I just dropped the book on the table and I'm thinking of rereading many of its parts. It's amazing how much one can learn from a work of fiction so cleverly crafted and so loyal to the culture it intends to explore. What Coupland achieved is a truly fascinating take on why the Valley ignites so much obsession, even decades before HBO's Silicon Valley came along.

The way Dan and his friends are portrayed is worryingly relatable to many of us who in any level deal with technology and its culture. The whole 'having a life' trope ends being exquisite. And in the end, I cried. That's always something to celebrate.

DNF - I had enjoyed a previous book by Coupland and dove into this one with anticipation but quickly realized that nope, not the same. This one is the story of a programmer, his entourage, and their day-to-day lives at Microsoft in the '90s. Some funny and nostalgic moments in the pages I read but after a while it just got tedious. So many books, so little time. Sorry Dougie.

I just chose this as my favorite book in the 30 Days Book Challenge on Facebook, so I might as well review it, even though "favorite book" is a nebulous distinction at best and "what's your favorite book?" is a stupid fucking question and I am afraid this might be a sentimental favorite more than anything else.

So yeah, I read this when I was 14 or 15. I bought it because it had a neat mirror cover with a Lego man. I didn't know Douglas Coupland was the voice of a generation, and anyway, it wasn't even MY generation. I was a dorky high school kid, but not dorky in any way much connected to computer programming, so there was no reason for me fall for a book about a bunch of cynical Microsoft employees living in pre-tech boom Silicon Valley.

But I loved it. I read and re-read it through high school and college. It is a super-dated '90s time capsule now, but it felt entirely new and fresh to me back then, and in many ways, it predicted how technology and the internet would explode all over our lives by the end of that decade. It's also basically like reading someone's LiveJournal or blog -- the book takes the form of a digital journal kept by the narrator -- which wasn't something you could just do back then. It isn't just the diary entries that tell the story, it's the everything else: run-downs of dream Jeopardy! categories for all of the characters, musings on pop culture minutia like the sociological messages communicated by various cereal mascots [Cap'n Crunch -- Reasons this cereal is decadent: a) Colonialist exploiter pursues naive Crunchberry cultures to plunder. b) Drunkenness, torture and debauchery implicit in long ocean cruises.] Lots of lists. Lots of navel-gazing.

It was what I imagined being an adult would be like: working at a job you felt ambivalent about with a bunch of people who became your closest friends, sharing inside jokes and slowly gathering the wisdom that comes with age. I was too introverted in college and made the mistake of living alone, and I would read this and yearn for that kind of connection and camaraderie. Sappy, I know.

I haven't read it since at least 2005, right after I picked up a paperback to replace the hardcover copy that I had read into tatters (the only book I have ever done that for). I have fond memories of the characters, I remember the whole plot, I still reference sections randomly (most often this part about how different parts of your body store emotional pain). I kind of never want to read it again. I might hate it: I certainly haven't read a Coupland book since that was a quarter as endearing (and I read a lot of them before I realized I was chasing the dragon). It is self-conscious and twee and post-modern and has a bunch of different fonts and, like, entire pages filled with a single word or random nonsense or ones and zeroes or no vowels, followed by all vowels. It is big and sloppy and emotional and I don't know if I am still big and sloppy and emotional enough to love it liked I used to.

Sure, favorite book. Why not.

Facebook 30 Day Book Challenge Day 1: Favorite book.

A tale of boring first-world problems narrated by an early 90s whiner. Skip it.

Being I have not read this book since it was published in 1995. And it being a novel heavily based on technology and it's industry of the mid-nineties, the book is dated. Email use is actually explained and the internet is referred to "The Information Superhighway". (Not really the "Self-Promoting Surface Streets" it turned out to be.)

With all that said, I am finding it difficult to actually think about this book as a novel. It seemed more like an immersion in commerce/industry and it's affects on the human consciousness. The characters in the book live in a world without literature, art, music and seemly even a marginal interest in general social skills. Their insights and activities reflect in a soulless existence. As a result they all seem more than a tad ahistorical and sad. The story shows them quietly desperate for some meaning in their lives that their products fail to provide.

Douglas Coupland has the character's performing in an endless dog and pony show to prove their cleverness for the reader, to each other and to keep the story upbeat. And over and over again he likes to tell us what genius's all the character's are, which proves to be annoying after 150 pages of such. (And that being yet another personal pet peeve of mine is when authors tell you what genius's characters are.)

Coupland does in the story make an attempt to show a relationship between the body and the machine but it seems hammy and silly at best.

Nevertheless, being a person who actually lived in the Bay area during this hey day of technology, I enjoyed the story more or less as a reflection of that period and how my outlook of the world has evolved fifteen years later.

Im trying read more Douglas Copeland. It’s pretty interesting if your into the 90s. Not sure how I feel about epistolary novels, kinda hard for me to follow the plot.

Perhaps impossible to reconcile this book with its spiritual sequel, J-Pod, and Coupland’s increasingly stylish, bite-sized essaying and storytelling later in his career. This is vastly superior in nearly every way (excepting a single notable transphobic remark).

This was a surprise. I really really loved this novel. A fascinating snapshot of the 1990's tech industry from the POV of an early Gen X software tester and programmer. Doesn't sound like it would be entertaining? It blew me away, it was so fun and hilarious, from the pseudo-deification of Bill Gates (referred to only as "Bill"---said with the gravity of saying "God"), to the Lego decorated office, to the pet hamsters named "Look" and "Feel," to the typical 90's Gen-X conversations--philosophizing over pop culture (cereals, 70's TV shows, childhood toys, etc).

There were more serious themes too, such as finding love, how older generations are lost on the new tides of the technology boom, finding purpose and meaning in life after the success-driven 1980's. So, even though it was a fun book, it wasn't shallow.

perché mica ti fa tornare indietro. anzi. ti fa capire quanto sei arrivato tardi. poi però chiudi il libro e chiudi la storia, con una scrollata di testa. che quel libro andava preso quando ancora c'era sugli scaffali, ma mica lo sapevi che coupland non lo ristampano. arriverà, arriverà, poi ci metti anni a deciderti a prenderlo dall'amazzone. e allora, tac! improvvisamente è tardi. troppo lontano dai fax, troppo prima dei cellulari, in una generazione in cui non ti riconosci più e che non esiste più.
certi libri vanno letti quando è il loro momento. altrimenti sono solo degli esorcismi. che servono sempre, eh. ma ecco se fossero in tempo per dire di più sarebbe meglio.

Los nerds consiguen lo que quieren cuando lo quieren y se ponen histéricos si no lo logran en el acto.
Son capaces de obsesionarse muchísimo. Supongo que ése es el problema. Aunque precisamente esta capacidad de concentración la que hace que sean tan buenos programando: una solo línea cada vez, una línea tras otra en una sucesión de millones de líneas.

Qué puedo decir de Microsiervos, además que es un libro gordo muy entretenido porque habla de nerds y geeks, peores que yo, que es una obra ubicada en Seattle y California de 1993 a 1994 y que cuenta por medio de una diario (lo que hoy se conoce como un blog) los pormenores de una pandilla de raros y solos y autistas que programan y programan y programan por disciplina y porque no saben hacer otra cosa productiva en la vida.

Vivo mi vida día a día, una línea tras otra de programa sin errores

Claro, son 20 años de diferencia, de tiempo transcurrido, y no importa, porque lo que describe Douglas Coupland se puede ver en el Valle de Aburrá, por ejemplo, donde que todos mis amigos o conocidos, están apostándole al código como poesía y como trabajo, y nos arriesgamos a crear empresas de videos, multimedias, y servicios web.

En los Ángeles, todo el mundo está escribiendo un guión. En New York, todo el mundo está escribiendo una novela. En San Francisco, todo el mundo esta desarrollando un producto multimedia

Obvio, no es lo mismo ser esclavo para Microsoft y vivir en Silicon Valley que en Medellín, pero el frikismo es el mismo. Y a veces más. Por eso a cada pagina el libro me gustaba más, porque el uso de la cotidianidad vacía y repetitiva y hasta absurda de los gustos y acciones de la generación que vivimos de los computadores, es poesía de la desesperanza humana y al mismo tiempo la muestra que somos una especie de materia que se ha inventado un banco de información intangible que ha avanzado la humanidad como nunca es su cochina existencia.

Se mire como se mire, las máquinas son nuestro inconsciente. Me refiero a que no llegaron seres del espacio exterior a la tierra y nos hicieron máquinas... las hemos hecho nosotros. De modo que las máquinas solo pueden ser producto de nuestro ser y, como tales, ventanas a nuestras almas... si examinamos las máquinas que construimos y la clase de cosas que metemos en ellas, tenemos un dato único y fiable de cómo estamos evolucionando.

Douglas Coupland es un profeta. Y cuando digo profeta quiero decir un descifrador del futuro observando muy bien el incoloro y aburrido presente de los parques tecnológicos y de los garajes de los emprendedores.

La @ podría convertirse en el “Mc” o el “Mac” del próximo milenio.

No es profecía que anuncia terremotos, porque no se puede, porque no se ven, porque todo los cambios revolucionarios que los computadores provocaban hace 20 años, y hoy, son internos de cada ser y cada individuo y que cada uno los toma y los armoniza con sus tradiciones, y el resultado es lo que estamos viviendo en el mundo de multiconectado de hoy.

Los ordenadores te enseñan algo importante, y es que no tiene sentido recordarlo todo. Lo importante es ser capaz de encontrar cosas.

Por último, es una obra literaria muy divertida, llena de humor. De humor negro, geek, de nerds, pero humor al fin y al cabo. Ya quiero leerme el resto de libros de Coupland!

A la gente que no tiene vida propia le gusta juntarse con otros que tampoco tienen vida propia. Así forman vidas.

queria tanto!!! um dia terei esse livro físico e serei muito feliz pq vou poder marcar ele de lapis colorido e marcar os dialogos fofos e reler varias vezes e mostrar pros meus filhos (ler pro meu gato)

è un libro del '95, eppure dentro c'è già molto di quello che avrebbe segnato una certa parte della società nel decennio successivo (e credo anche in quello in corso), tanto nelle vicende e nei caratteri dei personaggi quanto in quegli elenchi di termini e frasi che dan butta giù nel file "subconscio" (che alla fine appaiono come un'estremizzazione del dizionario a margine delle pagine di "generazione x"). non ci fosse stato "generazione x" mi verrebbe da definirlo il libro migliore di coupland.
peccato che nell'edizione in mio possesso -la prima- ci siano una manciata di errori di traduzione decisamente fastidiosi...