Title : Twitchhiker
Author : Paul Smith
As the name says it all, “Twitchikker: how one man travelled the world by twitter”, by Paul Smith, is a story where one day a unique idea hits protagonist’s mind and he rolled up his sleeves in order to make the idea work.Discover in the book how he started this journey and how far he reached.
As the back cover says ‘ THE FIVE RULES OF A TWITCHHIKER :
– You can only accept offers of travel and accomodation from people on Twitter.
-You can’t make any travel plans further than three days in advance.
-You can only spend money on food,drink and anything that fits in your suitcase.
-If there is more than one offer, you choose.If there is only one, you have to take it within 48 hours.
– If you are unable to move on from a location within 48 hours, the challenge is over and you go home.
BORED IN THE SUPERMARKET ONE DAY, Paul wonders how far he can get in 30 days through the goodwill of fellow ‘Twitter’ing social networkers. He sets his sights on Campbell Island near New Zealand- the point on the planet opposite to his home in Newcastle.In an adventure wrapped in nonsense, he travels by car, bus, boat, plane and train, sleeps in five-star luxury and on-star sofas, resorts to the hair of the dog in multiple time zones and schmoozes with Hollywood A-listers- all the while wearing the same pair of underpants.’
First look at the book and it smelled like it is presented to serve me something very delightful and humourous.Both the title and the subtitle seemed fascinating and unique.
Utilization of Twitter in a fruitful manner is the concept of the book.As far as,the story paces slowly, giving every inch of detail of protagonist (the protagonist himself narrates) ,how the idea pops up in his mind, how the idea worked, how he get the chance to visit different and fascinating places of the world with the help of social networking site called Twitter, and the ups and downs he had faced during his ventures at various places.
Author has chosen a great theme to gain reader’s attention at first sight. Outline of the story is good, but could be executed in a much better way. Author owns a different writing style and I kind of like it.The backbone of the book is the narrating fashion of the author.Albeit, there is nothing so mesmerizing to read in this book, still it kept me glued to it just because of the presentation.Though it is good to know how one can travel the world by Twitter and this unique idea surely gains one of my vote.
So many events amalgamated in the story, but very few are different from others while rest of them sound uninteresting and repetitive.The different places he had visited could be presented in a much better way, the way in which one can atleast have the charm to imagine those places,feel the new ambience and feel indulged in the book.I also felt that there should be some more events (different and unique) so that readers would be glued to the story.
Instead of 340 pages,this book could be possibly be covered in 150 pages with precise description and in this way author’s motive would be accomplished quite nicely.
A light read obviously with a pinch of humour( the different idea and theme) served before readers in order to show them how author has made a good use of Twitter.
Rating : 3/5
Reviewer : Shweta Kesari
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