.
(I've noticed that reviewers are already adding examples -- WNYC listeners have already added several examples in their discussion of yesterday's show.)
Boxer asks an interesting question: is there such a thing as blogger art form. She points out that a "growing stack of books has pondered the effects of blogs and bloggers on culture (We've Got Blog: How Weblogs Are Changing Our Culture), on democracy (Blogwars: The New Political Battleground), on privacy (The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet] and We're All Journalists Now: The Transformation of the Press and Reshaping of the Law in the Internet Age), on professionalism (The Cult of the Amateur: How blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the rest of today's user-generated media are destroying our economy, our culture, and our values), on business (Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers), and on all of the above ("Blog!").
But what about the effect of blogs on language? "Are they a new literary genre? Do they have their own conceits, forms, and rules? Do they have an essence?"
Boxer makes a compelling argument that at least one style of blog writing does have essence. She excludes large numbers of types of blogs, the miniblogs that frequent Amazon Reviewers produce for example. One major reason: as a Reviewer I can link only to URLs in the Amazon system. Bloggers typically link to other stories, by way of commenting, informing or complicating their own writing.
Boxer's project seems almost infinite. Most blogs are updated regularly -- some multiple times a day. Boxer has pulled excerpts of just a few pages from each, sometimes spanning several years. Much, by necessity, is left out. Nonetheless, she has discovered some very interesting blogs, well worth exploring, and built an excellent case for her thesis:
"Blog writing is id writing--grandiose, dreamy, private, free-associative, infantile, sexy, petty, dirty. Whether bloggers tell the truth or really are who they claim to be is another matter, but WTF. They are what they write. And you can't fake that. ;-)"
Robert C. Ross 2008
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