The only reason I give this book 2 stars is because I found myself strangely thinking about it at random times of day, wondering what would happen next and if the book would ever redeem itself.

Being an office worker at a software company for a greater part of my career thus far, I immediately thought I would identify with the narrative. Sadly, Coupland's attempts to pinpoint the twenty-something tech culture are lost in misguided buzzwords and off-target tech speak. Sorry Doug, Chrono Trigger was not a PlayStation game.

Lastly, the copious amount of horribly ridiculous situational comedy is too much for even the cheesiest of TV networks. I'm really surprised this got picked up even by a backwards Canadian cable network.

"The three-hour meeting had taken place in a two-hundred-seat room nicknamed the air-conditioned rectum. I tried to make the event go faster by pretending to have superpower vision: I could see the carbon dioxide pumping in and out of everyone's nose and mouth - it was purple. It made me think of that urban legend about the chemical they put in swimming pools that reveals when somebody pees. Then I wondered if Leonardo da Vinci had every inhaled any of the oxygen molecules I was breathing, or if he ever had to sit through a marketing meeting. What would that have been like? " Leo, thanks for you input, but our studies indicate that when they see Lisa smile, they want a sexy, flirty smile, not that grim little slit she has now. Also I don't know what that closet case Michelangel is thinking with that naked David guy, but Jesus, clamp a diaper onto him pronto. Next item on the agenda: Perspective - Passing Fad or Opportunity to Win? But first, Katie here is going to tell us about this Friday's Jeans Day, to be followed by a ten-minute muffin break."
But the word "turtle" pulled me out my reverie . . ." - From JPod.

Coupland has an uncanny ability to take items from the zeitgeist and place them into a narrative that is fun to read. We all have those goofy moments at work when we wondered 'why are we are here for this ' or 'did I need all my education for this?' This book takes all those moments and puts them together into one fun place. Also check out the TV series based on the book at www. cbc.ca/jpod .

The trouble with writing something so zeitgeisty is that within 10 years your books is going to be very, very dated. Coupland is funny and obviously (was) immersed in digital culture at the time, but the story is all over the place plot-wise and the characters are paper thin. This is all a vessel for Coupland's tricksiness - I used to love his flashy nonsense, but this time I was completely underwhelmed.

Douglas Coupland has no problem referencing himself in his books, but has a sense of humour about it. If you can get through the pages of prime numbers and random numbers, there are definitely moments of inspiration.

Strange in a way too, that this book is a freeze-frame of Vancouver as I left it back in 2005 - everything from the gaming and film industry, to the condo springing up everywhere, and the dead biker/drug-dealers buried beneath them. Lots to remind me of home, and perhaps why I left it all behind. Read a review of Coupland's newest, Gum Thief, and wonder if I will be going to Staples anytime soon.

Hilarious, clever and net-new approach to the entertaining word. Old fav.

No rating: did not finish.

Some years ago I read Douglas Coupland's Microserfs and liked it -- it was a penetrating look into the lives of IT workers, told through fictional but clearly based-on-life characters. JPod, however, is mere farce -- absurdity piled on absurdity. The main character is the son of a mother who kills a biker and buries the body in her basement; later, with his mother, he holds up and robs another group of bikers. Through a friend of his brother's, he becomes part of an illegal Chinese immigrant sumggling ring. Page after page is filled with giant type, mere collections of symbols and Microsoft wingding characters, padding out what in fact is a novelette, if that. I don't know what additional absurdities Coupland planned to inflict on me, because I gave up less than a third of the way into the story. Nothing in JPod is in any way connected to life as we know it . . . Coupland is coasting; JPod is not worth reading.

This book started off pretty strong, but became disappointing after maybe 100 pages, and never picked up from there. I kept hoping it would pull itself out of the death spiral, but no.

448 pages. I would estimate that this breaks down into:

* 24 pages of fun cultural references
* 12 pages of things that will entertain programmers
* 15 pages of things that will offend programmers
* 164 pages of things that will offend Chinese people, lesbians, ballroom dancers, people who work in offices, vegetarians, carnivores, etc., etc.
* 95 pages of people actively not working
* 1 page that vaguely suggests someone might be working
* 75 pages of lists of things (eg, 3-letter words used in Scrabble)
* 62 pages of literary masturbation

If you actually read that entire list, you might make it through the book, but that's isn't meant as a recommendation.

Vaag maar entertaining. Gelezen in vertaling, die af en toe inconsistent was.

" Microserfs for the age of Google" is how this is oft-described. That's pretty accurate, really. Stylistically, it's much the same—which was nice, because Microserfs is pretty much my favorite  Douglas Coupland book. (I have now read ALL of them! *sob* Well, except for the one written in Japanese and released only in Japan.) What surprised me is how much more cynical this book is. I mean, not that Microserfs is without cynicism, but there's an innocence to it, a wonder. I don't think anyone would have any trouble figuring out that  jPod is the book written by the older man (and that's even without the authorial self-insertion stuff—which I alternate between finding funny and being made deeply uncomfortable by). jPod is like Microserfs but without the hope for reinvention and redemption. I still enjoyed the book a lot—it's really funny, and the parts that are just Ethan and his fellow jPodders goofing off and being geeky were great. But unlike Microserfs, the world of jPod is not one I would want to live in. It's cold there.

witty, funny, Canadian.

An enjoyable novel that is both funny at several occasions and entertaining in that the action of the story would always spark my curiosity. Perhaps an odd book that is somewhat experimental but mostly very youthful and ironic, postmodern. The main story is great and while most (if not all) of the "experimental" bits of the book - for example 2 entire pages full of small dollar signs and 1 just saying "ramen noodles" repeatedly or a page with just the information that one finds in a product (e.g. Nissin's Oriental Noodle Soup with its barcode and other info) - can be seen as a commentary and product of today's society some of it is a bit too much. The pages where I cannot understand the references are tolerable but endless pages of numbers - made by one of the characters throwing a challenge at his co-workers - feel endless and like Coupland is just making fun of the reader, which does not have to be bad, but I found it boring towards the end. However I love the way he flows so easily between plain narration, crazy experimental bits that one struggles to figure out and then emails and assignments that the characters do - it just exhibits perfectly the society we are in, one that is always "multi-platformed" and engaged in media. Also the characters while, taking part in annoying actions that would make me want to explode my own head if I had to endure, are still quite lovable which is impressive.

3.5 rounded up