The Book of Awesome is Out

April 15, 2010 | Reviews

At first glance we could not be more different.

While the Shark Guys are known to seed a cloud if a parade is happening by, Neil at www.1000awesomethings.com is all about acknowledging the simple pleasures of everyday living, which, for all we know, he might soon abandon if this new-found success gets to his head. We kid.

However, there are similarities.

Like ourselves, Neil is a Torontonian (well, the top half of the Shark Guys, hemispherically-speaking, is one too. The other, a former Toronto resident, weathers repeated threats to the established social order in Bangkok). Neil is also a contributor to the excellent website FARK, who’ve been extremely good to us Shark Guys; In addition, he is part of our extended family that is the multinational publishing empire, Penguin Group.

His new book, based on his very popular website, is called The Book of Awesome and chronicles everyday awesome things such as orange slices at soccer game half-time (to which he might’ve added, watered down Gatorade mix to wash it all down), high-fiving babies, universal fry-sharing, ugly actors and the other, non drool-filled side of a pillow.

As kids whose school attendance rivaled opposition parties in legislatures of totalitarian states, we really appreciated his ‘awesome’ designation of ‘Snow days’, fortuitous bits of precipitation that kept us comfortably snacking in front of the television. Ditto his lauding ‘the smell of books’. By all accounts, his new book—favorably reviewed in the New Yorker, Wired, the Guardian and Toronto Star just to name a few— is worth a whiff.

A big congratulations to Neil Pasricha. It’s a great concept and looks like a helluva lot of fun.

Pick up a copy at your better bookstores, your poorly-stocked soon-to-be-going-belly-up bookstores, or online.