Critique de CHOICE

Despite the "blogging" in the subtitle, this book has little to do with blogging. Rather, Lanson, a journalist and journalism professor (Emerson College), evokes "the spirit of the blogosphere" as shorthand for how the Internet has changed storytelling by "remov[ing] the sometimes stifling constraints of encrusted journalistic convention." (Those interested in a practical take on blogging will want Rebecca Blood's The Weblog Handbook, 2002; Aaron Barlow's Blogging America, 2008, serves well as an academic treatment.) The author positions the book as a guide to nonfiction storytelling for nonprofessional writers, and this is accurate so far as it goes. This is really an update on beat-reporting skills for general readers. Chapters focus on strategies for collecting material, doing basic research, and planning, writing, and revising the story itself, with plenty of examples throughout. But though Lanson's advice is reliable and sound, his prose lacks energy and enthusiasm, and this undercuts his stated aim to inspire aspiring writers. Perhaps this is because Lanson really seems to want to write a memoir about the paradox of being a writer for whom "writing has never come easily." In this light, the book's title comes into focus as a reminder about the importance of clarifying writerly motives. Summing Up: Optional. Undergraduates, technical students, general readers. D. R. Harrison Florida Gulf Coast University