Facebook serves as inspiration for student's book

Procrastination may have paid off for UW-River Falls student Zach Nagle.

  Nagle compiled, wrote and published his first booklet entitled “Facebook Quotes.”

  “[The idea] came to me during finals week last spring,” Nagle said in an e-mail interview. “I was procrastinating in the best way I know possible: browsing Facebook. I came across a few quotes that I thought were funny enough that they should be shared with as many people as possible, so I threw them into a word document and continued browsing. By the end of the week I had over two pages of quotes that I thought were pretty funny. That’s when I knew if I put in enough time, I could find enough quotes to warrant a book.”

  Nagle’s idea got put on the backburner as the summer of 2007 progressed, but once the fall semester started he began researching self-publishing and realized that it really was a feasible option for him.

  “I cut my winter break short and came back to RF a few weeks early with the goal of finishing the book before the start of spring semester,” he said. “It took me a little longer than anticipated, but I finished the book in the middle of February.”

  And although a lot of people do not know about Nagle’s book, those who do have given him positive responses.

  “I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that for a lot of college students, Facebook is their favorite Web site, so it’s not suprising they’re excited about a book celebrating something they use on a daily basis.”

  The book is broken into five different sections of quotes including: Sex (and relationships), Alcohol, Intelligent Statements, Randoms and Professor Sayings.

  “I tried to find quotes that summed up most of what makes the college experience unique and exciting for many people,” Nagle said. “I tried to keep my editorial observations to a minimum in the book because I think there are plenty of quotes that are a lot funnier than anything I could write.”

  Nagle found all the quotes in his book by looking through an estimated almost 1,000 different profiles. He said a majority of the quotes were from the UWRF network.

  “The book doesn’t contain famous quotes or sayings,” Nagle said. “These are strictly quotes said in conversations involving the real lives of college students.”

  While it may seem easy to gather quotes to compile into a booklet, Nagle said it was a task he quickly grew tired of.

  “There were stretches where I wouldn’t find anything funny for 20 or 30 profiles and I would just want to give up,” he said. “Some people have ridiculously boring profiles. Categorizing the quotes and selecting which would make the cut was also no easy task. There are a lot of quotes that are kind of funny but are ‘you had to be there moments,’ so I did my best to eliminate those.”

  Nagle is self-publishing his book. He wrote, laid out and designed the cover.  He also found a printing company online that is located in Davenport, Iowa, where he had the book published.

  For those who want to purchase the book, it is now available at the University Bookstore in the University Center and online at the Web site http://www.fb-quotes.com.
Copies are $10 each and quantities are limited.