So I just received my copy of the Bookaholics’ Guide to Book Blogs, and naturally looked for myself. There I was – BookFox, in the index – except with the wrong http address. It’s www.thejohnfox.com, not www.bookfox.com. Thanks for fact checking that one. But I shouldn’t worry about it, I told myself, I mean people will just Google me after www.bookfox.com leads to a labyrinthine page of Chinese symbols.
Right. Then I looked up the BookFox section in the body of the book, pages 36 and 37. Okay, good, I’m described as sassy sounding and cunning and deftly deploying light hearted sarcasm, great, great – and then cheap pharmacy usa they say young woman. ?!?!? Young woman?! I’m a man, baby! (think Austin Powers). And who says I’m young? (Okay, relatively speaking, but how would they know?) You would have thought the picture (I do look masculine, last I checked) or the posts about getting married to a woman (although I suppose in some states there could be ambiguity) or the web address (JOHNfox.com, not JUANITAfox.com, or some other feminine derivative) would have tipped them off.
Okay, so then they quote from me. Good quote – I’m funny, I’m insightful, blah, blah, that is, at least on the first block quote. The second block quote – no idea who wrote that. But it certainly wasn’t me. I check – oh, the first half is a quote from Gwyn Topham, writing for the Guardian, and then the last paragraph belongs to Condalmo. Wow – they not only misattributed one quote to me, but two! How impressive!
What’s the upshot? Someone has to take another crack at this and do it right. For one, it has to be electronic, because this book can only be written with hyperlinks. For two, the authors have to actually know something about the blogosphere. When I first read Ed Champion’s evaluation of the book, I actually thought: maybe he’s being too harsh, maybe I should take a look myself. Well, I’ve taken a look. And Ed’s absolutely right. The book’s an ugly attempt to survey an emerging medium. If I weren’t such a sassy, cunning, light-hearted sarcastic woman, I’d have even harsher words.
One thought on “The Bookaholics’ Guide to Book Blogs”
Hey – at least you made it in!