JPod Audiobook

" My second coupland book. Much better than gen-x. "

" Recently re-read this. I was surprised how much of the plot I didn't remember and how good it is. Definitely one of my favorite books and one of Coupland's best. He hits the nail on the head about life in the twenty-first century. "

" It's hard to decide on 3 or 4 stars for this book. On the one hand it's incredibly humorous - on the other it's really only funny if you're a software engineer of some sort. On the one hand it's literary style is original and competent, on the other hand it can get in the way of it's own narrative. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it, and it's a solid, albeit SUPER nerdy read. "

" I am a fan of Coupland and I have read everything he has ever published, but it is clear after reading Jpod that he's been in Vancouver too long and needs to get out for a weekend, if only to try another city's dope and take-out. Jpod is supposed to be the sequel to Microserfs, but Coupland wastes this one hunting-and-pecking for Gen Y/Echo Boom culture like a noob coder; he doesn't see that the map is not the terrain. So what if the main character's Mom is growing and selling weed, Dad is dating his son's classmates, and his boss is being manipulated by a billionaire Asian criminal? Sure it's shocking, but is this the zeitgeist, or just, "Extreme Vancouver?" Coupland needs to look beyond the electronic globe his own character creates (he writes himself into the book and creates an interactive-globe killer app that saves the group from techie overwork and under-compensation); that metaphor for an impersonal electronic world fails because his characters never break through as real people with any purpose. Gen Y's struggle to assert "authorship", i.e. identity in a world where society = electronic gaming, should have been inherent in the characters' personal lives and struggles; instead, Coupland builds them with thin and obvious devices like everyone playing the "what-superpower-would-you-have" game. In the end, I am not sure this story or these characters matter, and I think they may as well not have been. Phooey, Doug, Phoeey I say! Has the well run dry? "

" I'm really not getting his sense of humour here. It's bland randomness. "

" an entertaining and funny story "

" I like a novel with nerdy pop culture references. "

" I think I might be getting too old for Coupland. "

" Effing awesome. Ridiculous. Humorous. Spot-on. Irreverent. And a million other adjectives. "

" Not the most readable book, but wry and sometimes accurate in an over-the-top way. "

" Fast-paced and entertaining geek jokes. End was unpredictable (not necessarly a bad thing). In the middle of the book got a bit bored of it tho. "

" compleet absurd, toont mooi de invloed van het internet op ons dagelijks leven aan. "

" Douglas Coupland jumps the shark. "

" About a game programmer and his quirky team, pot-dealing mother, wannabe-actor father, and strangely enough, Douglas Coupland himself. The book is interlaced with weird games and geek visuals. "

" Hilarious, but underwhelming. This is the first book by Coupland that I've read (at the recommendation of a friend who knows my tastes pretty well) and while I'm tempted to read his other books after reading some of the other reviews here, I won't be reading this one again. "

" This books keeps me laughing, long after I've finished it and passed it on to friends. "

" This book sucked. Only read it if you want to get pissed off about a talented writer publishing a piece of crap. Inserting yourself into the book as a character is really gimmick-y and obnoxious, not cute! "

" This book was acceptable, but not terribly interesting. I keep getting told 'just read Microserfs and don't worry about any other books by Coupland, they're all less-good re-writes of that one'. This is unfortunately probably true. "

" wasn't that great. i don't think i finished it. "

" i really enjoyed this and it gave me a nice take on the modern communication revolution., plus being a cracking read with a great deployment of typography. "

" JPod - prime exampe of why most authors should not attempt metafiction. "

" Didn't really care much for this book - it tries too much to be cool which is not something that makes it an interesting read. Some of the character situations were touch on humourous, but nothing was particularly "very funny" as it claims on the cover.Disappointing. "

" it was never going to live up to Microserfs, I knew that...through most of it I liked it more than I liked it by the end...have yet to really determine exactly why that is. "

" Ronald McDonald's rape scene was hilarious. I enjoyed the book a lot. "

" Much better and more consistent than his other work, a perfect voice for a period in the early 2000s when we were just starting to understand that this was it, the future we were getting. Particularly good is the joke about medicinal-grade cocaine. "

" Thank you Doug for making my work easier ;-) Yup, it's good. In fact, worthy of a re-read at sometime. Intelligent, funny, clever. A nice change from the ('popular') thriller crap I have been reading lately. "

" This book was awful...what was it about?! I still don't know...Just awful... "

" Coupland is a genius! This book is brilliant. Even if you're not an I.T 'Geek' you'll find this book funny, if your a Programmer, it's even better! "

" Not the most readable book, but wry and sometimes accurate in an over-the-top way. "

" one of the best authors out there capturing the essence of the current generations "

" long, nonsensical. but it was entertaining, lots of quirky facts and random stories about game developers. the length somewhat turned me off though, although i guess that was the whole point of the book. "