Customer Reviews

The Spam Letters

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you get angry when inbox fills with unsolicited messages - pick up this book. Each "letter" starts with real spam - followed by a comical reply.

The "spam letters" treat each offer as a godsend, fulfilling some outrageous need of a twisted individual. This book is laugh out loud funny. Each letter is a rollercoaster of humor.

Sometimes the spammers even reply....

This is a funny book.

Jonathan Land has created a book similar to Paul Rosa's book Idiot Letters. I believe neither Rosa nor Land set out intending to create a book, but when their letters and emails, respectively, are combined into a single volume it makes for very entertaining reading.

Land's correspondence with the Nigerian spammers is easily the most hilarious in the book because some of their responses to him are so over the top and incredible. But some of the shorter passages without a response show Land's remarkable creativity and wit; the e-mail about the Pirate-Americans is laugh out loud funny.

Fun coffee table, train or bathroom book because you don't have to read it all at once. Will make you laugh every time.

If you've been lucky enough to catch Jon Land on cable, the BBC, or on NPR, you already know just how casually funny he can be. If not, this book is a great introduction and a must-read. Over and over, Land sets up over-the-top scenarios that arise from the most mundane of e-mail spam, then follows the situations through to their logical yet ludicrous conclusion. Some of the material in the book is also available from Land's website, thespamletters.com; however, I find the trade paperback to be much more portable and quicker loading.

So it has come to this! Spam is a constant irritation to millions of email users. Most of us just sigh and delete away the infalling detritus. But Land has found a neat way to make money out of spam, distinct from what antispam companies do.

He has compiled a choice selection of spam, and written humourous replies, and stapled these together into this book. Mostly, of course, there were no replies by the spammers to his replies. So the book mostly consists of short conversations.

Though in the case of the Nigerian 419 scams, the contact addresses yielded responses to Land's poker-faced queries. The chapter on this makes for wonderful reading. It also contrasts with the rest of the book. Here, he actually causes some scammers to waste their time in futilely trying to string him in.

The Spam Letters is an uproaringly funny journey into the twisted, and yet so acute mind of Jonathan Land.
During the journey, one will find Jon's wit and contemporary humor employed against an often foreign,
and clearly culturally incongruous spammer. With each letter, the reader is drawn in to
Jon's side of an awfully unfair game, where the outcome is consistently known at the onset: Jon will make an ass of the
the opponent all for your enjoyment.

Jon's creativity and tenacity have literally turned the lemons of spam into spammonade.
Buy it, read it, revel in it, and then put it on your coffee table for you and your friends to enjoy!

(...)

This book is just too creative and too funny. I've read lots of humor books, but rarely have I laughed out loud as much as I have reading The Spam Letters.

The book is based on Land's Web site of the same name, spamletters.com, which I discovered a few years ago and submitted a letter. In each letter, the original letter is presented along with Land's creative and hilarious reply to the spammer.

That's what Land has been doing, replying to spammers, and in some cases, the spammers have written back and those are included in the book. He takes on the role of lawyer, doctor, pastor, casting director, and woman (Joan). He produces works of fiction (don't tell anyone) and for once, spam is fun instead of an aggravation.

If the book is based on the Web site, why should we read the book? Here are the reasons:

1. There are many letters; it's difficult to read more than a few online.
2. It's great reading material away from the computer and the Internet.
3. Laptops don't handle beach sand, ocean water, or other exotic locales very well.
4. After a lousy day at work, who wants to get on the computer at home? Get a good laugh with the book instead.
5. The book organizes the letters by topic and you can see which ones have replies from the spammers.
6. A book doesn't make your legs go numb like a laptop on your lap while in the bathroom.
7. No downloading time involved!

You can try before you buy by going to the Web site and reading the letters. Also, check the table of contents. Bet you've many of them. Take out your spam frustrations by reading Land's retorts. Those who like reading humor books will enjoy this one, it's one-of-a-kind.

Author Jonathan Land actually has running dialogs with spam writers, published in such prestigious places as New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, so it's not surprising The Spam Letters provides such a delightful package bringing all the dialogs to one place, under one cover. Land's favorite exchanges with spammers are a laugh a moment- and all too real - making The Spam Letters that perfect gift for the serious computer geek who 'has everything' but too much humor.

I have been enjoying the Spam Letters online for several years now and am so pleased to have acquired them in book form! It means I can share them with ever so many more people than i have in the past.

I cannot count how many times I've invited my guests and family over to the computer so I could 'impersonate' Jon Land and read one of the spam letters... invariably I wind up laughing so hard i can't finish!

Although I've read some criticism that there are not enough instances of the spammers engaging Jon in dialogue, I have to say that some of my favorite letters are favorites because of the wacky angle Jon takes in writing his response and the 'role' he plays... Prince of Caspiar... President of YAARGH... Shop steward for kissing booth local... just so totally nuts!

This book is an internet-generation version of Don Novello's books (Laszlo Toth, American)... only this one's even funnier!

btw.. I encourage you to visit Jon Land's other site featuring years of entertaining stick figure art: (...)

This is one of those books that everyone should read - so that we can all vicariously through Jon Land's dive into the land of spammers... and in agreement with others - catching him on NPR is more than a treat - its an addiction waiting to happen (think chocolate).
For the geek and for the not-so-geekish, this book serves as a living history of the frustrations we all have felt when dealing with SPAM. Mr. Land just found a great way give some of that frustration back to the SPAMMERS - and to give us geeks something to chuckle about when reading about V|AGRA or the fortunes that await us in Nigeria... and we can take comfort in knowing that we're not alone in out frustrations.
Thank you, Jon!