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