On NPR: Humorist’s Spider Crawls the Web, Bringing Fame and Book Deal

NPR’s All Things Considered spoke to web sensation David Thorne about his caustic e-mail exchanges and new book, The Internet is a Playground.
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Check the tour schedule for the author’s hair to see if it’s coming to a city near you. No, not the author, just his hair.

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Which reader deserves an iPad? Vote!

In conjunction with the release of his new book The Internet is a Playground, David Thorne has orchestrated another iPad giveaway. This time around, he asked fans to send in photos of themselves with their copy of the book.  A comical assortment of contestants is now displayed on Thorne’s site, 27bslash6, along with his hilarious commentary. Check them out – here: on 27bslash6 – and place your vote via Twitter or Facebook.

WATCH THE AUTHOR ON HIS EPISODE OF TARCHER TALKS, WRITING IN A SHARK CAGE

SEE IF THE AUTHOR’S HAIR TOUR IS COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU

Author Erik Larson joins hair tour frenzy

David Thorne’s hair has charmed another fan: Erik Larson, New York Times bestselling author of Devil in the White City and recent hit In the Garden of Beasts. The author posed with the precious lock while visiting Pudd’nhead Books in St. Louis. Touring in conjunction with the release of Thorne’s book, The Internet is a Playground, the hair continues to tour St. Louis this week, with a stop at Subterranean Books, before moving on to Michigan.

Check the hair’s tour schedule to see if it’s coming to a city near you.

WATCH THE AUTHOR ON HIS EPISODE OF TARCHER TALKS, WRITING IN A SHARK CAGE

Tarcher sends an author’s hair on tour

Did you know that a lock of Justin Bieber’s hair is currently on tour – with a bodyguard no less? Frenzied fans are lining up across the nation to get their picture taken with Bieber’s hair for one dollar. (The money goes to the tsunami relief).

Though Bieber’s hair may not be stopping at bookstores, author David Thorne’s hair will. On April 28, Tarcher launched the 10-city David Thorne Hair Tour to promote his bitingly funny new book, The Internet is a Playground: Irreverent Correspondences of an Evil Online Genius ($14.95, paperback, on sale April 28).

A lock of Thorne’s hair will spend three days at each participating store (full list below), and for every store on the tour route, Tarcher will donate $200 to the National Children’s Cancer Society. The $1 fee customers pay to have their picture taken with the hallowed lock will also be donated to this cause.

According to Thorne’s editor, Michael Solana: “Thorne declared war on Justin Bieber last month with his site HelpMeSellMoreBooksThanJustinBieber.com. A 10-city tour of his hair was kind of inevitable.” For his part, Thorne is ecstatic. “I think it’s wonderful that they’re touring my hair. It is a huge vote of confidence in me and my personal skills and flattering that they would think my hair could attract as many adoring fans as Bieber’s.”

Thorne’s hair can be admired at the following participating locations:
NEW YORK, NY: The Corner Bookstore, April 28 – May 1
BALTIMORE, MD: Ivy Bookshop, May 4 – May 6
ST. LOUIS, MO: Left Bank Books, May 9 – May 11
Puddinhead Books, May 12 – May 14
Subterranean Books, May 15 – May 17
OKIMOS, MI: Schuler Books, May 20 – May 22
ANN ARBOR, MI: Crazy Wisdom, May 25 – May 29
MINNEAPOLIS, MN: Magers & Quinn, June 1 – June 5
PHOENIX, AZ: Changing Hands, June 8 – June 12
SAN DIEGO, CA: Warick’s (La Jolla) June 15 – June 19
SAN FRANCISCO, CA: Books, Inc. June 22 – June 2 (San Francisco store)
Books, Inc. (Berkeley store) June 29 – July 3
BOULDER, CO: Boulder Book Store: July 6 – July 10
ABOUT THE BOOK:

“There is usually a fine line between genius and insanity, but in this case it has become very blurred. Some of the funniest and most clever writing I have read in years.” —Wired

“David Thorne’s The Internet is a Playground (Tarcher) is the funniest book I’ve read in years. I had to stop reading it repeatedly because I was laughing so hard.”
—Geoffrey B. Jennings, Rainy Day Books (for Publishers Weekly)

The Internet Is a Playground collects numerous correspondences and essays from Thorne’s website, www.27bslash6.com, including several that are unavailable elsewhere. From the wildly popular “Missing Missy,” in which Thorne helped/tormented a secretary who asked him to make a missing poster for her cat Missy, to the recent sensation, “It is obviously that your a foggot,” Thorne’s book is a wicked read—the kind that will help you be idle at work for hours.

WATCH THE AUTHOR ON HIS EPISODE OF TARCHER TALKS, WRITING IN A SHARK CAGE

VIDEO: David Thorne, Writing in a Shark Cage

David Thorne, author of The Internet Is A Playground, has described what he does as “writing in a shark cage,” and anyone who has read his hilarious viral email correspondences—such as “Simon’s Pie Charts,” “Missing Missy” or “It Is Obviously That Your a Foggot”—will understand why.

In this video, Tarcher editor Michael Solana speaks with Thorne about everything from the inspiration behind some of his most viral correspondences, to the online prank that got him arrested for three days, to the time he spent frequenting knitting forums as “Edna.”

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Getting to know an evil online genius

David Thorne‘s hilarious e-mail correspondences have been forwarded, printed, and passed on by millions. THE INTERNET IS A PLAYGROUND: Irreverent Correspondences of an Evil Online Genius (Tarcher/ Penguin paperback, April 28) collects numerous correspondences and essays from Thorne’s wildly popular site, 27bslash6,  and several that are unavailable elsewhere.  From the wildly popular “Missing Missy,” in which Thorne helped/tormented a secretary who asked him to make a missing poster for her cat Missy, to the recent sensation, “It is obviously that your a foggot”, THE INTERNET IS A PLAYGROUND is a wicked read.

But who is behind all the wickedness? We tried to discover in our Q&A with David Thorne….

What motivated you to start posting your e-mail correspondences and other musings online? A need for a distraction from working in the design industry. While many would assume that the design industry allows an outlet for creativity, sitting in an office the size of a wardrobe making poor products look appealing to trick people into buying them is quite the opposite. Constantly finding myself in different cities but identical hotel rooms, while travelling for client meetings, I  started writing stupid stories, mainly to annoy people, on social networking sites. Joining knitting forums, under the guise of a seventy eight year old woman with fourteen grandchildren, making friends and exchanging handy tips before declaring “I can hear someone breaking in downstairs” then logging off forever (giving them something more interesting to discuss than fractional stitches and menopause) is far more entertaining than preparing powerpoint presentations. Facebook, Digg, Reddit and the likes were regular haunts. As I was continually banned from these places, the 27b/6 website was created as a site that could not be touched by moderators.

How did your site, www.27bslash6.com, become so hugely popular? Everybody that visits the site gets a free puppy. Originally created a couple of years ago to simply make friends laugh, and occasionally annoy them, the site in those days took only a few hundred hits per week. After posting an article concerning paying for an outstanding chiropractors bill with a bad drawing of a spider, the website effectively went viral overnight thanks to other people’s need for distractions; when you are selling your soul nine to five in an office for less than a teacher’s salary and you receive an email that amuses you, there is the tendency to welcome the distraction and want to share with friends and co-workers. As such, I credit the popularity of the site to people’s propensity to waste time at work. Which is the employers’ fault really for failing to provide an entertaining and richly fulfilling work environment, so I should probably credit them instead. I spend most of my working day watching youtube videos of cats. Have you seen the one where the two cats play paddy-cake? I could watch that a thousand times.

Is it hard work being an “Evil Online Genius,” as we’ve dubbed you? No, it is not hard work. If it was hard work I wouldn’t do it as I am extremely lazy. Sometimes I can’t even be bothered blinking and once went several days without breathing. I do try to answer all emails though and, surprisingly, most are nice. I have met a few good friends through the process. As a general rule I never initiate correspondence, just respond stupidly. It would be easy to simply send out hundreds of emails with the hope of initiating a humorous chain but this would hardly be unique and there are others who do this. Emails from individuals or businesses that are obliged to respond are usually the most entertaining to me. Most importantly, there is no way to know if the correspondence will continue, and even if it does, whether it will be well received by later readers, so you have to enjoy writing and do so to entertain yourself foremost. If others enjoy the result afterwards, then that is a bonus.

It is not all fun and games though, I do get the odd threat and have answered the door to police on more than one occasion. Most recently, after posting a fake internal memo from McDonald’s outlining the implementation of short-changing customers as a procedure, I was arrested, questioned and had my laptop taken for evidence under e-crime legislation.

Would you consider yourself a writer, humorist, smart-ass or a very successful troll? A kind of… mega troll, if you will? I was labeled “an idiot with an occasional vague point” once which I quite liked. The term troll is thrown around a lot but is technically someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response. Which I will admit to, but like to think my efforts are without ill intent and constructed to amuse rather than disrupt. Providing content that encourages argument, discussion and factions based around humour, rather than simply offending, has always been my goal.

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WATCH THE AUTHOR ON HIS EPISODE OF TARCHER TALKS, WRITING IN A SHARK CAGE

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For the answers to these questions, check out our post on the book: What you want to know about animals, and never thought to ask.

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