From the Bookshelf of Around the World in 80 Books…
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book
No group discussions for this book yet.
What Members Thought
Very thought provoking. Ask me in person what I think!
I was deeply disappointed by this book.
I thought Dave Eggers was the darling of the literary world (he's been nominated for both the Pulitzer and the National Booker award, after all), so I expected The Circle to be a well-written but dull story of how a universally-adopted modern convenience is actually evil. (Soylent Green, anyone?) Instead, what I found was a poorly written and dull story of how a universally-adopted modern convenience is actually evil. I am so confused. I'm almost as confuse ...more
I thought Dave Eggers was the darling of the literary world (he's been nominated for both the Pulitzer and the National Booker award, after all), so I expected The Circle to be a well-written but dull story of how a universally-adopted modern convenience is actually evil. (Soylent Green, anyone?) Instead, what I found was a poorly written and dull story of how a universally-adopted modern convenience is actually evil. I am so confused. I'm almost as confuse ...more
Our young heroine lands a job working for The Circle, a cutting edge internet company that is Google, Facebook, and Yahoo rolled into one. Before she knows it, she is at the forefront of a wave of technological advancements that will revolutionize social interaction. But at what price? A smart, scary book that explores the potentially insidious consequences of our increasingly “connected” lives. It takes a while to get going and the big “surprise reveal” at book’s end isn’t all that surprising a
...more
Well, I was late to the party but then I think Eggers was late to the Social Media party, too... by about five years at least.
The positive bits:
It was easy to read and he showed a lot of creativity in thinking up all this stuff at the Circle, hence the two stars.
The negative bits:
The story dragged on, especially the constant repeats of Mae's pageranks, followers, zings, whatever. We got the point 200 pages ago, Dave.
While I can see his intention to turn this into a dystopia, he is no Orwell. ...more
The positive bits:
It was easy to read and he showed a lot of creativity in thinking up all this stuff at the Circle, hence the two stars.
The negative bits:
The story dragged on, especially the constant repeats of Mae's pageranks, followers, zings, whatever. We got the point 200 pages ago, Dave.
While I can see his intention to turn this into a dystopia, he is no Orwell. ...more
This is a wonderfully fun and devious book that takes the growing expansiveness of tech companies like Google and Facebook to their logical conclusion. Eggers' writing is simple and accessible. I flew through the book in a matter of days and never found the story lagging. I often find myself tiring of a book about midway through and then pick up steam again towards the end. With this book, on the other hand, I was 100% engaged the entire way. A lot of it had to do with the hilarity of it all. I
...more
Argh. This book is totally crazy. Imagine a world controlled by internet and digital media. Where your life is fully exposed through social media, and your friends in digital world are far more important than the people in your real life. Privacy is theft and (over)sharing means that you're caring. The Circle, the largest internet company in the world (inspired by Google I guess) is obsessed to make a world a "better" place by providing all kinds of digital services for people around the world,
...more
Slow and boring at times, but a pretty good thought experiment on what can happen when social media participation is taken too far.
I finished this book a while ago, so my initial reaction has faded quite a bit. The book depicts a near future dystopia where social media has completely taken over. While some of the book is quite outlandish, and seems like it will never happen, much of the book left me feeling dismayed, because it seems so close to present reality. It made me sad for a world where people forget how to have experiences simply for the sake of experience, and instead everything has to be shared via social media a
...more
Sep 07, 2013
Sam
marked it as to-read
Nov 25, 2013
Vesra (When She Reads)
marked it as to-read
Shelves:
literature,
e-book,
c,
author-e,
fiction,
science-fiction-fantasy,
pub-knopf,
c-red,
pc-500-599,
dystopia
Dec 29, 2013
Polly-Alida
marked it as to-read
Jun 05, 2014
Ching-In
marked it as to-read
