Help I'm a FACEBOOKAHOLIC
Inside the Crazy World of Social Networking
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Whether it's a means of staying in touch with old friends or of making new enemies, Facebook -- which celebrates its 7th birthday in 2011 -- is impossible to ignore... In June an Irish MEP called for Facebook to be regulated as a health hazard, in the same way as alcohol and drugs. It's not hard to see why. According to experts at top addiction clinic, The Priory, one in ten of us is in danger of becoming addicted to Facebook, and in need of psychiatric help to recover. We log on compulsively to keep tabs on our friends (and, more importantly, our enemies), we obsessively acquire 'friends', even though we might not actually know them and we develop damaging insecurities as a result of the 'perfect' selves our 'friends' portray, believing that our own lives don't measure up. Worst of all, we're so busy leading our virtual lives that we forget to lead our actual ones. So what makes this social networking site so addictively popular? Well, it's the way FB has extended into every corner of our lives, changing the way we interact with one another. This book takes a lighthearted look at the site with a mixture of real-life stories, expert comment and useful tips.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Edinburgh Insp. John Rebus is far and away the greatest creation of best-selling author Ian Rankin, but neither the brooding, dogged detective nor his creator is well-served by this amateurish book. Cabell begins with an interesting premise: "I'm simply interested in the man and his creation here and the parallels between them." There are parallels, and Cabell strives mightily to unearth how Rankin developed his popular character (Rebus was "retired" in the 2007 novel Exit Music) through a combination of close reading of the books and interviews. But the results are rarely satisfactory. The writing is sloppy, and the insight isn't insightful enough to really "explain" the riddle that is John Rebus. Some of the best observations come from Rankin himself ("I think Rebus joined the Police Force because it allowed him to be a voyeur it allowed him to look into other people's lives rather than look into his own."). Cabell is better when he explores Rankin's other main character, Scotland, and, in particular, Edinburgh and the stark contrast between its public, tourist-friendly face and its background of crime and corruption. (He also provides some literary insight, pointing out the connections between Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the Rankin novels Knots and Crosses and Hide and Seek.) The volume includes nice photos of Rankin and Rebus's Edinburgh haunts as well as summaries of Rankin TV shows and a Rankin bibliography.
