From Blog to Book

When I was younger I kept a journal.  I have about four of them that chronicle my middle school years.  In high school and college I had WAY too much actual written school work to complete, and didn't take the time to write for pleasure.  However, about 3 years ago, when I decided to make the move up to British Columbia for grad school, I discovered the blogging world, and finally found a reason to write again, starting a blog about my experiences as an American girl in Canada.  And then I got engaged and started a second blog, and then I got married and started a third! lol

Blogging, for me, has been both a way to chronicle my life (much like my journal was in middle school), as well as a way to collect ideas and gather feedback.  Unfortunately, I've never loved the fact that I don't have some tangible once I blog something.  It just goes off into cyberspace... who knows what will happen to it, how long it will be able to stick around out there, or if something can magically happen to erase it (I'm not  overly trusting of today's technology).

I've heard about people turning their blogs into books, but the one time that I looked into it, it was REALLY expensive.  Then, a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across this post from a fellow post-wedding blogger who used SharedBooks to turn her wedding blog into a keepsake, for much less that I had seen other companies do it for.  So, I uploaded both my wedding blog and my Canada blog, and got a quote... both blogs into books for a little over $60 (which included shipping!).  I was so happy!  I decided to black and white pages in order to save money, and hit the "order" button.

I was told that I'd get the books by Sept. 7th... however, they came on Friday!  And I couldn't be happier with how they turned out.  I think I'm planning to do one of these every year so that I will have something tangible to hold on to.  I'm sure my kids will, one day, appreciated the ability to go back and read about their parent's lives... or just give me a laugh in a few years when I read over what my 20's were like (much like a do from time to time with my middle school writings).