"I'm going to spend the next week diligently working on my novel and re-evaluating some of my most fundamental beliefs."

"For those wondering, I am still working on my novel. I put in 7 hours today and am planning a full day tomorrow. Follow along on #facebook!"

"Did I mention that I had been working on my #novel for 9-10 hours straight? Yeah, I think that should be mentioned."

American artist Cory Arcangel specialises in digital works that are both emotionally engaging and amusing. Career highlights include a performance of Arnold Schoenberg's Drei Klavierstücke created by cutting together clips of cute YouTube kittens playing the piano, and Super Mario Clouds, a Super Mario game which had all its graphics removed, save for the clouds.

His latest project is a book titled Working on my Novel, based on his Twitter account of the same name. It is simply a collection of tweets that include the phrase "working on my novel". Their combined effect is, at once, funny, sad and oddly touching.

Highlights include: "I'm working on my novel again, and it feels good, you guys. I love my mind", "Working on my novel and watching Family Guy. Oh yeah", and "I guess not working on my novel for a few days works for me cuz once I begin again I dominate".

The book gets to the heart of how the internet encourages us to procrastinate and overshare. How can any of these people be working on their novel if they're "eating pasta and reading East of Eden"? If you constantly have to assure the world that you are working on your novel, will you ever finish it?

Arcangel has said that the book is not a joke at the expense of the people featured in it, and that it is underpinned by kindness not cruelty. After all, when there is TV to be watched and mundane information to be shared, it can be hard to get back to becoming the next Jonathan Franzen.