Microserfs

by DOUGLAS COUPLAND | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0006485898 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Pooker3 of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on 10/25/2008
Buy from one of these Booksellers:
Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Bol.com
This book is in the wild! This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Pooker3 from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Saturday, October 25, 2008
I have yet to read a Douglas Coupland book, don't know why that is because lots of titles have appealed to me. To be honest, this is not one of those titles, but I found this one for next to nothing at the Autumn Leaves used book sale put on by the Friends of the Millennium Library. So maybe this will be the first.

Journal Entry 2 by Pooker3 from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Thursday, November 20, 2008
Okay, so here's the thing. I took a "computer course" in University. It was called "FortranIV with WhatIV and WhatV". Other than the name of the course about all I remember is we had to create a bunch of hole-punched cards to feed into some big hulking machine (and I (shhh!)failed the course.) I also married a guy whose job title was "computer programmer/systems analyst". I have no idea what he did at work. Uh...he works with computers. To be fair to him, he did try to interest me in this alien technology but the only thing I learned when seated in front of the thing was to hit the "escape" button. Sometimes, I'd walk past the thing which sat on our dining room table for years (before laptops showed up) and I'd tentatively press a button to see if the thing was friendly. Beep. It never was.

My children, while far from computer geeks, were and are entirely comfortable in this IT (Gawd, I wonder if that is even correct terminology?) world. Some of their friends ARE computer geeks. And, it shocked me to discover that some of them made a ton of money doing this stuff. I, on the other hand, can look at a flyer for say, Dell Computers, or even Staples and see whole pages where I have no idea what any of it means. So you can understand my trepidation in reading this book.

But I was pleasantly surprised. Dan and his pals are computer geeks who escape the "serfdom" of Lord Gates to form their own company and hopefully in the process begin to have lives. It was surprisingly easy to relate to the characters. I first thought of them as the Math Club nerds from high school with their short sleeved shirts, slide rules (because they knew how to calculate logarithms on them) and the latest Texas Instruments calculators (which could also calculate logarithms apparently quite accurately). Coupland then made these techie-nerds human and bright and funny.

A light yet thoughtful read. I'll not be so reluctant to pick up another of Coupland's books.

This was my ninth book by a Canadian male author and my twenty-first overall for the 2nd Canadian Book Challenge, Eh?

Journal Entry 3 by Pooker3 at Park Theatre & Movie Cafe in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Released 14 yrs ago (5/12/2009 UTC) at Park Theatre & Movie Cafe in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I'll take this one to our BC meeting tonight. If no one there wants it, I'll leave it on the OBCZ shelf when I leave.

Journal Entry 4 by Matty from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Wednesday, May 13, 2009
I've read this book before and really liked it. I'll be saving it for the Canada Day Release Challenge 2009! Thank you Pooker!

I learned Fortran too! Now I'm an information analyst but I'm not sure exactly how that happened. :)

Journal Entry 5 by Matty at Cargill Building, 240 Graham Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Released 14 yrs ago (6/24/2009 UTC) at Cargill Building, 240 Graham Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Have a great Canada Day reading a great Canadian novel!

Are you sure you want to delete this item? It cannot be undone.