Book info

• Title How to Leave Twitter
• Author Grace Dent
• Year 2011
• Genre Non-fiction

Here Dent takes a hilarious, acerbic look at what's really going on in Twitterworld; who's actually tweeting, who's really reading your tweets and what's behind the 140 character lies they tell. She looks at the highs and grotty lows of twitter addiction, the shameless social climbers, the friends you'll make and the ones you can't get bloody rid of, the barefaced bragging, the shameful celeb-stalking, and the truth about 'twanking', twitter cliques, angry 'twitchfork mobs' and dealing with trolls.

Thoughts

I’d spotted this book creeping up the charts but ignored it, because I figured it was a rant about how Twitter is bad for the world. A recommendation changed my mind and so I gave it a go.

As it turns out, it is a rant against Twitter, but only from a self-confessed Twitter addict. Grace Dent loves and uses Twitter a lot, and has plenty of experience to guide new and old users through the weird world of the microblogging social network.

I felt the book had highs and lows. I particularly liked the chapter on reasons to hate Twitter, but I didn’t really like the one that went all-out on a feminist rant. I quite enjoyed the types of people you might find on Twitter, but didn’t really enjoy the 100 item list that kicked the book off.

Either way, it only took me a few hours to read, and was an interesting look at what has become something of an internet phenomenon.

The best quote of the entire book was:

I chatted to scores of people about Twitter as I was writing the book. Absolutely nobody agreed with anyone else’s view on anything. Everybody brought fresh angles and topics I’d never even thought of. I love this. Twitter is a totally different animal to everyone riding it.

Hear, hear. I will say, though, I’m not sure I’ll be able to look at Twitter the same way again!

Rating: 3 / 5