This week’s internet reviews

Autumn leaves — Go on, kick them leaves about... 1,000 Awesome Things. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

1,000 Awesome Things

Consumer angst has turned western civilisation into a morass of grumpy old men moaning about shoddy battery life of iPhones or the annoying omnipresence of accident claims adverts when you just want to watch a daytime quiz show. So sometimes, it's nice to remind yourself of life's sweeter side and the pleasures to be had from the small things – like peeling the thin plastic film off new electronic gadgets, stomping on dry leaves, walking faster alongside cars stuck in a traffic jam, reuniting odd socks, and sneaking your own cheap snacks into cinemas. This site deserves its recent Webby Award; life really is awesome after all.

Manituana

Wu Ming is a collective of Italian writers who, although not entirely anonymous (they like to be called Wu Ming 1, Wu Ming 2, etc), refuse to be photographed or filmed. Manituana is their most recent work, written between 2003 and 2007 and just translated into English, an epic that spans the American civil war and the underworld of 18th-century London, weaving together real and fictional events. Like many recent event books Manituana has its own movie-style trailer alongside a wealth of online bonuses from Google Earth location maps to MP3 downloads of music inspired by various chapters alongside stories and articles connected to the novel. Once you've finished reading the book, a few questions unlock bonus levels of the site.