Customer Reviews

The World According to Twitter

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

From the chuckler to the real-deal LOL, this book delivers. David Pogue poses a question, and his half-million Twitter followers respond with hysterical, insightful, and ever-clever "tweets" of a 140 characters or less. This is the ideal bathroom book -- think Uncle John's Reader -- but it serves an even better purpose as an exquisite example of the "wisdom of the masses." When you assemble an enormous group of people and limit them to a short slice of an answer, you get economy and style. It's the English teacher's dream. I left this book on the table during two parties, and each time, guests gathered around to read and laugh, sometimes exclaiming, "Oh NO!" and other times muttering, "Yup, been there." The chapters are quick and dirty, but the humor is top shelf. You will love Pogue's exploitation of the Twitter machine, and you just might be inspired to tweet yourself. Fabulous!

Impressed by the collective intelligence and humor of his Twitter followers, New York Times tech columnist David Pogue (@pogue on Twitter) decided to harness some of it and make it available to a larger, non-Twittering audience. He asked his followers a different question or posed a challenge every night (there were 95 questions/challenges in all), collected the responses, selected his favorites from among them, and got permission from the authors of the selected tweets (Twitter posts) to publish them. The result is The World According to Twitter, a book I wouldn't want to read straight through but which is fun to skim.

The questions Pogue posed were varied. For example:

What cool anagram can you make from the letters of your own name?
What made your first kiss memorable?
What's the best prank you ever witnessed?
Redefine an existing word in a punny way.

Of course, a lot of the tweets included in the book (a total of 2524) aren't, to my mind, funny or clever or worthy. But that's my subjective response, and everyone who skims the book will probably feel the same way, but will favor different entries. That's the nature of this sort of book. And some of the entries are worth reading. Here, for example, is my favorite response to Pogue's challenge to his followers to "explain a facet of modern life in the style of Dr. Seuss":

"I mail, I text, I tweet, I blog,
I build a Facebook for my dog,
I speak no words, I shake no hands,
I am at last a modern man."
-- @smacbuck

And I laughed aloud reading this series of responses to "Who's had a brush with greatness?"

"My dad once waited in line for a bathroom in between Henry Kissinger & Rupert Murdoch." -- @harrymccracken

"I peed at a urinal between Ronald Perelman and Henry Kissinger at the NY Hilton in 1990." -- @EricSails

"I once used the urinal next to Henry Kissinger at intermission of 'Guys & Dolls' on Broadway. Kevin Costner was also in the bathroom!" -- @nolanshanahan

"OMG, I once peed next to Kissinger too. Seriously." -- @vidiot_

In an inset box on the page Pogue writes: "I can't explain why so many brushes with greatness take place in public restrooms. I'm even more helpless to explain why so many of these bathroom encounters involve Henry Kissinger." Great stuff.

Anyone interested in reading more tweets about these kinds of insignificant brushes with celebrity should do a Twitter search for #lameclaimtofame. People regularly tweet their lame claims to fame using that hashtag (to make the related tweets easily found in search), and it makes for some funny reading.

The World According to Twitter isn't likely to serve a higher purpose than pure amusement (and I doubt it was intended to). It would be nice if it could help to convince Twitterphobes that there's more to Twitter than lunch menus, but (a) they probably won't be reading the book anyway and (b) it's too insubstantial a read to accomplish that task. (It's more likely the naysayers will be won over by Twitter's continued use in reporting breaking news.) This certainly isn't a must-have book, but if there's a reader of bathroom books in your life, then this may be just the gift for them. (Be sure to note the cool flip movie in the book's margins.)

-- Debra Hamel

I was first introduced to twitter when my uber-geek friend tweeted from Mumbai that there were terrorists attacking hotels and that one of his friends was trapped on a top floor. I received his tweet on my facebook account and sent him all the information and contact numbers I could regarding the situation (which I obtained from watching CNN). So contrary to a lot of people who believe twitter is frivolous, I knew from my first usage that it can be an essential communications tool. This book continues in that tradition; not the "I'm here" tweet communiques. The idea started when the personal technology columnist for the New York Times, David Pogue asked his followers to respond to a question while he was demonstrating twitter live at a conference. His wife (behind every good man...) then suggested that he continue asking questions and write a book.

I'm one of Pogue's twitter followers and I have one of the 2,524 winning tweets in the book. I responded "If you can't be good be careful. If you can't be careful be good." to the question, "What's the best advice your parents ever gave you?". Mom is quite proud that there is now evidence that I listened to at least one thing she told me! Although I received a free, autographed copy I'm willing to spend bucks to get another copy of this collection of tweets. Yes they are that good--and the book is printed in the USA so I won't hurt our trade deficit. The tweets are so hilarious, insightful and touching that I want to mark my favorites and carry the book with me during my travels. Plus, fast flipping of the pages reveals a free movie in the book's right margins.

Behind every great tweet is a poignant question. Some of my favorite responses relate to formulas for disaster, take-offs on Dr. Seuss, haikus, work puns, and famous quotes in tech style. And who knew you could provide a recipe in 140 characters? Julia Child would be impressed. Seriously, there's not a bad tweet in the bunch. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll learn you aren't the only one who's been unceremoniously dumped. I'm looking forward to the second edition.

I enjoyed this book so much that I've decided to use it to fill many spots on my Christmas list this year. From avid readers to Reader's Digest types, I think everyone with a sense of humor will enjoy it.

And - the price is right. And - even wrapped it fits in those one-price shipping boxes that USPS has. So my wallet is happy, too!

In all fairness, I must divulge that Mr. Pogue did use a couple of my tweets. But I like the book anyway.

The World According to Twitter is a collective collaboration of humorous, creative, goofy, and some cheesy lines from people that twitter. David Pogue is a weekly tech columnist for the New York Times. He also twitters. He was showing a company how twitter works and told his wife how some of the responses from people were so good but that he wished others could see the responses and not just the person asking the question. His wife suggested he put a book together...and hence The World According to Twitter was created.

Mr. Pogue decided that he would ask a question every night at 11 pm for a while. Why 11 pm? Mr. Pogue explains that this is because hopefully most people would be online from the US to other countries.

Some of the questions asked were:

"What's the most memorable pickup line you ever heard?"

Some of the responses were:

"I'm thinking about becoming a pirate so I can get some of your booty" or how about "You won't be able to break my heart, because it melted when I met you".

Ok so seriously these pickup lines are definitely memorable but I won't say great.

How about this question "Heard and Good Puns Lately?"

Reponses were:

"What do you call a group of rabbits walking backwards?" A receding hare line.

Two TV installers met on a roof and fell in love. The wedding ceremony wasn't great...but, wow, the reception!!

I like the responses to this question "Write a brilliantly gripping first line of a new novel"

Responses were:

As the cruise ship faded into the moonlight, Harvey clutched the wet gnome and thought: This wouldn't have happened to Kate Winslet.

I had never killed anyone before, and I was pretty sure I did it wrong.

If you thought some of these lines were great, than you have to check out The World According to Twitter. It will have you talking and sharing it with your friends. I even had my husband reading parts of this book and laughing.

David Pogue might as well change his name to Howard Stern, because every time you turn around, he's conquered another form of media. He's been a fixture at the New York Times now for a while, writing mainstream tech columns for one of the country's most circulated newspapers. He also authors tech-help books for among other things, Apple products (Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual, David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual, Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition, to name a few). He's pioneered one of the best info-tainment Podcasts available with his weekly Tech Update for the New York Times (my personal favorite video Podcast). Quickly, he's becoming a media mogul.

His latest campy-yet-hilarious entry into the world of witty-tech media is "The World According to Twitter", a traditional paperback book that he 'wrote', along with a little help from his 250,000 Twitter followers. In the book, Pogue has managed to accrew thousands of funny thoughts from thousands of followers and create a very amusing collection of witty jokes, one-liners, and puns. Each of Pogue's careful set-ups are abound with hilarity, and you'll be surprised as you read that each response is just as funny as the last.

I do not refer to it as a 'bathroom reader' to undercut it's value, but instead I call it a 'bathroom reader' because unlike a traditional novel, it is the perfect thing to sit down and read for 10 seconds or 2 hours. You'll be sure to at least chuckle once or twice, and if you're feeling particularly witty yourself, you can come up with your own amusing responses. It's perfect for car trips with the family (nothing too risque) or down time at the library (lots of good pop-culture and technology references). The irony of this book of course is that while Twitter is only a few years, books have been in print for hundreds of years.

Is this book going to make Twitter critics (Twit-ics?) turn tail and sign up for the fastest growing social networking site? Of course not. Did Pogue cure cancer or solve the energy crisis in his book? No. Did he write the next great American novel that will be a staple in high school english classes for decades? Probably not. But that's not what this book is about. That's not what he was going for. This book is about harnessing the brains of thousands of people, creating something coherant from the best of the best. And he's succeeded in creating a truly entertaining work that will continually amuse you as you sift through the mass of material.

In today's world of 'everyone's got something to say', he's used a unique slant on this emerging technology to prove that, with a quarter of a million followers, the whole can definately be greater than the sum of it's parts.

Who would love this book? Anyone. If you love Twitter, you will appreciate the great Tweets David has compiled into an entertaining, enlightening, and enjoyable book. If you have kind of heard about Twitter but are not sure what all the fuss is about, read this book and you will suddenly and thoroughly understand why Twitter is so engaging. Even if you have never heard of Twitter, you will still be enthralled by this book. Have I left anyone out? If so, you will still be delightfully educated by this book. David Pogue has a unique style that makes technology understandable for the everyday reader who is trying to comprehend the latest developments as well as the technophile who wants the inside scoop on the latest craze.

Not a great book, but fun, sort of beach-read book. Good book to pick up and read in short bits. Pogue is a funny guy, but as with most such books, it can get a little overwhelming to read too much of the same sort of humor for too long. Still, a lot of the humor is in what the twitter responses are to Pogue's suggested topics.

Great idea, great book. Fun, funny, occasionally sage. Buy two, and give one away!

This book is hilarious! The concept of pooling the collective wit and wisdom of thousands of smart, computer-saavy and funny people is truly inspired (Pogue duly credits his wife with this inspiration).

For all of those lost souls who are fond of saying, "I just don't understand this Twitter thing"; trust me, you'll finally "get it".

Never has so much been communicated, to so many, by such innovative technology!

The book is worth the price just for the recipes, the household hints and the puns. But, don't overlook "the most embarrassing moments" and "Ironies of life"...they're priceless.