What's Next ... Chicken Soup for the Blogger's Soul?

• I received this e-mail from Amazon.com the other day:

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

As someone who has purchased books by Mark Victor Hansen, you might like to know that Chicken Soup for the Soul Healthy Living Series: Asthma (Chicken Soup for the Soul Healthy Living) will be released in paperback soon. You can pre-order your copy by following the link below.

Is it just me, or don't we have enough Chicken Soup for the Soul books already? Amazon.com lists 513, and I personally own a few of them (they did wonders when I had a long recovery a few years back).

So don't get me wrong. This series is successful precisely because it tugs at the heartstrings. Kind of like a Hallmark card on steroids.

Maybe I should applaud Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. At a time when personalization and "all about me" don't show any sign of abating, they keep cranking out book after book... and people keep buying them:

• Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul
• Chicken Soup for Scrapbooker's Soul
• Chicken Soup for the Sports Fan's Soul
• Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul 
• Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul
• Chicken Soup for the Fisherman's Soul
• Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul
• Chicken Soup for the Mother of Preschooler's Soul
• Chicken Soup for the Country Soul (comes with its own CD!)

There are books for different ethnicities, different ages (Kids Soul, Preteen Soul I & II, Teenage Soul I-IV, Grandparent's Soul and more, ), professions (Dental Soul) and interests (Traveler's Soul, Golfer's Soul). The list goes on. Pretty soon we'll all have our own Chicken Soup book.

(If you're feeling particularly cranky, you may want to buy Chicken Poop for the Soul: Stories to Harden the Heart and Dampen the Spirit, a parody by David Fisher.)

But what I'm really holding out for is Chicken Soup for the Blogger's Soul. I'll even help put it together.

Comments

[Sam Smith]

Sounds like someone's found a successful template. I wonder what the differences are between a scrapbooker and a NASCAR driver's soul are?

[Andrea Weckerle]

Sam, sounds like a post topic to me! Care to tackle it?

[Sam Smith]

Posted - http://publickthoughts.blogspot.com/2006/02/polishing-our-souls.html

Thanks for the inspiration Andrea, you certainly are proving to be the bloggers' muse at the moment

[Andrea Weckerle]

Sam, I love it!

[Ike]

Hey Sam, great idea!

"Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Scrapbooker's Soul!"

[Darren]

Andrea,

How about the "...for Dummies" books? Believe it or not, there is not just a first edition, now in it's second edition, "NASCAR for Dummies"! At this point one could make a comment about redundancy, irony, or even Jeff Foxworthly...

[Andrea Weckerle]

Darren,

You're right, there is the "for Dummies" series as well! This just opens up the possibilities...