Thanks to Mike R. for forwarding me this link from Dave Taylor's blog. I just browsed it, but sounds like this would be a good person to share thoughts with...
Link: "Would you buy a book on blogging?" from The Intuitive Life Weblog.
"...Here are my two cents on this subject: books about blogging are going to be boring, just another subset of books about writing (the vast majority of which seem to miss what I view as the essence of learning how to write, which is to write. Peter Elbow captures this in his great book Writing Without Teachers).
To me, though, blogging is just a tool..."
Boring to bloggers, perhaps, but there are still a lot of people out there who actually like to read books AND use computers. I know, I know. It blows my mind, too. I always liked Harold Ramis' line in Ghostbusters, "Print is dead." I'd prefer to read everything of a screen, be it on a laptop, desktop, TV, Palm, phone, whatever, but people still insist on cutting down trees, so we have books. Anyway, point being, yes, I agree that you really learn about blogging, and about yourself as a blogger by actually blogging, but some people just need a head start or a few tips. Dave also writes "maybe I'd buy a book if the author had a unique perspective on what to do with blogs, but it sure doesn't seem like a very big market." Well, the "what to do" part is where the market lies, and in fact, it is very large. When you come up with unique applications of blogs, you tap into the 64% of internet users who have never heard of them by identifying blogs with something they're already doing, like, career development, for example. Blogs are, just as Dave puts it, a tool, and a there are lots of books on how to use tools, from socket wrenches to C++. Sure, the real tool masters use by doing, but sometimes, beginners need a book to get them started, or at least feel comfortable with getting started. Speaking of which, my Success Blogging site, is nearly complete and I will probably replicate this post on there for discussion.