Books, books, books... I think all of us have special feelings for books. Some of us, the majority, read them; others are impressed by the great pictures in them; the little ones color their pages; others feel some magical sensibility by touching the various textures or smelling their old pages... And maybe others just love to have books, and that's all.


Very often, when it comes to thinking of a gift for somebody or just for yourself, a book turns out to be a good idea. There are so many books to choose from: different categories, styles, languages, thicknesses, sizes, colors, etc. But sometimes you want something more special or more personalized and here it comes this solution, which I have found yesterday by jumping from link to link.

It is about Blurb. "Blurb is a company and a community that believes passionately in the joy of books – reading them, making them, sharing them, and selling them". You don't have to be graduated in some specific subject, or think that you are not as important as an author of a book, or to be stopped by some impediments such that it costs too much or you have to know somebody at a printing house. Through Blurb, it seems to be very easy. Just some steps to follow...

First, you need to download the BookSmart™, free bookmaking software (requires to register as a member of Blurb) and then you are free to design your own book. I am just playing with it, and I find it very intuitive and it has many options:

• full-color or black-white books;
• different sizes (square, standard portrait, standard landscape, large format landscape);
• various layouts (portofolio, photo books, wedding, cookbooks, journal, poetry, etc. or just simply a blank one);
• you can add photos from different sources (your computer, the GroupBook projects or photo sites such as flickr or picasa);
• you can choose from predefined themes and backgrounds or make them by yourself;

After you have finished with this big step, the following are more easier: you can order your book (or as many as you like) or if you feel like spreading out in the world your talents in writing or photography or other talents that you have, you can make small money and sell your books through Blurb BookStore. All details about pricing and shipping are given also on the website.

And a selection of some books:

I hope you have found my post interesting and now you can have another option when you want to make a nice surprise to somebody special or just to give yourself a small gift, by having your personal book.

And if you are curious to know what blurb means, this description I have found on Wikipedia. "A blurb is a short summary or some words of praise accompanying a creative work, usually referring to the words on the back of the book but also commonly seen on DVD and video cases, web portals and news websites."

(images from blurb)