Thursday 11 August 2011

In which I fall for the hype...


How to Leave Twitter by Grace Dent

A few weeks ago everywhere you looked on social media sites this book was being talked about and recommended. I decided I wanted t read the book to see what the fuss was all about but I couldn't be bothered to buy the book so I reserved it from the library. It was obviously popular as I only got a copy to read at the very end of last week.

I don't often do this but I can't find anything positive to say about the book. I thought that it was going to be a silly read but I didn't expect it to be quite so nasty.

Dent tweets a lot, worries that she spends too much time on Twitter and gets cross with how other people use Twitter. That's it.

My feeling is that you Tweet or you don't (I do occasionally both for pleasure and for work).
If you do read Twitter then you can choose what you read.
If you don't like what you read you stop reading, you reply with your view or you don't read tweets from that person any more.

And that is it.

To write a book mocking people who don't agree with you is pointless, there are a few good netiquette points in the book but it was a total waste of my time and the paper it is printed on. I'm guessing that all the people talking about it on Twitter are either Dent's friends or her publisher. At least she didn't break her own rule and re-tweet all of their gushing reviews.

Never have I been so pleased that I borrowed a book for free from a library.

if anyone is interested in the little I have to say on Twitter I am (imaginatively @Norfolkbookworm and when I am tweeting for work it is @NorfolkLibs)

2 comments:

  1. That's quite a useful review. I've been considering this book, but only because of the hype.

    There's always been a little part of me that thought it might be quite unpleasant, self-congratulatory and mean towards those not in the same circles as the author.

    I think I'll stick with my gut reaction and not bother. Lots on my To Be Read pile as it is.

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  2. Usually when I review something negatively I feel bad about it afterwards - with time often the book/play/film wasn't as bad as I though. This time it really was though :)

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