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Jun 24, 2011

Joel rated it:

I just chose this as my favorite book in the 30 Days Book Challenge on Facebook, so I might as well review it, even though "favorite book" is a nebulous distinction at best and "what's your favorite book?" is a stupid fucking question and I am afraid this might be a sentimental favorite more than anything else.

So yeah, I read this when I was 14 or 15. I bought it because it had a neat mirror cover with a Lego man. I didn't know Douglas Coupland was the voice of a More...

3 comments like (25 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2008

Punk rated it:

Fiction. A little slice of the mid-nineties, Microsoft, and Silicon Valley.

This was was my first Coupland book and it wasn't what I was expecting. Apparently I was prepared for shallow postmodernism or something smugly impressed by its own cynicism. I don't know where I got that idea, but this is an optimistic book, full of human moments, love and friendship, and the things that drive us to succeed. I was surprised at how sweet it could be at times.

It's also got plenty o More...

8 comments like (12 people liked it)

Feb 21, 2008

Steve rated it:

This book is one of my all-time favorites, a bildungsroman of the techie world set between its two 1990s axes: Microsoft and Silicon Valley. My friends hear me make quips from this book far too often, perhaps my favorite being "Microsoft hired 3000 people last year and you know not all of them were gems."

The quick summary is: boy goes to work for Microsoft, boy leaves Microsoft for startup in Silicon Valley, and lives and learns as he and his friends -- his coworkers -- str More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2011

Jayme rated it:

Reasons why I love both this book and Douglas Coupland:

1. "I sandpapered the roof of my mouth with three bowls of Cap'n Crunch--had raw gobbets of mouth-beef dangling onto my tongue all day." (Who hasn't had that happen to them? And yet, nobody could have said it awesomer.)

2. I learned 1410 *C = the melting point of silicon.

3. This book is totally the original Big Bang Theory.

4. Dated references to things like Doom and Myst.

5. More...

8 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2009

Joe rated it:

When I was in high school, I read Generation X and Life After God and was thrilled by these tales of wry, vibrant, lost characters who fought for real meaning when their culture caused them to shrug at tragedy and love and weep over reruns and advertising campaigns (I was a pretty lonely teenager, obviously.) When Microserfs came out, I remember picking it up at the bookstore a few times (maybe this was '95 or '96?) and thinking, "Oh, it's this story about the 'information-superhighway' wit More...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 08, 2011

Jackie rated it:

For Microserfs, I am straddling these two reader-type extremes: those who know nothing about geektech culture, and those who 100% techie, geeky nerds. I am in between. I feel this is the right place to be, because the book evoked lots of "Yeah...it really IS that way, isn't it?" and "Oh those geeks!" Yet I'm not so into the culture that I feel it was misrepresented.

I can't ever seem to attempt to write an approximation of some sort of "objective" review More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 11, 2008

Shinynickel rated it:

I read several books in a row that made me cry, and this was one of them.

God knows why - it's not like Coupland is attempting to write a great tragedy. I think I just really liked the characters, liked the way they interacted and how much they cared about each other. The book does a great job capturing the Silicon Valley nerd culture in the 90s, how it seemed to exist suspended in its own bubble world. It's science fictional without being science fiction - showing the way lives can More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2008

Adrienne rated it:

umm... this book was disappointing. it is boring and boring and boring. i read it 'cause i wanted something light after all the heaviness of am homes.

there's a scene that i can't resist pointing out where somehow someone sends the main characters all an email about how every multiple of six minus one is a prime number and they all had to waste work time proving or disproving it. but. yeah. it is dumb. it takes about 2 seconds to disprove because it never should have been mentioned i More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2011

Brian rated it:

6/16/2005 - 8/10

Microserfs is about a recent college grad and his life experience while working at Microsoft in the programming world. It's interesting (related field for me) and well written. The writing style is like a journal with lots of interesting little observations and asides. It got a little too serious and less light-hearted as it went on, and the end was kind of blah.

Some quotes:

'I sandpapered the roof of my mouth with three bowls of Cap'n Crunch - had raw gobbets of mouth-beef d More...

0 comments like

Sep 01, 2011

manuti rated it:

Otro libro para la lista, me ha costado leerlo por dos cosas, últimamente no tengo tiempo ni muchas ganas de leer, y la otra es que no había manera de encontrarlo. De hecho, ha desaparecido de Internet, al menos en español, prácticamente no hay imágenes de la portada ni nada de información editorial. Es triste que un libro que cuenta los orígenes de la "Autopista de la información" haya desaparecido de esta forma. En su momento no lo leí, y me quedé con ganas, sin embargo me alegro. Me More...

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Jun 29, 2011

John rated it:

Douglas Coupland is one of my favourite authors in the world. His first novel was Generation X, which is actually where that phrase comes from, and in all his books he's got a really unique take on the world. It's not hard to find beauty in nature, which is what a lot of (most?) novelists fall back on when they want to find beauty in the world. Coupland, a Canadian suburban boy, is a product of his time and place, and he seeks to find beauty in the un-idealised world that most of us (or, I shoul More...

0 comments like

Jun 10, 2011

Kater rated it:

This book is lauded as the zeitgeist manifesto of Generation X, and to some extent, that's true. It takes place in the mid-nineties, in Redmond, WA and Silicon Valley, and if you lived through that time (and especially if you were in your early twenties in that time) Microserfs will hit your nostalgia button.

Dan Underwood is a microserf, that is, he's a tester/coder at Microsoft, where employees are expected to work 12, 24, or 36 hour shifts coding and subsist entirely on processed fo More...

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Apr 20, 2011

Jacobmartin rated it:

Oh wow, I didn't expect to like this one nearly as much as I did.

Essentially Microserfs is what you get if you fuse 1990s tech industry speculation with a bunch of angsty nerds who see everything around them as sci-fi turning into reality. And it's somehow not egregious. Sure, it's so 1990s it hurts, but when putting nerd history into perspective this is probably - and only after my first read mind you - up there with Neuromancer in a more realistic form.

Microserfs is be More...

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Jan 21, 2011

Shawn rated it:

You know how, every once in a while, you’re assigned a book to read for class? It’s pretty rare you actually enjoy it. It’s even rarer when that assignment introduces you to one of your favorite authors ever. But that’s what happened to me.

My freshman English class at Florida State was an odd one. The instructor thought this thing called the “Internet” was the future, and we should be spending our time learning HTML rather than reading books by dead guys who didn’t have much to say abo More...

0 comments like

Nov 08, 2010

Suzanne rated it:

Being I have not read this book since it was published in 1995. And it being a novel heavily based on technology and it's industry of the mid-nineties, the book is dated. Email use is actually explained and the internet is referred to "The Information Superhighway". (Not really the "Self-Promoting Surface Streets" it turned out to be.)

With all that said, I am finding it difficult to actually think about this book as a novel. It seemed more like an immersion in com More...

0 comments like

Sep 18, 2010

Larry rated it:

The problem with rating a number of books by a brilliant author - you begin comparing them to one another, rather than to all books that you have ever read. For me, Coupland's greatest book (of the four I have read) is JPod. Microserfs was a predecessor, dealing with the same culture, but written years earlier. OK, it's probably brilliant too, but it's no JPod.

Without having been part of the nerd-computer-programmer culture,I suspect he really nailed it in this portrayal of young Mic More...

0 comments like

Apr 26, 2010

Michael rated it:

Microserfs tells the story of a group of software developers who transition from the giant corporation Microsoft (in Redmond, WA) to a start-up company Oop! (Silicon Valley, CA). Having read JPod, I was expecting a loose story with no moral implications, garbled geek-speak, and perhaps some funny (for the tech-savvy) anecdotes. Instead, starting from the premise that socially dysfunctional individuals can form a working unit ("get a life"), Douglas Coupland builds THE novel about end-2 More...

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May 15, 2009

Aaron rated it:

Near perfect in form, presentation and emotional drain. A handful of similarly quirky but unqiue characters handle similarly quirky but unique situations through a variety of historical, current and futuristic technologies, all while building a LEGO simulator that will put their new gaming company on the map. Great portrayl of Bill Gates and the Microsoft culture, as well as the campuses and lifestyles of a variety of other tech companies of the time. Fairly unique in presentation, often inco More...

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Aug 23, 2011

Crystal rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. I first picked it up because the author Douglas Coupland did a nice film on Canadianism called "Souvenirs of Canada" and I thought I'd check out something he has written.

The book is about a group of people (men and women) that work for Microsoft in the early 1990's. The story is told through the perspective of Dan, who is one of these workers and the book is set up like his journal. As such, the writing style is a bit relaxed and random. Some theme More...

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Jun 24, 2009

Andrew rated it:

Douglas Coupland takes on geek culture in this novel, once again seemingly linking directly into my brain and crafting a story written specifically for me and my ilk. (A visit to Nintendo of America's HQ? A character who has read Narnia 87 times? Sweet!)

Presented in the form of a bunch of Powerbook diaries written by the main character Daniel, Microserfs documents the transition of him and his friends from lowly Microsoft erm... serfs... to coders and developers at an exciting mul More...

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Aug 13, 2008

Bec rated it:

I haven't read any Douglas Coupland in a long time. But I still remember how it felt to read Generation X long ago as a teenager. It was a very different experience reading this book, written in 1994, in 2008 now that the internet is an entirely different beast that permeates our daily activities. I enjoyed it, but it really dated itself. It was a fun exercise in reading it to see how far whe've come with technology.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 07, 2012

Ian rated it:

Can't believe it's taken so long to read this book - it should be required reading for every geek. The book starts in Seattle at Microsoft, but quickly moves to Palo Alto and the Silicon Valley startup scene. The story follows a rag-tag assortment of geeks of every stripe, side-stepping the usual stereotypes. It's true that geeks are nerdy about the same things (computers! anime! pop-culture!), but Coupland captures the individuality of the hackers and even the supporting roles have their own More...

0 comments like

Mar 04, 2011

Dooug rated it:

This book didn't do it for me. Maybe it is because I wasn't a computer geek back in those days and can't relate. It had it's moments of humor and geek culture. It didn't feel like the book was coming from an actually computer geek, it seemed like a mainstream outsider's view at the geek life. Some aspects of their startup company and game program struck me as bogus. The journal style of the book got old, and unbelievable as it became more conversational. The subconscious pages dwindled at More...

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Sep 25, 2010

RandomAnthony rated it:

Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs reads like a time capsule crossed with a nerds-only Breakfast Club. Focused on the California geek population who powered the late eighties/early nineties technology boom, the novel focuses so much on time and place that it could arguably be classified as historical. The CD-ROM and early internet references seem, like an AOL disc or heavy monitor, both quaint and annoying. Coupland transcends the period piece nature of Microserfs about 60% of the time, especially More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2011

Jonathan rated it:

Re-reading this years later was worthwhile for me after having worked for a giant cult-of-personality-driven tech company and lived in Silicon Valley. As with most of the Coupland books I've read:

...it really seemed like one of those foreign movies that you rent and return half-wound because they're too contrived to be believed, and then real life happens, and you wonder if the Europeans understood everything all along.

Another note: is "fishwich" a Canadianism? More...

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Aug 22, 2010

Molly rated it:

I loved reading this book, set in the mid 1990s just before the internet highway exploded into mainstream America's workplaces and living rooms.

I loved the voice of the main charactar, Daniel, who seemed like somebody I could have known in college or in grad school. I loved his description of the minutiae of the life of people who work 80 plus hours per week coding software and what their little diversions to keep sane said about them as people.

I loved the philosophical More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 19, 2011

Halden rated it:

Microserfs is an example of Douglas Coupland doing what he does best, slice of life narrative and excellent dialogue. The story follows the life of Dan, a Microsoft code monkey, and his fellow geeks as they venture into the world outside Microsoft and join to create a software “start up” (the story is set in the 90s when this was still a viable option). We are bombarded with the rigours of geek life, long days of coding, feeling ostracised, trying to get laid etc…

Coupland does a great More...

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Jan 22, 2010

Tim rated it:

I read this a long time ago but loved it. The way it brought together humanity and technology at the end surprised and moved me. The characters felt real, and the characterizations very natural and unforced. This is also a great time capsule: What it was like to be part of something cutting edge that is now, just a decade later, no longer cutting edge.

It seems strange to me that more of Coupland's books haven't been made into movies, given their popularity. But I think they're so con More...

0 comments like

Jun 19, 2011

Rob rated it:

(7/10) There are a lot of bad things I could say about Microserfs. I could go on about Douglas Coupland's obsession with representing the zeitgeist, which ends up making the novel feel extremely dated. Or the experimental devices which are cute at first but quickly start to grate on your nerves, an early device where characters are introduced through their dream jepoardy topics being a fine microcosm. Or the substitution of quirk for character. But you know what? In the end I liked this boo More...

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May 13, 2008

Lucy rated it:

A short California odyssey requires me to reread my high school favorite book.

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2 comments like (1 person liked it)

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