This is a super little book about blogging that establishes a niche of its own. Starting with the unlikely cover pic of an Eskimo with laptop, apparently blogging on a seat of furs in an expanse of endless ice and snow, the book logs into unusual textual terrain as well.

The first few chapters, 1 through 4, discuss the rise of blogging - what blogs are, how to find them on the blogosphere, how to subscribe to blog readers…there’s a swift grounding.

Chapters 5 through 8 cover the set up basics; there is actually (albeit barely) enough to get you off the ground from blog hosting to blog design.

Chapter 9 discusses blogorrhea, finding your voice, how to be interesting and honest online, editing your work, and building your audience.

The traffic chapter is concise - and far from comprehensive. Nothing here will teach you to get to the top of the search engine rankings. But the tips about sitemeters, IP addresses, page rank (and even Google bombing) are at least a start.

Pages 64-65 cover the basic elements of a post, from tips on titling, to time stamps, pull quotes, adding comments and permalinking. The next pages discuss why Times Roman and Georgia are the most common blogger serif fonts, and how Verdana and Courier new can be useful as sans serif choices. There is some neat stuff here I have not seen in other books of this ilk.

Especially enjoyable are the many chapters (about half of the actual book) about popular blogs in different genres. It’s neat to read the screen captures and mini-reviews of the best blogs in fields like politics and journalism, diaries and journaling, education and business.

The author’s personal blogroll is fascinating as well, including lists of neat blogs on art, cars, celebrities, design, food, gossip, pets, knitting, law, literature, sports and sex. These great lists are well worth the price of admission alone. :)

This is a really fun book. Recommended as a supplemental blogging guide, best used beside a more complete introductory blog text like Blogging for Dummies or the Everything Blogging Book.