Book ~ "The Internet is a Playground" (2011) - David Thorne

From Amazon ~ From the notorious Internet troublemaker who brought the world the explosively popular Next Time I'll Spend the Money on Drugs Instead, in which he attempted to pay his chiropractor with a picture he drew of a spider; "Please Design a Logo for Me. With Pie Charts. For Free," which has been described as one of the most passed-on viral emails of all time; and, most recently, the staggeringly popular "Missing Missy", which has appeared everywhere from The Guardian to Jezebel to Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish, comes this profoundly funny collection of irreverent Internet mischief and comedy.

Featuring all of Thorne's viral success, including "Missing Missy", The Internet Is a Playground culls together every article and email from Thorne's wildly popular website 27bslash6.com, as well as enough new material, available only in these pages, to keep you laughing-and, indeed, crying-until Thorne's next stroke-of-genius prank. Or hilarious hoax. Or well-publicized almost-stint in jail (really).

This was recommended to me back in September by a fella in Winnipeg and I just read it this week. I'd never heard of David Thorne but it sounded like a fun book ... at it was. At times, I actually laughed out loud.

It's a collection of rambling emails back and forth with the intent of Thorne to see how far he can push the other person. And in most cases, they keep writing back, obviously pissed off. I don't know if the emails are real or not but most are funny and silly.

My favourites include:

• Missing Missy
  
• Overdue Account
• Permission Slip
• Simon's Pie Charts
• Blockbuster Late Fees
• Party in Apartment 3
• Massanutten - I laughed out loud at this one. He was suggesting there may be bears in the area and took this picture to prove it.
  

The response: That looks like a dog with a blanket on it. I'm not going to waste anyone's time sending an officer out to check that.

The non-email stuff was hit and miss. Bob's Guide to the Internet was funny, especially his view on blogging:

I read a blog once by someone who had bought a scarf and he went on for about three hundred paragraphs about his scarf and where he bought it and how it made him feel. The last time I bought a scarf I wore it. End of story. I didn't write a novel about it.

If you're looking for something different, you should check it out. As a head's up, the language and content at times is for mature readers.