How to do a blog book right

Apparently there’s this website called Waiter Rant. I’ve never been there before, but apparently it’s quite popular. It’s about an anonymous waiter who dishes on life behind the scenes at a series of fancy New York City restaurants.

I only know all this because I just finished reading his book, Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip–Confessions of a Cynical Waiter. It comes out in a week (July 29th), but you can preorder it today from Amazon. I highly encourage you to do so. Though the prose is sometimes a little stilted (and it feels like the author reached for a thesaurus one too many times) it’s an altogether solid effort, an excellent companion to the books like Kitchen Confidential. I still find it hard to believe that people can be so awful to waiters. Unless you’re receiving truly terrible service there’s no reason to cop an attitude with the people who bring you your food.

But what I most appreciate about this book is that, well, it reads like a book! A novel concept for most bloggers-turned-authors, I know. There’s a narrative arc, a sense of the people and places. It’s quite amazing. This is no Stuff White People Like: The God Awful Book Version Churned Out To Make a Quick Buck.