Bookish Oscars

Best Documentary: Favourite Non-fiction Book – The Internet is a Playground by David Thorne

Let’s all agree that generalizations are pretty awful. Most of the time they’re just used as an excuse to justify dumb stereotypes and when people make them it kind of makes us want to punch them in the throat. I’m not alone in is this, right?

The thing is, as a diehard fiction fan (particularly YA) I stupidly generalized all non-fiction as boring, self-help type books that had no business taking up valuable real estate on my bookshelf. I’ll say it again – I. Was. Stupid. Completely and utterly judgemental and dumb.

Luckily for me, on occasion, my brother is a lot smarter than I am and practically beat me into reading some non-fiction books that totally blew me away with their awesomeness. I learned that non-fiction comes in all shapes and sizes and that I should hold off on unfair judgements. One of those books is my choice for the best non-fiction category – The Internet is a Playground by David Thorne.

I do not own any camping gear, but this is not a problem, as I have watched every season of Survivor

A word of advice – do not, I repeat, DO NOT read this book in public unless you’re comfortable being looked at like a fucking lunatic for laughing uncontrollably. I’ll keep it honest – that’s putting it lightly. In reality I looked like a morbidly-obese seal clapping for fish while gasping for breath. Believe it or not, but I’ve looked sexier.

The first time I came across David Thorne was when my (occasionally smarter) brother sent me a link to a blog post entitled Missing Missy about a series of emails between Thorne and one of his co-workers regarding her missing cat. I shriek-laughed so hard and loud I caught the unwanted attention of literally everyone working around me, including my manager. And yes – it was just as awkward as you’d imagine.

The Internet is a Playground is basically a series of correspondence between Thorne and everyone from various co-workers, to his doctor to a blockbuster employee and pushing rather basic, everyday situations until the point of absolute hilarity and ridiculousness.

If you’re a little on the fence about non-fiction or even just in need of a good, clench-your-legs-together-so-you-don’t-pee-your-pants kind of laugh then do yourself a solid and go and grab this book or take a look at his website. I honestly can’t recommend this book enough. 

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