coffeesnob318 | Book post

It's been a while since I updated my "50 books in a year" status, so here's a couple more that I've read. I plan for the list to catch up with what I've read so far by the end of the week.

1. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe - Fannie Flagg
2. The Whitney Chronicles - Judy Baer
3. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan - Sophie Kinsella
4. The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger

Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland

The more I read Coupland, the more I like him. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

I enjoyed this book. I've always mused that, if I were to write a book, I'd like to write it as a simple story with each chapter as a different character's point of view. That's what this book is, so I'm getting all inspired to write again. Each chapter gives a different viewpoint, but it also gives these viewpoints at different points in time, so there's no drudgery or unnecessary rehashing of events. He was very careful to only retell the story when the character's unique contribution made it new, which is harder than it seems.

My favorite part of the book was the interaction of Jason and Heather's first meeting when they gave the toy giraffe personality characteristics, complete with voices. That was a fun way to start a relationship, especially in contrast with the way it ended. Coupland's characterization is amazing with all of them.

Two thumbs up!

Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

This is my favorite Coupland book thus far (it has made me hunger for more, so I'll be reading Eleanor Rigby soon). It's essentially about a group of people who worked at Microsoft who left to start a new company. It makes me want a new job. Badly. It also reminds me of conversations that I had with Philip. Ah, nostalgia. The disturbing number of Starbucks references were difficult to ignore, but I suppose they were to be expected. :) At least the decaf coffee tin was labeled "666."

The best way to give you a sense of it is to give you quotes from the characters.

Some of my favorites:

"Do you remember ever having a life? Ever? What is a life? I think I once had one - or at least dreamed of having one..."

"I'm okay. I am not being starved, or beaten, or unnecessarily frightened."

Oh, the geeky bliss of nerd love - "I thought I was going to be a Read Only file. I never thought I'd be...interactive."

"The big deal in book writing is to quickly establish at the very beginning what it is that the characters want. But I think that the books I really enjoy are the ones in which the characters realize, only in the end, what it was that they secretly wanted all along, but never even knew."

"Letting go of randomness is one of the hardest decisions a person can make."

"And then we realized that, viewed from a certain perspective, all people can look like porn stars."

"If you can concoct a convincing on-line meta-personality on the Net, then that personality really is you. Or an isotope of you. Or a photocopy of you."

"Heaven means feeling intimate forever."

About one character's 3-cylinder Geo Metro (which is funny to me because that was my first car) - "You couldn't even kill someone with that thing. You could maybe nudge them to death or something...."

Describing Fabio's pecs - "like beef throw cushions"

"Rants are the official communication code of the 90's."
"Makeovers are the official art form of the 90's."
"Screensavers are the macrame of the 90's."

"Emoticons are like Baywatch - everyone says they don't watch it, but they really do."

"It's fun to watch your friends get random. Especially when they're raging on something that's a direct metaphor for their personalities."

Something I want to tell my students - "'Like' is the unused 97% of your brain trying to make its presence known."

"Our two printers are called 'Siegfried' and 'Roy' because they're all shiny and plastic."

There are so many others, but you get the picture. I liked the book. You should read it.