This - I suppose - is my new favourite book of the nineties.

Dan, Michael, Susan, Todd, Bug, Karla and Abe are children of the digital revolution, genuine geeks: their valence scales are expressed in codes und win quotes.
How they flee from Microsofts „slavery“ and establish their own software business is told by Dan in the form of a diary. He is 26 when he falls in love for the first time, when he discovers another world ... outside of the computer.

The other world is stunningly, amazingly beautiful. It’s a forlorn beauty, like the ones you find in Hopper’s paintings, slightly bewildering, deeply touching. but a cheerful play. This book is pure poetry, so romantic, hilarious and innocent. So ... full of wonders. Suddenly you understand why Americans can be nothing but religious ^_^

This generation of crystal grid kids, we imagine, these enlightened techies full of fantasy will rescue the world, won’t they? They'll save the world in codes of love and clarity, line by line ...

Coupland is a master in dramaturgy. He writes scenarios for the movies in your head. Full screen. The final chapter with tears, laser beams and a happy end under the blue light of monitors made me weep too ;_; Thus moving.

I think I can read that book again and again, hence I’ll set it free in a circle. In the hope that it will find its way back to me =^.^=

Bookring:

- spy-there
- Sunneschii, Zürich
- Cocojo, Zürich
- Mountainflower, Zürich
- katrinat, UK
- Mountainflower
- inkognitoh, UK asked to be skipped
- kizmiaz, Lisboa
- samulli, Weimar
- juliako, Birmingham, UK
- Vekiki, London
- sudokugirl, Sarajevo
- sun-beetle, Zürich
- spy-there, Zürich (current location)

Send a PM if you want to enroll the list =^.^=

I have the book!!!!

Gwen and me finally managed to transfer the book!:-)

I will read it soon... hopefully... :-)

Another book of an author I don't like. But I like this book! Here, Coupland really manages to write the right things with the right words.
It was also really funny to read as I'm studying some of the things they are talking about in the book.... just take the MIPS processor for example!

Since nobody else seemed to be interested, it came back to me. Maybe I should start a new ring (and do better promotion).
If somebody wants to read it, send me a PM ...
=^.^=

taken from the bc meet-up at Café Gloria ...
this book is incredible - I didn't like Generation X, and was surprised by this tender, beautiful book. Amazingly, it is not kitschy at all. A MUST READ even if it is about a time "long gone" when Apple was on its way down!!

Took this book with me from the MeetUp in June, but forgot to make a note here. Sorry for that!

RELEASE NOTES:

As spy asked me to bring the book to the meetup tonight, I thought I'd at least have a look before returning it to her. At the beginning I didn't really get into the story. By now (I'm on page 79) I got it and I kind of like the way Douglas Coupland (or Dan respectively) writes. If this book crosses my way again, I'm definitely going to read it to the end.

... so sorry, Mountainflower; it wasn't meant to disrupt your reading. I merely thought that you have read it after 8 months ;)
The book is now on its way to Katrinat.

Thanks to Spy-there for sending this to me, seem to be recieving all my bookrings at once but I'll try and be prompt.

Finished this today and I really enjoyed it. The references are now outdated and in places they are very techie but essentially this is a novel about high flying twenty-somethings searching for a 'life'.
A great read x
I am waiting for the next address, then I'll get it sent off x

Oh, I just realized that there's someone new on the list. It would have been easier to send the book with domestic mail from katrinat to inkognitoh, but it's too late now. It arrived in Zurich last Wednesday...

I'm planning to read (the rest of) it in the next few days. :-)

RELEASE NOTES:

I brought the book to the MeetUp (again... ;-) ) and gave it back to spy.

Got it sometime last week, while I was on a break. Thanks a lot spy-there, I'll get to it when I finish my current reading.
Extra special thanks for the cd, which I'm already listening to.

I truly enjoyed reading this book.
I’ve been reading Coupland’s books for quite a few years now and he really surprises me every time, he really has knack for capturing the moods of modern society, especially the American, but since this has pretty much become a global village a lot of what he writes rings loud bells in Europe too.
The geeks that are portrayed here are really geeky and awkward but the journey they all end up making in this story really opens up their world and especially their relation with a real world, which Dan describes as a porn movie, I’ve never thought about it that way but the geek certainly has a point there, sometimes it does feel like we’re extras in a triple X rated crummy flick and the director has gone insane.
The way the story’s told is captivating and is hard to put the book down once you begin what more can we ask of book?
I’ll be sending it on soon.

Just arrived. I have one other ring before it, but I started that one already, so it shouldn't be too long before it can travel on.

I don't get it.
And that's all I can say about this book. I just don't get it. I am not even sure if there even is anything to get, or if it really is just a meandering, pointless tale about boring people. Godawfully, annoyingly boring people with nothing to say and nothing interesting to do.
I was quite taken with all the positive reviews I have read about this book here and elsewhere, also I had heard a lot of good things said about Coupland's books in general. But, man, if ever there was a book that was wrong for me: this is it. (Well, one of them, really. There were others that bored me even more, but not many.)
I usually have a pretty strictly enforced 50-pages-rule in place, but with bookrings I often try a bit longer. I kept trying with this one until I was halfway through, but I give up now. I just don't see it. And I really don't care anymore. So I guess that's it for me and Douglas Coupland then.

I'm on my way to the post office this afternoon and the book will be traveling to juliako.

Hi - I've got the book now thanks!

Thanks for sending this book on. I have enjoyed reading it. Quite different from Girlfriend in a Coma which I would also recommend. Written mid '90's - haven't things changed!

Will send a message to Vekiki for address.

Recieved on Saturday - and I'm already half way through! Loving it so far, thanks

I really enjoyed this book - though I did have to check with a couple of more computer literate friends as to some of the terminology (I'm more of a bio-geek myself)

Following insturction from Spy-there, who hosts this ring, I am going to hang onto this book until someone else asks for it

Arrived safely this morning. Thank you for shipping, Vekiki. I'm looking forward to reading this.

A very good read, just what I expected from Coupland. Thank you for sharing, spy-there, the book will be on its way to you after the holidays.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Back to spy-there.

Thank you, sudokugirl - it arrived with today's mail.

It looks well worn out now (that is, read out ;) Somebody even took pity and produced a new envelope! The poor paperback wouldn't have survived without, I suppose. Thanks a lot to ... whoever did it.

This book has now even more travelling experiences than myself ^__^