I Hate the Internet

This is a book whose author calls out modern social media innovators, corporations, and techies; it deposes the sanctity of the internet using irony, blasphemy, irreverence, and obtuse language. Indeed, author Kobek lays biting waste to the affectedness of “it” people, modern day PR, and social media sites like Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook.The book was filled with at times incoherent and too lengthy rants and, yet, inside the narratives of pretty much unrelatable characters, whom I struggled to like, I felt a sense of their existential despair that roto rooters far deeper than the common refrain of “What’s it all about, Alfie?”The book opened up a stream of thought that maybe we lay people are being made fools of by the likes of the media Gods. He is a tell all author with no remorse!After reading the book, I now look at the internet and social media with a more skeptical eye! I now question is the ‘everywhereness’ of God, which is one person's version of the internet, is actually ruinous, nihilistic, and insidiously destructive. Indeed for author Kobek, nothing is sacrosanct!His is a book that serves up caustic derisiveness of the impact of social media along with a big dose of existential despair that maybe nothing really does matter after all!

Some of Kobek's writing is absolutely hilarious, and wickedly, darkly cynical about new media and all its attendant problems. Still, I had the feeling while reading that it was really a stand-up routine of periodic side-slapping humor, punctuated with long, rambling, redundant, uninteresting stretches of nonsense. A little more narrative glue would have helped, and perhaps he'll come around to that in the future. And it's not only a rant about social media and "the internet," but Kobek seems to be taking on the literary novel structure (and business of novel writing including writing a good novel) itself, with a kind of lame chapter 25, that describes what would have been in that chapter if the chapter was there. But it is there, so, well, I guess that sort of works as modern rebellion against the constraints of tradition. Sort of. Again, very biting and insightful take on the effect of new media channels on modern life, but he could have been much more successful with a touch more structure that would have required less of his readers and more from him.

I Hate the Internet shows San Francisco in mid-reinvention as Ground Zero for the digital revolution. With withering attacks on everything from the ethics of social media to a hilariously mean synopsis of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, this slice of urban life shines a light on the hypocrisy of the age.The fact that the author goes out of his way to put a dollar amount to the sum total of cash that Jack Kirby's work has earned for some one else at the box office is amazing. And this was pre-Black Panther.Recommended for anyone who wants to view social media with a skeptical eye.

Stylings take time to adapt to, but once you dive in, it's definitely a long distance read. Even the repetitions - there are many - "eumelanin in the basal stratum.." (repeated at least 200 times) become quickly lap-able. Tedious long last names - not so fun to read out loud, but ticklish. Perhaps publisher's response to first draft was that book needed to be longer? In that case this deserved revision. Original observations, SNIGLETS, history and fiction.I've made so many mistakes buying 5 star reviewed books. I have a library of rejects, and what to do with them? Do I stack it up in my molding pile for salvation army? Should I sell it on Amazon for 1 cent? This is keeper, a reference book, a text book. Certain to be nominated for the Mark Twain 2016 award for literature.

I liked the story, but the delivery was a rather frustrating read. And soooooo repetitive. Yes, the author chose this style on purpose - it just doesn't work. As others described it before: It might work as a stand-up routine, but in written form it just drags on and on.The author comes across as someone who'd love to hear himself talk, self-absorbed, not tolerating or accepting opinions other than his. At the same time he is trying hard to show how witty and smart he is and how many languages he speaks.The book written in a way that makes you feel like you can't really complain: The author told you this was a bad novel. Imagine someone asks you if you wanted to hear a joke. You say yes. He/She tells the joke and it's not funny, just bad. But when you say that, the other person just says you don't get the joke, instead of recognizing that the joke is just bad to begin with. Imagine the joke is several hundred pages long.PS: I can't speak for many of the other languages, but some of the German phrases are wrong. It would have been nice if the author or editor would have bothered enough to have the foreign languages checked.

This book can be compared to a lovely Campari cocktail; bitter, biting, campy, but ultimately exactly perfect for the moment. Kobek creates and then writes from inside intensely crafted structures. He overlays a series of short youtube-esque mini-screeds with heretical rants about nearly everything holy in a modern capitalist society. All of the book's actions are carried out by unlikeable characters who somehow become the reader's friends by the middle of the story. The summation of all of this is a terrible novel (but very good something else) that challenges what literary fiction means in 2017, while tweaking the beard of Uncle Sam and grabbing your mom's ass. I can't wait to read what Kobek's working on next.

This book is life-changing in conception, prose style, and ideology. Everyone should read this book. Believe the hype, peep holes, and there is no emperer and he isn't nekked.

I never feel compelled to finish a book if I'm not enjoying it, but I almost always give them a chance. A few years ago a gave up on page 19 of Dan Brown's Digital Fortress, and the kindest thing I can say about I Hate The Internet is that I made it to page 30. Pretentious, affected, badly-written garbage.

Funny, engaging and at times laugh out loud. This book is very good for a ‘bad novel’ throughly recommend this book.

Bought on behalf of my son. He says great book one of the best he's read!

Funny. Has stayed with me, and I think back to it quite regularly months later, which is a surprise given that it's structured a little like a late-night internet wormhole.

This is fantastic. I tend to hold that fifth star back for the special stuff, but this deserves it. Kobek throws a bowl of cold water in your face about once every ten pages.