The Blooker Prize

April 3, 2006 3:31 PM

The 1st Blooker Prize, awarded to books based on blogs, goes to the Julie/Julia Project.
posted by liam (18 comments total)

Wow, that's great. I've never seen that site before.
posted by mathowie at 3:34 PM on April 3, 2006

The "blooker prize"? gimme a break. You can't make blogs worthy of winning awards merely by giving out awards. Especially not with a lame name like "blooker". (before I realized that "blook" is an alleged word, I assumed they were trying to make us think it was somethink like the Booker Prize)
posted by jepler at 3:41 PM on April 3, 2006

I assumed they were trying to make us think it was something like the Booker Prize

Of course they are. But it's not working.
posted by languagehat at 3:50 PM on April 3, 2006

Unclench, people!
posted by mr_roboto at 3:52 PM on April 3, 2006

I read the book without knowing about the blog beforehand. I thought it was good.

Although it did inspire in me a certain amount of terror. What do you mean, she's thirty and hopeless and unhappy and working as a New York secretary and struggling to pay rent for a bad apartment? What do you mean, that's my certain fate in ten years?
posted by booksandlibretti at 4:14 PM on April 3, 2006

The winner of the fiction award, Cherie Preist's Four & Twenty Blackbirds, is also quite a good book. The Blookers may be poorly named, but the actual books which have won, at least, seem worth consideration.
posted by jscalzi at 4:44 PM on April 3, 2006

I loved TJ/JP as a book and it never occured to me to find out if the blog was still online.

Hurray for another timewaster to add to my long, long list!
posted by padraigin at 5:23 PM on April 3, 2006

Ahh new media awards, where you get nominated for just showing up.
posted by Space Coyote at 5:48 PM on April 3, 2006

FYI, one of the judges is every MeFite's favorite BoingBoinger (besides Xeni) — Cory Doctorow.
posted by pruner at 5:55 PM on April 3, 2006

I would bet money than within 10 (maybe 15 years) this or some other online prize will be more important (in terms of sales and influence) than the Booker. If I had money to make stupid bets with.
posted by MetaMonkey at 6:20 PM on April 3, 2006

I haven't read TJ/JP book yet, but I followed the blog avidly. Sure, maybe it's a BS prize... but it's still nice recognition for her.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 7:00 PM on April 3, 2006

am I missing something, or has the blog not been updated since Julia Child died on August 13, 2004?
posted by pruner at 7:16 PM on April 3, 2006

I went to college with Julie Powell.

That's all.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 7:20 PM on April 3, 2006

pruner - no, it hasn't. But the book is fantastic -- I laughed so hard I cried several times, and I've coerced a few others into reading it as well.
posted by Medieval Maven at 8:02 PM on April 3, 2006

"Frau Blooker!"

NEIGHHHH!!!
posted by malaprohibita at 8:04 PM on April 3, 2006

That book made me want to cry - and not in a good way.
posted by pinky at 8:05 PM on April 3, 2006

The "blooker prize"? gimme a break.

Coulda been worse - the Booger Prize?
posted by hangashore at 8:35 PM on April 3, 2006

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #751 in Books (See Top Sellers in Books)
Yesterday: #1,466 in Books

It's pretty ironic that she hasn't updated to say she won the prize. Where's the immediacy?

Anyway, this is probably good publicity for Lulu.com (which is a lblog-self-publishing thingy, if you didn't know). If you look at the variability in their weekly sales rankings it suggests very low unit sales -- where just one or two more or less could toss you wildly up or down (or on or off) the list.

Totally Boned, btw, is at #1,490,953 in Books ...

The fiction winner, though, Four and Twenty Blackbirds:
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #111,769 in Books (See Top Sellers in Books)
Yesterday: #368,306 in Books
posted by dhartung at 9:13 PM on April 3, 2006