Sunday Snippets : 7 blogs that have become books
Ok, I was looking for this great blog I saw months ago about a couple of bicyclists for my TT Thursday post but couldn’t find it (obviously because there is no Thursday post although I am losing weight again, yippee!! )
However, I found some great blogs that had become books so I thought I’d share them with you. Plus this way if I go looking for the book in a few months from now, I’ll be able to find it. My blog is becoming my memory reservoir. (Affiliate disclosure at bottom of post)
Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen |
One of my favorite blogs was made into Julie and Julia. I haven’t actually read the book and the blog was taken offline. However, the Wayback Machine have saved some of the Julie/Julia Project blog posts from August to November 2002 if you’d like to read a few. It’s a funny witty blog about a young woman learning to cook from Julia’s classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking |
PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives |
PostSecret published PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives. This blog is extraordinary. People send in their secrets on a postcard. It is sweet, sad, tragic and everything. |
The Happiness Project, Tenth Anniversary Edition: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun |
Another blog that started as a one-year project is the The Happiness Project. Gretchen Rubin’s pursuit of happiness created a two-year bestseller and then other books have followed. It’s even spawned Happiness Projects groups where people discuss their own happiness projects. Her blog continues to this day. She has articles about happiness and also interviews other people on the topic. Lately she’s added podcasts to the mix. |
Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage |
Orangette started her food blog as a grad student in France with “It’s awfully quiet in here. If you’re there, dear reader, welcome to the beginning. That’s right, Molly’s blogging!” on July 30, 2004. She promises to go through some cookbooks and finishes the post with “Are you in Seattle? How does chocolate sound to you? How about rustic-ish French tartes, cakes, clafoutis, and such? I am the woman for you. I bake, you eat. I eat too, of course, but there’s only so much one girl can do on her lonesome. Sign-ups are now open. And there it is! We’re off!” That start eventually evolved into two books: A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table |
Humans of New York : Stories |
Photographer Brandon Stanton started a photography blog and facebook page in the summer of 2010 taking photographs of people in New York City, Humans of New York. One of my favorite books is the 1974 Stud Terkel’s Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do |
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things |
The Bloggess, Jenny Lawson, has an irreverent sense of humor about her troubles in her blog which has morphed into two books. Her first book, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir |
Herding Cats: A Sarah’s Scribbles Collection |
With a book title like Herding Cats |
1000 Journals Project |
This one I’m cheating. Okay call it a bonus. The 1000 Journal project isn’t really a blog although it does have a webpage . I had to include it because it’s an awesome book. I saw it recently at my friend’s house and I loved looking through it. It’s also a great book to leave in your bathroom (for those of you who hate just sitting like me) because you can open it randomly to any page. Brian Singer took 1000 journals and left them everywhere telling people to write, draw or whatever inside them. The books traveled randomly around the world , many disappeared but some eventually made their way back home filled with wonderfully creative pages by complete strangers. Singer gathered the pages into a book. Your library should have it. Check it out. So awesome. |
A few others worth noting (the title of Crazy Aunt Purl’s book title totally cracked me up):
Niamh’s Eat like a Girl published Comfort and Spice.
Pioneer Woman published The Pioneer Woman : The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels–a Love Story as well as spawning a whole slew of cookbooks along with her cooking show.
Steady Mom published Introverted Mom: Your Guide to More Calm, Less Guilt, and Quiet Joy
Crazy Aunt Purl published Crazy Aunt Purl’s Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit After He Split
And that’s it for today. Do you know of other cool blogs that have become books or even movies?
Amazon disclosure: “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” Being an affiiate has no effect on your price. You pay the same price you would normally. The art for the featured image is Watercolor Dusty Plants by Spasilbenko Art. The font is Perfetto by Davide Bassu. Both are on Creative Market. I am an affiliate there too. I love CreativeMarket because they have 6 freebies on Mondays that usually includes 2 fonts, some artwork or templates and other things that can be helpful on a blog. This weeks freebies are below:
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8 Replies to “Sunday Snippets : 7 blogs that have become books”
A book similar to PostSecret is “What’s Your Story?” sprung from The Strangers Project by Brandon Doman. In fact, Frank Warren of PostSecret wrote the foreword. I find most of the stories heartbreaking.
I’ve read “Humans of New York” and I just bought “Furiously Happy” by Jenny Lawson. I read The Bloggess daily.
I have read most of these and enjoyed them. I plan to get the rest from the library, especially 1000 Journals.
I’ve read quite a few of these books and enjoyed them all. The one called Look sounds really interesting, so I’ll look for it. 🙂
Here’s one I liked…not really a blog I don’t think, but a journal of the author’s journey. His book, “All My Life For Sale”, by John D. Freyer, shows how he sold everything he owned on online auctions. It has lots of pictures, and humorous commentary.
That sounds like a cool one. Looks around the house. hmmm. Actually he might have good advice for me. I’ve got way too much stuff.
Oh wow, this is fab! It’s inspiring to see how bloggers have taken things to the next level. Furiously Happy is one that someone recommended to me so that’s on my to-read list. I hadn’t realised she was a blogger. Interesting stuff!
I hope you’re having a lovely weekend 🙂
xx
Glad you liked the list. I thought that one was a very cool title. Have a great weekend.
Those all look pretty interesting!