Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
I picked this up again after 15+ years for the sake of a bit of comfort reading. It has its charms, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I was expecting. The pop philosophy comes across as contrived and naïve, and I didn't really fall in love with the characters this time round. That said, it captures the early-90s tech zeitgeist pretty well, and is a fun novel for programmers, with a few interesting ideas.
AMC’s “Halt and Catch Fire” is one of my all-time favorite shows. When it recently ended (and stuck the landing, might I add) I was craving something very niche – a humane look at the tech world in the 1990s, and the people in that world.
Thank goodness for the Net, because the Halt and Catch Fire’s subreddit developed a recommended reading list. That’s how I found writer/artist Douglas Coupland’s microserfs. It’s a novel about some low level Microsoft employees (microserfs) who decide to strike out on their own in California.
While it’s a novel, it feels more like non-fiction. While reading it I often wondered whether it was semiautobiographical. I know Coupland is a prolific writer and artist, but I’m not sure how much of this book is from his own life. If it’s not, I’m even more impressed because the world he creates is very lived in. His characters’ tech musings were prescient, to say the least. The book was published in 1995 and it brings up many social issues we face today.
Told as a long series of journal entries on a PowerBook, the book covers several years as Dan the protagonist and his motley band of nerdy friends grow from something tech worker units into real people. For various reasons, they want more out of life than serving as drones working long hours at a stable giant organization. When one of their friend group starts his own company in California, they go with him. Along the way they explore life outside of the screen, philosophy, relationships, bodies, Vegas, and more. In one sense, it’s kind of like a stilted coming of age story. However, Coupland’s writing elevates the book into more than that. There are times when simple little sweet scenes really provide a gut punch of what living feels like, and those reminded me so much of Halt and Catch Fire that I’ll hold on to my copy of this book for an occasional re-read.
Thank goodness for the Net, because the Halt and Catch Fire’s subreddit developed a recommended reading list. That’s how I found writer/artist Douglas Coupland’s microserfs. It’s a novel about some low level Microsoft employees (microserfs) who decide to strike out on their own in California.
While it’s a novel, it feels more like non-fiction. While reading it I often wondered whether it was semiautobiographical. I know Coupland is a prolific writer and artist, but I’m not sure how much of this book is from his own life. If it’s not, I’m even more impressed because the world he creates is very lived in. His characters’ tech musings were prescient, to say the least. The book was published in 1995 and it brings up many social issues we face today.
Told as a long series of journal entries on a PowerBook, the book covers several years as Dan the protagonist and his motley band of nerdy friends grow from something tech worker units into real people. For various reasons, they want more out of life than serving as drones working long hours at a stable giant organization. When one of their friend group starts his own company in California, they go with him. Along the way they explore life outside of the screen, philosophy, relationships, bodies, Vegas, and more. In one sense, it’s kind of like a stilted coming of age story. However, Coupland’s writing elevates the book into more than that. There are times when simple little sweet scenes really provide a gut punch of what living feels like, and those reminded me so much of Halt and Catch Fire that I’ll hold on to my copy of this book for an occasional re-read.
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
No sé que estaba esperando de este libro, así que en realidad no sé que conclusiones sacar: si el objetivo era presentar una serie de entradas epístolares sin mucha cohesión entre ellos, es algo que se logra a la perfección (leyendo algo del contexto histórico del libro, aprendí que es el predecesor de los blogs modernos así que, a lo mejor, sí era ese el objetivo).
La falta de cohesión hace que los cambios de ritmo sean muy drásticos y que, muchas veces el uso del lenguaje se sienta forzado (como las metáforas comparando el mundo, físico y de las ideas, con algún aspecto de la computadora) pero en general no está tan mal.
Si alguien quiere un poco de contexto histórico, apreciará esta fotografía de lo que era la industria del software en Seattle y Silicon Valley a principio de los 1990's, nada más, no se fijen tanto en los viajes filosóficos de los personajes y no se imagen esto en forma de película indie con Zooey Deschanel como Karla...Dios sabe que yo lo hice.
La falta de cohesión hace que los cambios de ritmo sean muy drásticos y que, muchas veces el uso del lenguaje se sienta forzado (como las metáforas comparando el mundo, físico y de las ideas, con algún aspecto de la computadora) pero en general no está tan mal.
Si alguien quiere un poco de contexto histórico, apreciará esta fotografía de lo que era la industria del software en Seattle y Silicon Valley a principio de los 1990's, nada más, no se fijen tanto en los viajes filosóficos de los personajes y no se imagen esto en forma de película indie con Zooey Deschanel como Karla...Dios sabe que yo lo hice.
It's a strange time to read a book like this. When it came out it would have been very current regarding technology and computers and even other cultural details like the GAP. Now it's practically retro, almost like an old 80s movie. "How geeky we all were then." And yet it still has a futuristic, almost dystopic feel. Yet read this book in 20 or 30 or more years from now, and it will be an excellent historical fiction depicting this lifestyle in a profound way. It's a great commentary on consumerism, technology, social units...
Bound to be a classic.
Bound to be a classic.
It's not quite five stars, but there are enough good points it's more than 4.
What a weird ride! This covers so much of the tech and attitudes of geek culture in the early 90s, and ideas about the changing landscape of technology and society, it's fascinating.
This is the story of a particular coder working at Microsoft, and his journey into other areas, and exploring the difference between Seattle and Silicon Valley, and even Las Vegas. A big tech convention (CES) meets in Las Vegas. This is a much more realistic look at geeks and nerds of the time, and doesn't exploit them the way they do in Big Bang Theory, which makes sense, a book has a different kind of audience, and can tell a story more on its own terms than a TV show can.
I liked the way things unfolded, and there are some real moments that don't *quite* fit the story, but they feel like life, things happen, and you deal with them, the best you can.
What a weird ride! This covers so much of the tech and attitudes of geek culture in the early 90s, and ideas about the changing landscape of technology and society, it's fascinating.
This is the story of a particular coder working at Microsoft, and his journey into other areas, and exploring the difference between Seattle and Silicon Valley, and even Las Vegas. A big tech convention (CES) meets in Las Vegas. This is a much more realistic look at geeks and nerds of the time, and doesn't exploit them the way they do in Big Bang Theory, which makes sense, a book has a different kind of audience, and can tell a story more on its own terms than a TV show can.
I liked the way things unfolded, and there are some real moments that don't *quite* fit the story, but they feel like life, things happen, and you deal with them, the best you can.
