Rating: 
Summary: A good guide to some specific software
Review: "Blogging" (the practice of keeping a public on-line journal to record personal thoughts, observations and links), is hot news on the internet these days. Many of the best-known names in the business keep such journals, so it's not surprising that the book publishers want to cash in.Things in the world of blogging move fast. Minor celebrities rise and fall, new software is continually being released, new jargon is invented. It's hard for a paper book to keep up. There are some aspects of blogging which are gaining some permanancy. Unfortunately, this book only skims those topics, preferring to spend nearly 200 pages describing how to use particular (late 2002) versions of a few blogging tools. The most incisive and thought-provoking part of the book is the last ten pages - interesting quotes from a range of bloggers. It's the only bit which shows any of the excitement and "buzz" of blogging and gets you wanting to get involved. This is not a bad book. But it's not really the book described in its own advertsing. If you want a rough guide to comparing, installing and using a small selection of the well-known blog software offerings, this book is right for you. If you want a more thoughtful and detailed overview of what blogging is all about, why you should do it, what the terminology means, or how it works "under the hood", keep looking.
Rating:
Summary: A good guide to some specific software
Review: "Blogging" (the practice of keeping a public on-line journal to record personal thoughts, observations and links), is hot news on the internet these days. Many of the best-known names in the business keep such journals, so it's not surprising that the book publishers want to cash in. Things in the world of blogging move fast. Minor celebrities rise and fall, new software is continually being released, new jargon is invented. It's hard for a paper book to keep up. There are some aspects of blogging which are gaining some permanancy. Unfortunately, this book only skims those topics, preferring to spend nearly 200 pages describing how to use particular (late 2002) versions of a few blogging tools. The most incisive and thought-provoking part of the book is the last ten pages - interesting quotes from a range of bloggers. It's the only bit which shows any of the excitement and "buzz" of blogging and gets you wanting to get involved. This is not a bad book. But it's not really the book described in its own advertsing. If you want a rough guide to comparing, installing and using a small selection of the well-known blog software offerings, this book is right for you. If you want a more thoughtful and detailed overview of what blogging is all about, why you should do it, what the terminology means, or how it works "under the hood", keep looking.
Rating: 
Summary: The Usual Excellent O'Reilly Job
Review: Before I read this book, I had never heard the term "blogging" before. But as I read the book's first chapter, which gives a good overview of what it is, I realized I'd seen "web logs" on several different sites. So now I have some familiarity with blogging. The rest of the book is devoted to various software to be used in setting up and maintaining your web log. Among the products decribed in detail are Blogger (and Blogger Pro in a later chapter), Radio UserLand, and Bloxsom. Each of their features are explained in good detail, with lots of screen shots included. Not quite a tutorial, but still good explanations of what each product does. It's piqued my interest in setting up my own "blog."
Rating:
Summary: Great for anyone who wants to get into blogging
Review: Bringing together bloggers from across the Web, this book has everything you need to get started blogging. It starts out with a wonderful chapter explaining what a blog is and how to start your own, by blogger and science-fiction writer Cory Doctorow. Once you've got that down, it has several chapters on how to get started with each of the most popular blogging tools (Blogger, Radio, and Movable Type) as well as chapters on more advanced usage of them. It also has a chapter on Rael Dornfest's Blosxom, a simple blogging tool designed for advanced unix user. The authors provide a wealth of useful information by experienced people (in the case of Blosxom and Movable Type, the chapter authors are the same as the people who wrote the software). The book closes with a series of useful tips collected from lots of bloggers. While the copy I got had a some small errors, as is bound to happen in the quickly-moving blogging world, the core of the book will likely continue to be useful for a while to come. I'd recommend the book for newbies who want to start a blog, but don't know much about them. The detailed explanations and copious screen shots make it easy to get started, but the advanced details and the blosxom coverage are a little thin, and similar material can be easily found on the Web. (Disclosure: O'Reilly provided me with a free review copy of this and other books.)
Rating:
Summary: Blogging introduction and manual
Review: Essential Blogging appeals to the its audience as: - an introduction to the tools of blogging
- a users manual to some of the more prolific blogging tools
- advice for those who might value the opinions of more well-known bloggers Having been a dabbler in blogging for the past year, I find the introduction to blogging of little use. For me, the most useful contents are the chapters on Userland Radio, my blog tool of choice. The advanced chapter (ch. 6) is of specific value, as it details the mechanics of how the tool works 'under the hood', and how it can be customized. Although I only skimmed the chapters on Blogger and Moveable Type, those sections seem just as informative about their perspective tools, and should prove equally valuable to their users as the Userland chapters are to me. The discussion of desktop blogging tools (ch. 2) is of equal value. It shows how one might use a more feature-rich editor in conjunction with the robust, content-management back-end of Userland. There is also a brief but informative discussion of the API's that make integration between blogging tools practical. Of questionable value is the final chapter (ch. 10), which contains quotes from various bloggers opining the virtues of blogging and their own, personal experiences. Some of these comments are insightful. Some are clearly the pontifications of those who are legends in their own minds. Deciding which are which is left as an exercise to the reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Typical book to borrow from your local library
Review: Essential Blogging focuses on a few blogging tools (Blogger, Radio Userland, Movable Type and Blosxom). If you are a "blogger" already, only the parts that refer to your favorite blogging tool are interesting. Most of the subjects will be familiar. You will have learned it by yourself after using your specific blogging tool for a few days...
I really learned some new things (I use Blogger Pro) - but I don't think it's worth buying the book. Reading it from your local library? Absolutely worth it!
For new bloggers, who want to get an overview of the tools, the first chapters are really nice. But the chapters describing the tools are too specific to be of any help.
One other thing: the continuous development of additions to the blogging tools makes all blogging oriented books "obsolete" when they hit the shelves.
Rating:
Summary: Typical book to borrow from your local library
Review: Essential Blogging focuses on a few blogging tools (Blogger, Radio Userland, Movable Type and Blosxom). If you are a "blogger" already, only the parts that refer to your favorite blogging tool are interesting. Most of the subjects will be familiar. You will have learned it by yourself after using your specific blogging tool for a few days...
I really learned some new things (I use Blogger Pro) - but I don't think it's worth buying the book. Reading it from your local library? Absolutely worth it!
For new bloggers, who want to get an overview of the tools, the first chapters are really nice. But the chapters describing the tools are too specific to be of any help.
One other thing: the continuous development of additions to the blogging tools makes all blogging oriented books "obsolete" when they hit the shelves.
Rating: 
Summary: Not enough code for me
Review: I bought this book hoping for a little more code (html or java) to help me design my own weblog, but it left me hanging. It gives a great description of what a weblog is and how to get it up and running, but lacks in design elements.
Rating:
Summary: Great introduction to blogging for the true novice
Review: I picked up this book after deciding that I was going to turn my website into a blog. I had no backround in blogging and this book is geared towards the novice. Blogging is explained and then they go in to detail on using either Radio Userland, Blogger, or Movable Type to get your blog up on the web. The order of the chapters is kinda crazy to me but you can read them in any order you like I suppose. By the time I was done with the book (2 evenings) I was up and running under Radio Userland blogging away like an old pro. I borrowed this book from the library and only had it two days and wouldn't need to look at it again as all the information included is available on the web as well.
Rating:
Summary: Great introduction to blogging for the true novice
Review: I picked up this book after deciding that I was going to turn my website into a blog. I had no backround in blogging and this book is geared towards the novice. Blogging is explained and then they go in to detail on using either Radio Userland, Blogger, or Movable Type to get your blog up on the web. The order of the chapters is kinda crazy to me but you can read them in any order you like I suppose. By the time I was done with the book (2 evenings) I was up and running under Radio Userland blogging away like an old pro. I borrowed this book from the library and only had it two days and wouldn't need to look at it again as all the information included is available on the web as well.
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