A guest blog spot by ISS Managing Editor Drew Whitney.

These days you cant go too far before youll encounter a self-storage facility. Moreover, you dont even have to leave home to find a story about self-storage. Every major newspaper has covered some type of story focusing on our industry. There are news stories announcing local grand openings of facilities, snippets about investors and self-storage REITs, and countless features focusing on the whole phenomenon of people owning more property than they can fit into closets and garages, forcing them to seek storage space outside of their homes.

Now that the industry has slipped into the mainstream, it only seems natural that self-storage would pop up in other genres aside from the nonfiction news world. And so it has, with a new novel written by Gayle Brandeis.

The book, Self Storage, depicts the life of a family following the months of 9/11. The main character, Flan Parker, has something of an unusual diversion from other occupations: She collects the contents of abandoned storage units through auction and then sells them during weekend yard sales. The real plot unfolds after she opens a box and lets the contents carry her away onto a soul-seeking adventure.

I found it entertaining just to think a novel used self-storage as a backdrop, let alone as the title of the book. It just marks another milestone in the annals of self-storage history!

From humble beginnings, self-storage has grown into a multimillion-dollar industry turning many investors heads. Now its a page-turner too! Why not take a break from the daily pencil pushing, computer clicking and door locking to take in a new book with a title surely to catch your eye? Check it out: Self Storage.

HERES A LINKto a book review by Diane La Rue for The Citizen, a daily newspaper published in Auburn, N.Y., who gave the novel 3.5 stars. If you read it, let me know what you thinkboth of the book and our thriving little industry hitting its stride.