(This is the penultimate instalment in my protracted quest to give The Blog Digest away for slightly less than you can now buy it for from an Amazon affiliate. Or at least to give the jokes I sweated over for the chapter intros another run out)

Shuffling off – Death

Death, like syphilis, incontinence and vegetarianism, is all very well unless it’s happening to you. Then it’s not so much fun, obviously. Here we’ll explore the deepest of mysteries, examine the greatest of levellers and try not to get too down about the biggest of bummers.

To paraphrase Malcolm in Macbeth, nothing in this life becomes us like the leaving it. There seems little point in worrying about it other than to rail against the unjust deaths visited upon so many in the world today. And also, to make peace and reconciliation with the fact that we ourselves will one day, to quote more Shakespeare (Hamlet this time), shuffle off this mortal coil. (No, I’m not convincing myself either.)

In other words, this is a chapter in which we reaffirm that death is like a Cliff Richard record at Christmas: there is no escape. It’s a bad business, to be sure.

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(This is the latest instalment in my protracted quest to give The Blog Digest away for slightly less than you can now buy it for from an Amazon affiliate. Or at least to give the jokes I sweated over for the chapter intros another run out)

Blood, Sweat and Beers – Work and Play

Life, as a great man* once said, is the name of the game, and I want to play the game with you. Did you know that in an average lifetime we spend around 25 years asleep and six months on the loo? We also spend about 20 years at work and 10 years eating. That only leaves around 15 years for the pleasures of drinking to excess, smoking, le cinéma de Bruce Willis and vigilante campaigns against paedophiles.

Let’s face it, work is a hateful activity. Anybody who says they enjoy their job is a teetotal sociopath with a threadbare social life. This chapter consists of a vicious critique of the bitter ennui that is working for a living. It’s tempered by a vibrant celebration of those priceless jewels of hope, joy and wonder snatched from the claws of the beast known as work-commute-sleep-work, along with other meditations on the human condition.

* Bruce Forsyth

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You can now get The Blog Digest for a penny. Ask them for a discount.

You can get The Blog Digest on Amazon for two or three pence. I get ten percent.

The Blog Digest 2007: You And Me Against The World – Activism

It’s true to say that while blogging has proved the ideal inducement to people sitting on their arses, it’s also provided many incentives for people to get up off them as well. If you’ve got a cause, blogging is the perfect medium for rallying others to it.

Coupled with other online tools (Pledgebank.com, where people pledge to perform a certain action, and WriteToThem.com, which allows you to email your MP), blogging has become a real force, if not exactly for holding Authority to account, then at least for going a long way to informing it of what it is its true bosses (that is, us) are thinking and want.

Here, amongst other articles calling for awareness of important issues, we see how a cause, a blog and a little bit of good old-fashioned pluck, can bring about real results.

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The Blog Digest 2007: Confusing Power With Greatness – Politics

Those readers who aren’t fans of drama, democracy, or tales of dirty deeds done dirt cheap, should skip to the next chapter. Whoever says politics is boring deserves a wet slap, this year more than ever. To try to chronicle everything that has gone on in British politics this year would fill this volume and beyond. And being a political blogger myself, I was very tempted to try.

We’ve had the resignation of Charles Kennedy as Liberal Democrat leader and the election of Ming Campbell as his less than sparkling successor; Tessa Jowell’s moody mortgages; David Blunkett resigning (again); John Prescott visiting a billionaire businessman’s ranch to talk about cowboys but not casinos (Prescott’s sexual shenanigans are dealt with elsewhere in this book); the passing of the Identity Card legislation (I think it’s safe to say that there isn’t a single British blogger who’s in favour of that); the Tories’ ascendancy in the opinion polls despite their lack of policies; and continuing speculation about when Tony Blair might retire to the US lecture circuit. And more…

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The Blog Digest 2007: We’ve Had A Bit Of A Falling Out – War

From the smallest playground spat to intercontinental nuclear exchanges, fighting in all its ugly forms is regarded by all right-thinking people as A Very Bad Thing. Unfortunately, these days, right-thinking people aren’t allowed within 500 yards of the apparatus of power and this is where it’s got us. The last one to come close was probably Mahatma Ghandi, and look what happened to him. Somebody shot him.

Conflict is a subject with many contradictions. Glass someone in the pub and you’re a common thug; push the button on half a million* Iraqis and you’re a statesman. As the soldier says in Monty Python’s Meaning of Life: ‘I killed 15 of those buggers. Now, at home they’d hang me; here they’ll give me a fucking medal, sir.’

Here, some of Blogland’s foremost thinkers attempt to traverse the moral minefield that is Fighting Each Other, whether it be in Iraq, on the home front of the War Against Terror in London, or raking over the coals of World War II.

* At the last estimate, according to research published in The Lancet.

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The Blog Digest 2007: The Honourable Member – Sex

The beast with two backs. The mattress mambo. Touching the Void. Posting Yul Brynner first class. Where would the British be without euphemisms for the sexual act? In possession of a much more mature attitude towards sex, no doubt, but having fewer laughs along the way.

This year’s rash of political sex scandals (is that the appropriate collective noun?) heaped yet more ridicule on politics and politicians. The avid interest and disapproval aimed at those affairs by the media and the public showed us to be simultaneously – and paradoxically – both prudish and prurient.

Sex still sells big. It’s to be wondered how much envy plays a part in the voyeuristic intrusions we make into other people’s sex lives; is it that we would quite like to be doing those kind of things with our own John Thomases and Lady Janes?

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A pressie arrives in the email from the lovely Matt Buck – his cartoon that introduces the chapter on Sex in The Blog Digest.

DO NOT click here.

The Blog Digest 2007: Politics For Pretty People – Culture and Media

‘In the future,’ Andy Warhol famously said, ‘everyone will be famous for 15 minutes’. As it turns out, Warhol, the dear old over-rated charlatan, was of course wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. His 15 minutes was an average figure. The world is seething with infuriating nonentities and spectacular mediocrities who have enjoyed simply hours of unearned fame while far greater talents freeze to death on the streets of Britain every day having had not even a nanosecond of recognition. Add all those times together and divide by the number of people and you get 15 minutes. QED*.

Fortunately, The Blog Digest is seeking to redress this imbalance by featuring in this chapter only articles of culture and refinement. Big Brother and its sub-human denizens, for instance, are afforded the space and respect they deserve (that is, hardly any). Celebrity pin-cushion and alleged popstar Pete Doherty also features but only as the untalented berk he is rightly regarded as being. So pull up a chaise longue, uncork the laudanum and wallow in the best, and a little of the worst, that British culture had to offer this year.

* This theory will be proved if it takes you longer than 15 minutes to read this book.

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I never did thank all the people who bought The Blog Digest 2007. So, thank you all. I thought about having a party at some point and inviting everyone who did buy it. I know a nice little telephone box near me where we could meet. I’ll provide the bar and buffet – a couple of cans and a bag of Cheesy Wotsits should do it.

Anyway. To show the 99.999999999999999999999999 percent of people who haven’t seen the book just what great things were contained within, I thought I’d post the links to all the blog posts it collects. (If for no other reasons than I sweated blood over the ‘jokes’ in the chapter introductions and was quite pleased with one or two of them, and I’m a good little recycler.)

You can then print off the the posts, staple them together and make your own personalised Blog Digest. It’s a shame I can’t link to the excellent cartoons that Matt Buck did for the book, introducing each chapter. The one of John Prescott shagging an enormous pork pie should be in the National Gallery.

First up, coming shortly, Chapter 1: Politics for Pretty People – Culture & Media.

Couple of reviews of The Blog Digest from February. One from Brighton’s Rocks magazine, and one from the Times Literary Supplement penned by our very own J. Clive Matthews.

Merrick says very nice things about The Blog Digest:

There’s all you want from decent blogging; unbridled personal opinions expressed with eloquence and verve, ignored angles on big stories, entirely ignored but important stories, poignancy, stridently defended partisanship and scalp-tinglingly good swearing.

…

Half an hour browsing the book and the lifelessness of much of the mainstream media is painfully obvious to the point where I find it difficult to be arsed with it.

He also links to some of the pieces in the book so you can get an idea of what’s in there.

Well, I hasn’t taken me long to descend to the level of a shameless, dignity-free shill.

After Rachel’s suggestion and kind offer, an unholy alliance of eBay, Photoshop and too much spare time has produced these babies: limited edition Blog Digest 2007 keyrings. There are currently only ten in existence.

To get one, email me a photo of you with your copy of The Blog Digest along with the proof of purchase. I’ll publish the photo and a link to your blog if you have one. You can then put the keyring on eBay.

Update: Simon gets the first keyring. He bought his copy from Amazon so ignore their ‘Usually dispatched within 4 to 6 weeks’ warning – it’s cobblers.

The book, spotted in Borders in Brighton:

Sorry if you’re bored of of my going on about the book but I warn you I may still be hammering on about it for some time yet. When your first book comes out I guarantee you’ll also be this giddy/sad.

Anybody tempted to buy the book from Amazon but put off by the message ‘Availability: Usually dispatched within 4 to 6 weeks’ should ignore it. Davide received his copy from them in 24 hours.

I did a little rooting around in the 18 Doughty Street archives and found the Vox Politics show that I appeared on this week.

Watch me here (windows media) in all my fat glory. The lager and sausage roll diet is clearly not working.

‘…covers everything from abortion to Zinedine Zidane, taking in bears, corpse robbers, Danish cartoons, elderly care, foot fetishists, golf, Hegel, irreducible complexity, Elton John, the Khmer Rouge, the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, memes, Newsnight, Mark Oaten, Jon Pertwee, a brace of Rooneys, speed-dating, toilets (inevitably), the United Nations, vaginas (Noreen’s, inevitably) and wasps…’ – Philip Challinor

‘The perfect Christmas present, then, although as I have noticed that both D[evil's] K[itchen] and Mr Eugenides have articles in there, not one that I’d leave lying around the lounge when granny comes to visit on Boxing Day’ – Ministry of Truth

‘The book’s an excellent read, and a great synopsis of the year that’s gone by. The blogosphere has definitely churned out very decent comment, and I’d be interested to see if anyone could codify opinion from the MSM in the same period which would be as good as this.’ – Osama Saeed

‘…eloquent knowledge of a type that you won’t find in the MSM…’ – Devil’s Kitchen

‘The Blog Digest has lots of variety; all of the writing is good; and seeing it in print, with links as footnotes and all, makes it fresh.’ – Charlie Whitaker

‘All human life is there. Wit, wisdom, righteous anger, sleuthing, revelations, compassion and yep, love. The love of writing, and the joy of sharing it with others – blogging is unpaid, unadulterated, and unequalled as a communication opportunity. Dive in.’ – Rachel North

‘McKeating does an excellent job of why the blogosphere has been doing so well in terms of media coverage. It’s not because it’s new and shiny, it’s because it has the quality necessary to be worth reading.’ – Ken Owen

‘He’s done the hard work of tracking down many intelligent, poignant and witty bloggers, which should save you the trouble.’ – Flying Rodent

‘If the blogger in your life already has an anorak, this would make the perfect present.’ – Mr Eugenides

‘…I can categorically say that it compares very favourably indeed to standing up to your arsehole in mud…’ – Larry Teabag

So anyway. A few months ago the good people at Friday Books asked me to curate an anthology of some of the best of this year’s British blogging – much like Tim Worstall’s excellent 2005:Blogged.

Well, it’s nearly here – The Blog Digest 2007. It goes on sale on this Friday, December 1. You can get it online at Amazon, Politico’s, Waterstones, and in all good books shops. It features a hundred(ish) posts from some of the UK’s best bloggers (and me) and a cover and cartoons by the estimable Matt Buck (The cartoon that heralds the chapter on sex is truly something to behold.) I’ve had my copies back from the printers and it’s looking really rather ace, if I do say so myself.

The book is in themed chapters this year (unlike Tim’s which was ordered chronologically) – Culture & Media, Sex, War, Politics, Activism, Work & Play, Death and Sport. I’ve tried to create a broad collection so, as well as some of my favourite blogs, there are quite a few excellent ones in there that I hadn’t read before researching the book. I can’t remember just how many blogs I looked through but it was loads and loads.

Hopefully, it’s a rounded collection if not a particularly balanced (politically, at least) one. Strange as it sounds for a collection of other people’s work but I hope it reflects my own personality to some extent. There’s outrage and anger and my sense of humour – many of the pieces are in they because they made me laugh out loud – in there.

I tried also to make the book as accessible as possible for people with little or no knowledge of blogs (maybe someone will buy Matthew Taylor a copy). Hopefully it showcases some of the fantastic writing that you can find out there.

Any plugging of the book would be gratefully accepted. Obviously I stand (hopefully) to make some money out its sales but it’s also a shop window for some real talent that deserves wider exposure. (Advertising the book on your blog via an Amazon Associates account might be worthwhile – an ad for Tim’s 2005:Blogged bought me a couple of DVDs this year.)

Thanks to everybody who made this possible – the Friday Books gang and, of course, all the contributors who gave permission for their work to be included.

Needless to say I’m very excited. I shall of course be hanging round all the bookshops in Brighton saying ‘Oh, this looks excellent, I think I’ll buy ten copies’ in a loud voice. If anybody spots the book in the wild or sees any reviews please let me know.

Update: As of ten days ago, David Blunkett had only shifted 1,000 copies of his memoirs. For Christ’s sake, at the very least, please help me do better than that. If/when the Blog Digest reaches 1,000 sales, I’ll let everybody know and we can have a good old laugh. So, buy the Blog Digest and help rub David Blunkett’s nose in it.

Update update: Anybody tempted to buy the book from Amazon but put off by the message ‘Availability: Usually dispatched within 4 to 6 weeks’ should ignore it – Davide received his copy from them in 24 hours.