The blog's paralleled Scalzi's professional writing career for years, from his work on the various Rough Guides to his first science-fiction novel, Old Man's War, and its sequels to The Android's Dream. He's written about all of these projects in turn, but what may have earned him the most notoriety (and, in some circles, the most scorn) is the content he's given away. His novel Agent to the Stars, soon to be published by Tor, was first released as a "shareware" novel on his Web site. It was joined by several short stories and a sample chapter of The Android's Dream. More recently, he released "The Sagan Diary," a six-party audio novel that takes place between the novels The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony and featuring the voices of Elizabeth Bear, Karen Meisner, Cherie Priest and others.

Scalzi's talked at length about the effect these giveaways have had on his career, and that, combined with his thoughts about writing, marketing and publishing books, makes for an interesting read. It's only part of the blog's attraction, though: Parents will appreciate his occasional posts about his daughter, the politically inclined should enjoy cutting their teeth on his occasional rants, and the curious can go searching for the infamous picture of bacon taped to a cat, taken during a bout of particularly intense procrastination.