No venture better embodied Internet mania than Theglobe.com. And no individuals benefited more from the era's celebration of callowness and chutzpah than Todd Krizelman and Stephan Paternot, Theglobe's young founders.

Their story begins in 1994 at Cornell University, where the two college juniors dreamed up a Web site that hosted discussion groups and homepages. Within a year, they'd attracted a $20 million investment from former Alamo Rent-A-Car chief Michael Egan. Four years later, Theglobe.com debuted on the Nasdaq with what was then the biggest one-day run-up ever. That gave the boys a lotto-size payoff for a company whose business plan could be summed up with the word "community."

As in any good myth, the heroes got their comeuppance, sort of. By August 2000, Theglobe.com's stock was tanking and co-CEOs Krizelman and Paternot were forced out. In those six years, they tasted fame, fortune and a measure of infamy. A Very Public Offering is Paternot's recollection of that fleeting adventure.

Paternot, who reportedly hopes to star in a film version of his book, brings about as much skill to writing (even with the help of Details editor Andrew Essex) as he did to running Theglobe.com. His account is unsophisticated ("As CEO of a public company, you've got to be very careful with what you say"), his language sophomoric (Wayne Huizenga is "this massive businessman") and his analysis self-serving (he was the victim of hackers, message board touts, an acquisition-crazed Egan and the media).

Still, Paternot's book is interesting in a car-wreck sort of way. Schadenfreude-lovers will enjoy his breathless account of his own rise and fall. And would-be entrepreneurs with time on their hands might want to read the book as a cautionary tale.