I recently briefly reviewed a number of Twitter books for a hub which I decided not to publish, the reason being that most of them were just plane rubbish. I am not one to shirk away from being critical, in fact I am happy being just plain rude, but I didn't just skim read one crap book; they were all crap. That is with the exception of one little beauty, this bit of scarce natural resource from the Amazon (and I actually did buy it from Amazon) was actually worth a little bit of ozone layer depletion. It was called 'The Twitter Book'and was written by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein, whoever they are.

The book follows the same old objective of trying to tell you how you can use the World's latest successful social networking site as a means of boosting your online business, nothing new there then? The only difference is that every other book I attempted to read should be marketed with slogans such as 'This book is more effective than sleeping pills' or how about 'Buy this pointless shit book so it's needlessly long words can make you more afraid of Twitter than ever before'. This one is different, it's short and concise, is well presented, is written in a way that non-members of Mensa can understand, and is printed in full color with great diagrams throughout.

Now that we have established that the book doesn't intimidate the lazy readers like me, do their strategies and tips actually work? They promise to help you quickly become a 'Twitter Power User', so I thought that I would attempt to become one of these 'power users' within 24 hours, it didn't work of course, but I did add 5 new 'followers' after having been stuck firmly on 40 for 2 weeks, and to a Twitter newbie that sure is something! The truth is, I am just not committed enough at the moment to building up a major Twitter following, but this book would definitely show me the way to achieving this if I had the time and motivation. For the first time ever, I now believe that it is possible to add thousands of extra daily page views to my hubpages accounts and blog, despite having been reading various Twitter related stuff online for at least 9 months. This book is a great investment for online entrepreneurs and if I believe that it could add $10 per day to my online earnings, as a complete amateur and self-confessed lazy arse, then I dread to think how much potential there is for you hardworking types to unlock through Twitter.

I have also found out who Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein are too, they are ridiculously well respected social networkers with hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter, and I guess that they must be pretty damn minted because affiliate networkers and ad based publishers are following them around Twitter like a flock of stupid sheep. Maybe I am the stupid one, for not getting involved in this Tweeting malarkey sooner, it is over to you lot now to go and make yourself some money.I realise that I haven't covered any of the content, and the reason is simple, because it would be much easier for me - and for you - if I just told you what it lacks. And that is pretty much nothing, except (and there is always an exception or two isn't there?) a glossary, I did find myself slapping a few words into google whilst it would have been easier to flick to the back of the book. It would also have been useful for them to give examples of businesses and individuals who have become incredibly successful from Twitter, because even I know of a couple of Twitter millionaires, perhaps case studies would have enhanced it a little.

To summarise, this book is simply a must for anybody who is new to Twitter or has been using Twitter with little or no commercial success. I can't promise that it will make you a millionaire, but I can promise that it will open up whole new doors for any online business, micro-site developer, blogger, or affiliate marketer. With a retail price of just $19.99 (currently just $10.99 including free delivery if you buy from my Amazon link) this book is a shrewd investment, I give it 9/10; I bet they will make it a 10'er by the time the inevitable second edition arrives.