World According to Twitter

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!

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.

Just got my autographed copy in the mail today. If you haven't read any of David Pogue's columns in the NY Times, you should. He is always funny and insightful. I have been following him on Twitter for about a year now. His tweets are often hilarious and the premise of this book is so meta. He has been asking a series of questions via Twitter; the worthwhile answers, he has logged in this book. The questions have varrying topics from politics to sports to numerology. The selected responses are often hilarious and candid. It has restored my faith in humanity that so many people are willing to give things serious thought and offer honest responses. I highly reccomend this.

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.

If all David Pogue's co-authors give this book a 5 star review, he will soar to the top of the charts. There are many of us. Of course we all got autographed, free copies so that doesn't do much for sales of the book. I think I would have bought it anyway because it's just so much fun. IN fact it may have all been part of Pogue's diabolical plot to insure sales since I will be giving copies to friends!