World According to Twitter

by David Pogue

The wit and wisdom of the Twittersphere captured in a hilarious, occasionally poignant, and often useful collection of hand-picked tweets.New York Times technology columnist David Pogue has tapped into the brilliance of his half-million followers on Twitter by posting a different, thought-provoking question every night. The questions ranged from the earnest ("What's your greatest regret?") to the creative ("Make up a concept for a doomed TV show") to the curious ("What's your great idea to improve the cell phone?"). Out of 25,000 tweets, Pogue has gathered the very best 2,524 into this irresistible, clever, laugh-out-loud funny book. The World According to Twitter is truly a grand social networking experiment, in which thousands of voices have come together to produce a unique and wonderful record of shared human experience. Some Compose the subject line of an email message you really, really don't want to open. To my former sexual partners, as required by law (@markowitz) What seems to have been your car (@pumpkinshirt) Your Publisher. Ha, good one! Could you send the real chapter now, please? (@ Lookshelves) Make up a prequel to a famous movie. Mr. Smith MapQuests Washington (michaelbuckman) Snakes in the Terminal (@justinchambers)Were Running Low on Mohicans (@rllewis) There Goes Private Ryan . . . I Hope He'll Be OK (@slightly99) Describe your 15 minutes of fame. My stepfather was "The agony of defeat" guy on ABC's Wide World of Sports, before the ski jumper (he was the car spinning out at Daytona 500). (@BigDaddy978) I juggled for Clinton's inauguration. 20 minutes of FBI pat-downs, and then I wound up throwing knives around the president anyway. (@McEuen) I'm on a Girl Scout cookie box (have been for 9 years, so it's longer than 15 minutes)! (@libbyfish) Add 1 letter to a famous person's name. Yo Yo

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Social Media, Reference

316 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 15, 2009

About the author

David Pogue, Yale '85, is the weekly personal-technology columnist for the New York Times and an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News. His funny tech videos appear weekly on CNBC. And with 3 million books in print, he is also one of the world's bestselling how- to authors. He wrote or co-wrote seven books in the "For Dummies" series (including Macs, Magic, Opera, and Classical Music). In 1999, he launched his own series of amusing, practical, and user-friendly computer books called Missing Manuals, which now includes 100 titles.

David and his wife, Jennifer Pogue, MD, live in Connecticut with their three young children.

Reviews

[Shellie (Layers of Thought) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not a how to book on Twitter. It will not tell how to tweet, or re-tweet (which I still haven’t figured out). This book is a collection of tweets. Interesting, funny, informative, insightful thoughts all confined to the 140 letter maximum allowed within the interface of twitter.
It is divided up into section as per “tweeted question” and lists the best responses that David Pogue has received from his followers. Pogue asks questions like - Invent a formula for disaster; What's the best advice your parents ever gave you; and my favorite - Recipe contest! You have 140 characters. Go: These answers are amazing and addictive.
This book is brilliant. It is tear inducing in both hilarity and at times sadness. It is a great “potty” book, since it can be read in short bits.
This book has convinced me of Twitter’s merits and since reading this book I have started to awkwardly “tweet”. Even though I am forever distracted with the interesting info and links of the people I follow, I have to say that I am a total convert.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect bathroom book, easy to pick up and read for a few minutes. Actually, it can be hard to put down! There are a lot of LOL moments here, a ton of tweets I'd love to have been able to forward, and some really clever answers to questions ranging from favorite memories to creative wordplay. The wordplay is the best part of the book by far, there sure are some clever people out there. This book would make a great gift for the Twitter lovers in your life.

[Starla Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty funny light read. I don't have a twitter. but still hilarious. this was published in 2009 and had a few references to the future. ie 2012 and it was hilarious to see that some of the predictions came true. it also has a "how would you improve smartphones " and some of those improvements happened as well! it was like a window into the past. :)

[Madhu N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of funny tweets.

The ones with prequel to movies/sequel to movies/ phony proverbs and so many more that brought chuckles.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whether you think a book like this is worth ten bucks or not is highly subjective of course. Your sense of humor and taste in general will determine how valuable you find a collection like this to be. (I received a free copy of this book so make of that what you will)

But one thing I like about the book is that it highlights how creative and interactive Twitter can be. There are probably a great many folks who just tweet mundane happenings in their lives, and there are obviously a fair amount of spammers and hacks, but there are also a great many funny, creative, and insightful people.

By asking questions and reproducing the best responses Pogue has produced a paper trail as it were illustrating this brighter side of the Twitter phenomenon. From movie sequels and prequels to puns and jokes to real life experiences people find a way to pack quite a punch into 140 characters or less.

Part humor, part sociology, part folk art, part social networking The World According to Twitter is an interesting slice of culture while at the same time an explanation for the popularity and often addictive nature of Twitter.

[Erikka · Rating 2 out of 5]

More 2.5. The concept was fun and there were quite a few great answers, but it just wasn't up to par with what I was expecting. Lots of repeat comments and directly ripped-off quotes (you can use people's words, but credit them!). Lots of comments in "humor" topics that made me wonder if the author would know funny if it bit him. There were some questions/topics that were doomed from the outset, just not inherently funny. And too many repeat contributors! Some repeats are fine, but make sure they're actually funny. @pumpkinshirt saved this book--he is absolutely hilarious. I started searching for his answers halfway through the book--always the best contributions. Could have been a higher rating with a bit more prep and planning.

[Shelby Hallenbeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of tweets is pretty much hit-or-miss. Some are pretty funny, some are just plain boring. Reading through four pages in a row of unfunny puns made me want to put it down at times. The many political tweets were awful as well; I was rolling my eyes at the several monotonous Bush jokes that we've all heard a million times before. In fact, you've probably heard several of the tweets in general a million times before. But that doesn't make the book unreadable. Give it a try, there are some gems in there. Plus, the flip-book on the ends of the pages is adorable!

[Nambirajan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another user generated/internet meme book , this time based on twitter..as David Pogue presents the tweets that he got as replies to his "daily meditation" questions in this book and as you read through them you can;t but be amazed at the wonderful creativity that these tweets exhibit..a clever idea that taps into the wisdom and the intelligence of the crowds..
If you are interested in crowd sourcing you should read this book..

[Kirsty (alkalinekiwi) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked up from when the Whitcoulls bargain book store on Queen Street was having their closing sale. Was only a few dollars.

Some of the tweets are really funny and clever. I was laughing out loud sitting in the dentist's waiting room yesterday. It is quite cool what some people manage to fit into the 140 Characters of a tweet.

I might be biased as I am a bit of a twitter addict. A tweetaholic some might say.

[Anissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had an opportunity to hear David Pogue speak at a distance learning conference recently. He's an engaging speaker, and so I bought this book in the hopes of keeping the conversation going. Pogue has collected a marvelous group of witty observations from individuals all over the Twitterverse. If you thought the internet was full of trolls, this book might renew your faith in the cleverness of others.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this book as a gift. The author is writer for the NY Times and basically took a year wherein he sent out a question via Twitter each day to his followers and waited for their often funny responses. I will say that people can clearly be very funny in 140 characters or less, but I'm a little disturbed by how much some people are enamored with puns. All in all, a very quick read with some funny parts to it.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Twitter addict, this was a great book to read when I couldn't get to a computer. It's surprising to see what we're capable of fitting in a mere 140 character space-limit, and the topics addressed in this book making it quite a hilarious read.

[Squirrely G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was ready to blow this book off since I got it for free, but was glad I started poking through it. Some very funny tweets are collected here - I kept this book at work to read bits and snatches of it during lunch. Not one I would ever buy, but if you get the chance flip through it.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great. The perfect bathroom book...you can dip in and enjoy it bit by bit. Plus, I'm a co-author! Look for the tweet by @rockivist.

[Jasoncrowther · Rating 5 out of 5]

A total riot. Its amazing how much humor you can jam into 140 characters.

[Kam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun. I got it to find out more reasons to be on Twitter, but instead it's a very enjoyable book with Twitter posts. Some very bright people out there.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book looked quite fun in Kinokuniya but turned out to range between funny and banal. Worth a read if you need something for the bathroom or have want to see one particular use of twitter.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you Bruce. This one is going to be a blast.

There are so many interesting quotes from the author's Twitter followers. Entertaining stuff!

[Erbower Bower · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like Twitter itself, some really funny and insight gems, but a whole lot of boring too. I was also surprised that Pogue went to some of the same users over and over, dozens of times.

[Jen Orr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should give this book 5 Stars since, well, I'm a "co-writer"! Check me out -- @thigpensrevenge -- on page 128. ;)

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personalized note from Mr. Pogue. And I'm quoted twice.

[Syl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hahaha! it's a very nice and hilarious (and intensive) collection of tweets. Reading it is actually having a peek at people's minds.
Recommended!

[Lisa Stillings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun

Clever tweets from around the world. Love David Pogue and his great informative approach to technology. Informative and entertaining. Always interesting.

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun and inspirational.

[Meghan]

I'm reading this book because one of my tweets is in it. That is all.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for any Twitter addict...which I definitely am!

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny book, but I'm biased since I was quoted in it several times.

[Tabitha Sears · Rating 3 out of 5]

kinda funny......