I thought this was a really unique novel. It starts out very bleak, but ends on a much more uplifting note.

What an amazing book! I had a hard time putting it down, and whenever I did, I still felt like the book was with me, influencing my thoughts and actions. This is the kind of book I wish I could write, about the kinds of experiences I wish I could have.

A long wandering tale with interesting musings and insights and adequate mystery and doubt that kept me reading at a lazy relaxed pace.

Despite the intriguing story line (the main character wants to give away about $30K in a week while traveling around the world), I instead felt annoyed and irritated (and a bit restless to be reading or doing something else) while reading this. Who knows why - could be my mindset (I generally do like Eggers books, by the way - so yes, hate me), but there are way too many good books out there I'm itching to read. Time to move on...

This book is one of the most frustrating novels I have read. The characters have good back stories, the overall premise is great, and the opening paragraph is brilliant. That main issue I have is that both narrator and his right-hand-man are so bloody whiny. If they stopped looking at their bruised egos/navels I might be able to finish the book. Disappointing.

This is my first introduction to Dave Eggers.

And I think I would like him as a person, I just don't know if we get along that well in that "Author and Reader" kind of way.

I get it man, I think I really do. Live life like you dream life, fucking soar!

Right?

"You Shall Know Our Velocity" read a lot like my lonely days. Sometimes, I just do things to pass the time. Because it's too much to be alone with what's happening in your head. So I will keep busy to stay afloat until something better comes along.

Why do I need to read this to remind me that life is too hard some days. Regardless, Eggers did manage to create in this book a sense of whimsy that filled me up and then floated away.

Maybe I will appreciate the lightness of life some greener day.

Maybe I secretly did like this book.

Maybe you will too, secretly.

It's hard to know what to say about this one, and I'm not going to be able to sum it up in any meaningful way. I really enjoy the way that Dave Eggers writes most of the time, but often I want to grab him by the shoulders and suggest he calm down a little. His characters are so full of big ideas it's easy to get caught up in their enthusiasm, but sometimes they seem to display a complete absence of good sense and that can get frustrating after awhile. On the whole, I liked and was somewhat confused by this book.

manca le promesse. gi�� l'inizio, che �� per�� la fine, sembra promettere molto. e la storia c'��, ma non basta a farne un libro fluido e coinvolgente. �� troppo introspettivo e si perde tra mille elucubrazioni mentali. peccato, mi aspettavo molto di pi��.

La quarta stellina la aggiungo solo ed esclusivamente per la copertina cartonata e telata sulla quale �� scritto il primo capitolo del libro.

This is my second time reading this and I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I really love this book. It is a little slow at points, but I like the interaction between the two characters. I guess I can sympathize with the fact that they both want something more out of life.

I have a visceral aversion to Dave Eggers for a variety of reasons, many of which aren't particularly rational. He isn't really any more twee than, say, Jonathan Safran Foer, and I like Foer. (With a certain amount of self-hating non-hipster* guilt, naturally.)

Dave Eggers, though, is a little too obsessed with his own cleverness, and doesn't disguise it as well as many writers do. The first part of this book was twee beyond words - a journey! with two best friends! one of whom has a strange sexual fetish! and they have all this money and have to dispense it to deserving foreigners! The starving African motif was especially irritating. It was also excessively self-aware. The second part was the only saving grace -- beyond the mechanics of "good writing" -- wherein the friend of the first section's narrator enters into the manuscript and says, "Look, readers, about 65% of what you just read is straight up twee bullshit, and here's why."

I think my biggest problem is that I hated it while at the same time relating to it, which only served to make me hate it more. It's a little Catcher in the Rye for the late-twenties set, and I hated Catcher in the Rye, too. I'm not going to recommend it to anyone, but if you want to read it I won't try to dissuade you. It's not bad. It's just profoundly irritating.


*Seriously, fuck you, I'm not a hipster.

Life changing in its messge. If it doesn't change your life, at least it will provide you with amazing prose.

Basically one of the most idealistic modern fairy tales I’ve read. Eggers is definitely a talented writer as I just could not stop reading. The book is not without it’s flaws, though. Eggers’ wide eyed naïve view of the world is seldom shaken, and save for Will’s self effacing monologues the story exists without any real conflict. Yeah, okay, Will is internally conflicted but it just wasn’t enough for me. And the main characters, though great to read about, are still the only real voices throughout the novel…and Hand gets really annoying after the first hundred pages or so. Still, this is a fantastic read and definitely worth your time.