Several times in the past few days I've been asked about the definition of blook. Ironically, it's almost always followed by, "Do you mean an ebook?"
I love words and I love language, particularly all the funny things that we do with it. So I really get a kick out of that phrase "Do you mean an ebook?" What makes me smile is that we have created a word for an online book - ebook. It's a way for us speak about an object that is readily understood. An ebook by virtue of the "e" is NOT a "book." We make that distinction in our speech.
Do we really need another word for ebook? I don't think so. Then what's up with blook?
The word blook takes the "l" from log and inserts it into "book." Or, if you prefer, takes the "bl" from blog and attaches it to the "ook" from book. I'm no linguist so I can't put it into fancy language but, loosely translated, a blook is a book based on a blog. NOT a book posted to a blog! We already decided that a book online is an ebook, remember? Somehow in the quirky way that we use words we have reserved the word book for a physical object.
Which is why Lulu used the dead tree form in its definition for the Blooker Prize competition. I've been using that definition as it's presented in the FAQ section of their website:
"A blook is a book with content that was developed in a significant way from material originally presented on a blog, webcomic or other website. This material includes the website's characters, themes, ideas or outline that ends up getting published as a printed book." [my emphasis]This morning on the Blooker Prize blog I found a variation of that definition. Maybe this will make it clearer:
A printed and bound book, based on a blog (cf. web log) or web site; a new stage in the life-cycle of content, if not a new category of content and a new dawn for the book itself. cf. The Lulu Blooker Prize (“The Blooker”), a literary prize founded in 2005 for blooks. [der. Eng. book, a bound collection of sheets of paper; blog (abbrev. web log, an internet journal, diary or personal web site)]
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