Journal Entry 1 by mojitopt on Friday, February 21, 2003

Journal Entry 2 by mojitopt at Weisses Bräuhaus (BC Meetup) in München, Bayern Germany on Friday, February 21, 2003

Release planned for Thursday, February 27, 2003 at Weisses Bräuhaus (BC Meetup) in Munich / München, Bavaria / Bayern Germany.

Bringe ich zum Münchner BC Meetup mit. 

Journal Entry 3 by MrBones from Regensburg, Bayern Germany on Friday, February 28, 2003

Got that one at the first Munich BC meetup from mojitopt. Many thanks for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I am already a few chapters into it and it looks very promising so far.
I´ll give you a short review when I´m done with it.
Till then take care and see you around!
MrBones 

Journal Entry 4 by MrBones from Regensburg, Bayern Germany on Monday, March 10, 2003

First off, I want to say that I liked this book very much! It is a sad, yet beautiful story about youth, growing up, love, death and much more.
A neighborhood gang of friends and highschool kids experience a fairly normal life in Vancouver until Karen, Roberts girlfriend falls into a coma after a party. Suddenly their lives take a turn for the serious and the author follows the different characters on their way to adulthood and their way to deal with this tragedy. The story is divided up into 3 parts and each of them focusses on a different person and aspect of their lives. Especially the third part of the story takes an unexpected turn and heads into a whole different direction (which I won´t give away here).
The general mood of the book is rather melancolic and emotional and I have to admit that it cracked me up quite a bit at times but I strongly recommend the read not only to Douglas Coupland fans out there.
Will be going to albertofarina in Italy next. Enjoy! 

Journal Entry 5 by albertofarina from Roma, Lazio Italy on Monday, March 24, 2003

Thank you, MrBones, I just found the book in my mailbox when I got back to Italy from a trip to L.A. and I will be reading it soon. A great cover, much better than the one of the Italian edition. This is a book I had bought in its Italian translation, but I could not read it because they stole the bag I was keeping it in during a train trip. Now I will finally be able to enjoy it! 

Journal Entry 6 by albertofarina from Roma, Lazio Italy on Wednesday, April 16, 2003

(Thought I'd posted this already, but id doesn't show, so I'll post it again)

I am reading and loving this book. I had first bought my copy of "Girlfriend in a Coma" a couple of years ago: it was translated in italian and I was keeping it in a bag that was stolen from me during a train trip. Thanks to MrBones I got this english language copy so I can appreciate Coupland's use of the language.

I should try and go see how the Italian translator has dealt with expressions that must be quite hard to translate. On page 30, Coupland writes: "(...) none of us slept that Sunday night. Instead, we made an electronic cat's cradle of phone calls between each other (...)". I found it beautiful and I really can't imagine how could one render this expression's richness without having it sound far-fetched or artificial.

Another line that had me stopping for a while - not for the language, but just for what it says - is on page 48: "Youth is the time of life lived for some imaginary audience". I wonder how many people actually stops acting after youth: and if they do, do they stop because they've decided what they're going to be, or just because they've become so used to the persona they've developed that it becomes automatic, like actors on a long-lasting stage show?

Page 49, about the friends that have slowly stopped showing up at Karen's bedside: "Hamilton, Linus, and Pam had trickled away". That is that kind of sentence that probably only english allows you.

Yesterday I reached page 107 and was struck by this wonderful paragraph I am going to transcribe: "(...) One of my own stray childhood fears had been to wonder what a whale might feel like had it born and bred in captivity, then released into the wild - into its ancestral sea - its limited world instantly blowing up when cast into the unknowable depths, seeing strange fish and tasting new waters, not even having a concept of depht, not knowing the language of any whale pods it might meet. It was my fear of a world that would expand suddenly, violently, and without rules or laws (...)".

Still going at it - and this surely is one book that expands unexpectedly.

------------------

This was written three days ago. Now I've finished the book and definitely loved it.

As MrBones did, I won't spoil it for you: the less you know about what happens, the better. It is, however, a perceptive, spectacular and entertaining story. And although the mood is actually quite melancholic, I can't bring myself to call it sad: quite on the contrary, this is a book so charged with hope that should jolt anyone out of sadness. A great, great book. Did say how great it is? Well, it's great. 

Journal Entry 7 by boucli from Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées France on Tuesday, May 06, 2003

I found the book in my mailbox back from irish holidays !! Thanks a million, albertofarina !!
I'll make a new entry after reading it... 

Journal Entry 8 by boucli from Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées France on Tuesday, July 20, 2004

It's the first BC book I've received, more than one year ago, and I've finally found the time to read it...
And I loved it, so thanks for this, albertofarina !

It's a melancholic story, with both hope and despair...I won't say more, it's better to read the book, except :
If only we could have a plan B, too...

I think this book might leave on a bookray very soon... 

Journal Entry 9 by boucli from Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées France on Monday, August 23, 2004

Such a powerful story deserves to travel a lot : bookray !!!

List (tentative order) :

meliluc (France, can ship anywhere)
kirst040 (Australia, can ship anywhere)
Ada2 (Australia)
lmn60 (Australia, can ship anywhere)
veritas9 (Australia)
Readinator (Australia, can ship anywhere)
Metropolitan (Brazil, US/Canada preferred)
Lauraloo29 (Canada, US preferred)
MollyGrue (USA, US preferred)
Lorelei03 (USA, US preferred)
shpriz1 (USA, US preferred)
Rrrcaron (USA, can ship anywhere)
zugenia (USA, can ship anywhere)
Mamikaem (USA, can ship anywhere)
mairbu (Japan)
tabyorky (UK, can ship anywhere)
Maupi (Uruguay, can ship anywhere) current reader
Martinburo (Germany, can ship anywhere)
Xanocas (Portugal)
terpsicore (Portugal, can ship anywhere)
Chlorine (France, at the end)
Brujula (France, at the end)



The ray is on its way !

- make a journal entry as soon as you receive the book
- ask for the-next-on-the-list's address while you're reading the book
- make a journal entry when you've sent the book
- Please try not to keep the book more than one month, the number of people in this ray being huge !!!

- If you're having any trouble, don't hesitate to PM me !

thanks, I hope you'll enjoy the book !


If you're not on the list but would like to be :
PM me to be added. Chances are you'll be added to the end of the list or, if the book hasn't left your country, to the end of your country's list. This means that you have to be ready to send international ... 

Journal Entry 10 by meliluc from Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées France on Tuesday, August 31, 2004

merci boucli (justement il n'y a rien à la télé ce soir !!)

Thanks boucli ( what a nice coincidence, there's nothing on TV tonight )
 

Journal Entry 11 by meliluc from Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées France on Friday, September 03, 2004

I just finished reading Girlfriend... , and I have mixed feelings about it. Though I enjoyed the first part a lot (well, technically, the first 2 parts), the end left me felling confused. Argh, it's tough to talk about it without spoiling it for the next readers, but I'll try. The parts of the book that deal with growing up and everyday life feel real, if a bit dream-like. It's a chronicle of a bunch of friends growing up and dealing with life. Which is what made it harder for me to really get involved in all the Jared part. The first sentence of the book is "I'm Jared, a ghost." But as the book goes on, you kind of forget about him, you get comfortable with the "ordinary people leading extraordinary lives" mood. And the morals behind the shift of attitude seem dubious to me.
But well, I wouldn't go on and on about it if I'd really hated the book. I really think it is worth reading, for the questions it raises both by the subjects it deals with and by the way it deals with them.


I'm sending it to kirst040 as soon as I get the adress.

---> sent !
 

Journal Entry 12 by kirst040 from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Friday, September 10, 2004

This arrived yesterday (Friday 10/09). Amazing, France to Australia in 5 days, thanks Meliluc.

Started last night, I didn't get very far but it seems like it will be a good read.

 

Journal Entry 13 by kirst040 from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, September 16, 2004

I enjoyed this book. Being from around the same generation as the protaganists I did empathise with them (although at times I didn't really like some of them).

I thought the book was well written and really represented the attitudes and culture of the 90's well. The changes in the world over the 17 years of Karen's coma did seem more pronounced through her eyes. The simplicity of youth replaced by this complicated life of technology,time management and ambition or lack thereof.

I did think that there was a real lethargy that pervaded the book, from the sleepy town where it is set to Karen's coma and the events of the end of part two. It seems like a metaphor for their lives or a lead in to the wake up call in part three.

A definite thought provoker. I hadn't read any of this author's books before so more Coupland for me I think.

Have PM'd Ada2 and will onforward when she responds.

 

Journal Entry 14 by kirst040 from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, September 23, 2004

Mailed to Ada2 Tuesday 21 September 2004 

Journal Entry 15 by Ada2 from North Avoca, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, September 23, 2004

This arrived Thursday - thanks boucli and Kirst040....looks great! Weekend reading here I come! 

Journal Entry 16 by Ada2 from North Avoca, New South Wales Australia on Monday, September 27, 2004

Although I finished this a couple of days ago I have resisted journaling because I have such mixed feelings about the book.

Firstly, this is a book full of surprises and I didn't know what was going to happen next right throughout the book, even up to the last pages. This is unusual and exciting - usually you get a sense of where a book is heading and and can anticipate quite a bit. Not so with this one!

I loved this book until about Part Three and then I think the tone of the book altered in a way that jarred for me - like I was almost reading a different book. The ending I thought intended to be a jolt to prompt readers into action and deliberate thinking about their lives, and was very hopeful in that as well - but seemed to me to be so overladen by the author's voice that the characters lost their 'truthfulness' or 'believability' somehow.

That said, it is a book very well worth reading: incredibly perceptive and full of heart-wrenching characters and situations - all written with a deep and delicate touch and flashes of incisive humour. Just terrific. That's not to say that the book is 'soft' - quite the opposite, it's rather ruthless one the characters to achieve a startling 'truth' about each one of them. It certainly touched me especially in the earlier sections. It's also an insightful rendering of the thoughts of the 90's - what many people believed (and still do I suspect) about their lives and their world.

So I still have mixed feelings about it: but 'feelings' is the key word - it certainly prompts those! Very glad to have read it. Thanks all. On to Veritas9. M 

Journal Entry 17 by lmn60 from Spotswood, Victoria Australia on Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Arrived today.. I have about 3 books ahead of it but will get onto it ASAP. 

Journal Entry 18 by lmn60 from Spotswood, Victoria Australia on Thursday, November 04, 2004

I can't give this book the rave reviews that other readers have, I'm afraid. In fact, I'd probably have given up on it except for the good things that other bcers have said about it. So I persevered to the end...
I haven't read any other Coupland books, so don't know if this is his usual style, but I found it to be rather a mish-mash of 'Generation X' drama, sci-fi, fantasy and gothic millenial ideas.... and if that sounds confusing then you can imagine how I found the book!! I also thought the writing was quite self-conscious and didn't really find the characters engaging - just didn't really care what happened to them.
That said, I can see how other people might enjoy this book or find it challenging - I guess it just wasn't for me.

Have sent a pm to veritas9 asking for her address and will forward it ASAP. 

Journal Entry 19 by lmn60 from Spotswood, Victoria Australia on Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Haven't been able to contact veritas9, so will pass it on to Readinator. Probably at the Melbourne brunch meetup in December......... 

Journal Entry 20 by lmn60 from Spotswood, Victoria Australia on Sunday, December 19, 2004

Okay.... rejigging of the list has meant this one got posted off to veritas9 today! 

Journal Entry 21 by veritas9 from Melbourne, Victoria Australia on Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Yep. Arrived safe and sound. Thanks! 

Journal Entry 22 by Readinator from Woodend, Victoria Australia on Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Received in the post from veritas9 - thanks! And thanks boucli for sharing. Will read and send down the line. 

Journal Entry 23 by Metropolitan from São Paulo, São Paulo Brazil on Friday, July 22, 2005

Received safely, thanks. I have a couple of ring books ahead of this one but I'll try to get to it as soon as I can. 

Journal Entry 24 by Metropolitan from São Paulo, São Paulo Brazil on Tuesday, August 02, 2005

This book left me with mixed feelings - my first by Coupland. Ada2 expresses my thoughts better than I ever could.
Thank you very much for sharing. I'm pming Lauraloo29 to confirm her address.
 

Journal Entry 25 by lauraloo29 from Edmonton, Alberta Canada on Friday, September 16, 2005

Arrived today. I'm juggling a couple of rings/rays. Currently reading a 900+ page book. I will keep this book moving. :) 

Journal Entry 26 by lauraloo29 from Edmonton, Alberta Canada on Friday, September 30, 2005

Sadly, I'm struggling with this book. It did grab me at the beginning, but I'm struggling to reach page 100. I'm frustrated at the choices being made and the lives being wasted. I wanted to find out how its ends, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

I was very interested as I have family living in North Vancouver, near where this story takes place. Also, Linus made a stop in Lethbridge, Alberta, where my grandparents lived, so that grabbed me for a moment. :)

I'll send it on to the next person next week. Thank you for sharing! 

Journal Entry 27 by MollyGrue from Tacoma, Washington USA on Saturday, October 15, 2005

I'm looking forward to this! I should get to the soon. Thanks! 

Journal Entry 28 by MollyGrue from Tacoma, Washington USA on Monday, November 14, 2005

I liked this book a lot. It made me think of the holding pattern my own life has become and how I can start to change that.

Reserved for the next reader.

DC# 03022940000169565981 

Journal Entry 29 by MollyGrue at in the mail in Bookring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Saturday, November 19, 2005

Released 6 yrs ago (11/19/2005 UTC) at in the mail in Bookring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent today. Happy reading! 

Journal Entry 30 by Lorelei03 from Flushing, New York USA on Friday, November 25, 2005

rcvd today. As soon as I finish the book I just started on to this one!

12/03/05 UPDATE
Well, I've finished reading this book. I definately enjoyed this book, both in terms of Coupland's turns of phrase and ability to really evoke a time/place.

A quote on the cover says this book is "a great wake up call". The third part of the book is the wake up call and - without giving anything away - I think the book did not live up to that promise.

I really did like it, but thought the ending could have been stronger, subtler, more meaningful.

...and now on to the next BCer!

Thanks boucli! 

Journal Entry 31 by shpriz1 from Brooklyn, New York USA on Saturday, December 17, 2005

Received it today. I have a couple of rings ahead of this book (isn't it always the case - all bookrings and bookrays arrive at the same time)..:) 

Journal Entry 32 by shpriz1 from Brooklyn, New York USA on Thursday, January 26, 2006

I have to agree with other readers about the last part of this book. It was very confusing for me. I loved the book up until then. I was forcing myself to keep on reading the last part simply because I wanted to find out how it will end. It is a strange book.
I loved the way Douglas Coupland used the language here. I can't imagine reading it in translation. So much of Coupland's words will be lost.
I'm waiting for an address from rrrcaron. As soon as I have the address I will send the book out.
 

Journal Entry 33 by shpriz1 at on Monday, February 13, 2006

Released 6 yrs ago (2/13/2006 UTC) at

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

On its way to Rrrcaron 

Journal Entry 34 by Rrrcaron from Lancaster, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, February 25, 2006

Received this in the mail today. Will get to it asap! Thanks,
Ruth 

Journal Entry 35 by Rrrcaron from Lancaster, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, November 04, 2006

What a story! Experiencing the end of the world through these teenagers' eyes was a gripping read. I was captivated from the start. I have to get my hands on some more Coupland's books. Am passing this book on to tabyorky, as the two previos readers didn't reply and or asked to be skipped. Sending it to the UK via global priority mail on Monday.
Ruth 

Journal Entry 36 by tabyorky from Doncaster, South Yorkshire United Kingdom on Monday, November 13, 2006

Received in the post today. Will read this book after the one I am reading and then pass on to the next person. 

Journal Entry 37 by tabyorky from Doncaster, South Yorkshire United Kingdom on Friday, November 24, 2006

Could not get in to this book at all, so styopped reading after a few chapters and will pass on to the next person. 

Journal Entry 38 by maupi on Thursday, January 25, 2007

Got it, thank you!