I just finished Douglas Coupland's Microserfs and loved it. I'd avoided Coupland before because all I knew about him was that he was the guy who coined "Generation X", and I figured his books would be full of slyly self-referential geek jokes. Which they are, but in a fun way, not an annoying way!

Anyway. Anybody else read anything good lately?

-- Jan (bookworm@jetcity.com), July 19, 2000

Answers

Six words:

HARRY POTTER HARRY POTTER HARRY POTTER!!!!!

These books rock. I'm serious. I am a Smart Person and a Real Live Adult and everything, and I can't put them down. Go. Go go go. Run, don't walk.

-- carolyn (littlec@sfgoth.com), July 19, 2000.

Rules of Prey by John Sandford is about ten years old, but I read it last month. It's good if you're into cheesy cop thrillers like me.

-- Monica (bnlspider@aol.com), July 19, 2000.

Avoiding Douglas Coupland is such a crime. =)

It's not his fault that the media took the title of his first book and twisted it into a generaltional label that it was never meant to embody. (What's is 'X', after all? A variable. He was saying that we are a generation too varied to be lumped together under one title.) Coupland has several times apologized for coining the term.

You should read his other books; they're all good. My fav is "Life After God". I think it would speak to you.

Also, "Interface" by Stephen Bury (aka Neal Stephenson, author of such greats as "Snow Crash", "Cryptonomicon", and -- my fav, which his publishers deny exists-- "Big U") is a really good book about the American political landscape encapsulated within a plausible fictional work.

-- Dan (dan@p0mi.com), July 20, 2000.

One rather old one I just finished lately is Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley. Will Rhett come back or won't he, hmmm... It is really good if you like that kind of historical romance. Besides the section about Scarlett and the Fenians is pretty cool.

I also read Tad William's Otherland: City of Golden Shadow recently. That was another really good one. Imagine the net in VR. It's like a gigantic video game, but better because you don't have to remember what button does what. Those are my favs lately.

-- Teesa (teesachu@yahoo.com), July 20, 2000.

I have to admit, I read Scarlett and wasn't terribly impressed. I felt at the end as though I could have just bought a few Harlequin romances instead, and saved some time.

I am TOTALLY into Neal Stephenson, though. I had no idea he had a pseudonym. This opens vast new worlds to me. I read The Diamond Age and loved it, and then read Snow Crash and loved it even more. In fact Snow Crash has one of my all-time favorite passages, in which the protagonist is talking about the rotating eye on his laptop, and how when it opens up, it makes him feel "naked and brave." I love that line!

But what's the deal with there being a book that his publishers refuse to own up to?

-- Jan (bookworm @jetcity.com), July 21, 2000.

Neal Stephenson's first book is called "The Big U". I think it was published by some small no-name imprint, very limited print run. Duke, luckily for me, had a copy. It's a tremendously funny book, particularly for those in (or just recently off from) college, taking on every idiosyncratic facet of university life with wit and wisdom.

It never appears on the "other works" lists in his books anymore, though. Partially because the big publishers have nothing to gain from getting people to hunt for a book they will never find and partially because the book is sort of rough around the edges stylistically; those are my theories, at least. It's a great book, though.

-- Dan (dan@p0mi.com), July 25, 2000.