Spam Kings
We got to read the uncorrected galley proof of Brian McWilliam's Spam Kings: The Real Story behind the High-Rolling Hucksters Pushing Porn, Pills, and Penis Enlargements, which is quite a story. Sometimes it's interesting where book reviews take us. Even though we've been covering spam problems for quite some time, this is quite simply the very first time we've ever had to use the word "penis" in an article. I guess there's a first for everything. Thanks, Brian!

The book, shown in Figure B, didn't get to us in final form before our publication deadline. As a result, although our proof shows the book at 256 pages, it might be different in publication. Uncorrected galley proofs are fun, because you get to see the book in a nearly final form, but you also tend to see a bit more of the author and a bit less of the editor in the book.

FIGURE B

Want to know who's sending you that email? Click picture for a larger image.

As the book tells it, Spam Kings chronicles five crucial years in the cat-and-mouse game between a dozen or so high-profile spammers and the people determined to drive them off the Internet. As a victim of spammers, I found this book an interesting read. I get thousands upon thousands of messages a day in my in-box because my email address is widely published.

On one hand, I despise what these spammers have done to the wonderful tool that's email, and on the other, I frankly despise what the spam fighters have done as well -- creating cures that are often short-sighted, harmful to the good guys, and easy for the evildoers to bypass.

Spam Kings is reasonably balanced. On McWilliams' resume, he describes himself as a business and technology reporter, with all the strengths and weaknesses that implies. Spam Kings is written as a story. It makes for a good read. But it lacks some of the depth you might like to see in understanding the bigger issues and the problems that still exist.

If you'd like to read a good story, and want to know about some of the more heinous crimes people have committed using email, this is definitely a good book. But if you really want to understand all the issues, then you need to look elsewhere. We give Spam Kings a rather interesting 4 out of 5.

OUR RATING: 4 of 5

FIGURE C

Not all books have to appeal to all people. Click picture for a larger image.

Written by Jonathan Land and published by No Starch Press, The Spam Letters is really tough to describe. Even after reading through the first third of the book, I'm still hard pressed to describe this beasty. The publisher claims that The Spam Letters is a collection of humorous, entertaining correspondence (and some bewildering replies) to people who send out mass junk emailings.

The publisher claims The Spam Letters itself is not a solution to spam woes and it won't reduce the amount of spam anyone receives (though the book does provide some tips for reducing spam). Still, it provides some sort of cathartic alternative to simply hitting delete or sending an unfruitful "PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME AGAIN" message to the people who send you this garbage.