JPod - Douglas Coupland

Advantages: It has a nice cover
Disadvantages: The stuff in between is bad

..."Oh God, I feel like a refugee from a Douglas Coupland novel." "That asshole" "Who does he think he is?" As opening lines to novels go that was a first for me. I've never known an author name check them self so brazenly and I have to say it set me off on the wrong foot with this book. I've never read Coupland before so wasn't really sure what to expect. As the celebrated author of 'Generation X' I was looking forward to an IT literate book for the information age. What I got was something far less, a self serving work lacking irony and intelligence. A book that wastes the reader's time and provides little in return. But I'm rushing to a conclusion so let me step back and tell you a little about it before I completely trash it. The story follows events over a year or so of Ethan Jarlewski's life. A regular kind of guy he...

brereton66 07.03.2008 · Read review
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Review of JPod - Douglas Coupland

Generation X - Douglas Coupland

Advantages: An intelligent read
Disadvantages: A bit on the light side

...I must be such a sucker. A year or so back I bought the book Jpod by Douglas Coupland and hated it with a degree of hostility out of all proportion to its inherent quality, yet here I am shelling out good money for another one. I?d bought that first book largely on the basis of the author?s reputation as a modern, zeitgeist surfing writer with a savvy appreciation of the turn of the century world. A reputation almost entirely earned with this break through novel; ?Generation X?. Unfortunately, Jpod was so annoyingly self-regarding, so out of touch with the 21st century that I felt almost personally insulted that I had been so duped ? hence my disproportionate loathing. Still, once bitten ? never learn is my motto and I resolved to go back to the source of all this trouble and actually read Generation X, the book that created a reputation...

brereton66 11.03.2009 (15.03.2009) · Read review
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Review of Generation X - Douglas Coupland

BLACK DOUGLAS

Advantages: Strong malt flavour
Disadvantages: Hard to find on draught

...The BLACK DOUGLAS - A legendary brew named after a legend?......... Not quite. It's more like a very good beer named after a well known figure from Scottish history, but the first description sounds a bit more enticing, I think. David Younger, a descendant of the George Younger brewing family of Alloa, founded BROUGHTON ALES in 1980, in the pretty little village of Broughton (Brote-un), near Biggar in the Scottish Borders. It was one of the first of the new generation of Scottish breweries and in fact their Greenmantle Ale - which used to be extremely popular - was one of the first real ales I ever sampled, way back in the days when I thought the antithesis of 'real' ale was wholly imaginary. Official website: http://www.broughtonales.co.uk/ The 500 ml bottle is a sturdy, dark brown affair with a couple of Saltires...

proxam 04.12.2002 · Read review
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Review of Black Douglas Ale

Douglas Adams Douglas Adams Douglas Adams

Advantages: Really great and well written ideas
Disadvantages: No movie, and the sad news of Douglas Adams’s death

...I wouldn’t say Douglas Adams was a hero of mine but he is someone I admired a great deal. I love the way he wrote and the ideas he came up with, it wasn’t until his death a year ago that it really came home to me of how much a part he played in my life, he will be very missed. I have written a couple of opinions about Douglas Adams’s lately, and have done several, most of the following I wrote but left out due to the length of those ops. So seeing as a new revised edition of what is essentially a biography of Douglas Adams has just come out and been read by this fan I thought I’d include it here. ~~Don’t Panic - Douglas Adams & The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy~~ Written by Neil Gaiman and originally came out as ‘Don’t Panic: The Official Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Companion’, in 1987. It was revised by David K...

seagulls-lost-horizon 14.08.2002 · Read review
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Review of Don't Panic - Douglas Adams & The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - Neil Gaiman

Douglas Coupland - creater of modern classics

Advantages: A great social commentator
Disadvantages: his later books are not as good

...I love Douglas Coupland. He is definately one of today's most important and influential authors. His novels include the modern classic Generation X, (1991) Life after God (1994) Girlfriend in a coma, (1997) All families are psychotic, (2001) Hey Nostradamus (2003) and many more. He has also written some non-fiction such as 'Polaroids from the Dead' and 'city of glass'. He is an amazing visionary and there really is no-one else writing like him. His post-modern approach to story telling is beautiful, moving and often very funny. He has been described as a visionary and important social commentator. A Canadian born in 1961, he has studied art and design all over the world. He also creates art and even makes his own furniture. Truley a creative talented man. His later novels such as Microserfs and JPod are (obviously...

mycatis 09.04.2008 · Read review
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Review of Douglas Coupland

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - man of mysteries!

Advantages: Roland Kirk is a fantastic Saxophonist, flautist and clarinettist, playing good conventional solos, as well as playing up to three saxophones at a time on some recordings and playing the flute through his nose while singing!!
Disadvantages: Some people may find his music slightly gimmiky - why have one person playing 3 saxes when you can have three people doing it?

...Rahsaan Roland Kirk was not only a great saxophonist, flautist and clarinettist, but he also modified his own saxophones and had the ability to play up to three at the same time (stritch - like a straight alto, manzello - looks like an alto, but sounds like a soprano, and he also used a normal tenor sax)! What's more, Roland was also blinded soon after birth! While Roland Kirk had the ability to play great solo's on a single sax, he also had the ability to play utterly astonishing sections on three saxes, sometimes soloing on one while accompanying himself with the others - one of my favourite recordings like this is on the CD Bright Moments, in the second track, Pedal up, when about 10 minutes through the piece the rest of the band stops, while Roland breaks into Satin Doll on his three saxophones in harmony before preceding to solo...

poooookie 22.06.2004 · Read review
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Review of Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Douglas Adams, a hero

Advantages: Greatest author ever
Disadvantages: will write no more

...I first heard of Douglas Adams' death when I saw it in the paper. They had given him a very small section, one column and about thirty lines. I actually gave a minutes silence almost automatically after seeing the headline. Douglas Adams was almost a hero for me, as I enjoyed all his books. I would often learn things about the way he felt and thought about things, and it would sometimes scare me. I can say ‘I never really got the hang of Thursdays’ without it being a pure quote as I really do have trouble with Thursdays. It is the worst day of my week often. I also agree with many of his beliefs, on reading ‘Last Chance to See’ I agreed at every turn. The Hitch-Hikers Guide has influenced me more than any other book, and I must confess that my friends and I look out for the number forty-two everywhere...

R_Easton 09.10.2001 (14.10.2001) · Read review
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Review of The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy - Douglas Adams

For Douglas

Advantages: Its Hitch Hikers, special effects, there are Towels.
Disadvantages: Not as true to any of the origionals as I would have liked, too Hollywood, inconsistencies even Adams wouldnt have had.

...gigantic object??. I don't think I can adequately put into words how excited I have been waiting for this film to come out. For as long as I can remember, I have loved, no, adored the Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy (true guide geeks will spot the difference there!) series of books and have read it at least twice or three times a year for the last 10 years. The comic genius that was the late Douglas Adams is second to non in my opinion so when it went on release in the cinemas I was there as soon as I could manage. Standing in the queue for my ticket, a number of thoughts were passing through my head. "Will it be as funny? Will it look anything like what I have been seeing in my head all these years? How much will they change and how much will they add? What will Marvin sound like? Just how WILL they manage Zaphoid? Well, to those...

drewboy 05.05.2005 · Read review
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Review of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy DVD (2005)

Douglas Adams misses another deadline...

Advantages: Everything Douglas Adams writes is marvelous in one way or another
Disadvantages: Incomplete story, it's NOT a novel, some older reprinted material.

......and finally manages to release a book just over a year after his untimely demise. I love Douglas Adams, he wrote with insightful wit, layers of meaning, brilliant turn of phrase, was excellent for quoting verbotem and at length at dinner parties and also managed to include stuff about robots and aliens and stuff. Cool. For those of you not familiar with Mr Adams body of work, he is most famous for the Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (Radio series, books and TV series), but also wrote two and a half Dirk Gently novels, some computer games, a spoof dictionary and a conservation book. And he was a very funny bloke. I read he had taken up exercise to help his writers block (he was as legendary for not-writing as he was for writing) and in one of those events that make us sedentary folk raise a knowing eyebrow, he died...

Raybid 20.06.2002 · Read review
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Review of The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams R.I.P.

Advantages: Written by the late, great Douglas Adams
Disadvantages: There'll be no more of his unique humour

...I've just seen the tragic announcement that Douglas Adams has died after a heart attack at the criminally young age of 49. I love the guy's writing and this is a very real loss to the literary world. An extraordinary talent cut brutally short. God bless you, Douglas, you've given me some real laughs, fun and enjoyment with your books. May you rest in peace. ************************************************************************* Douglas Adams considered the idea of hopping round space whilst in a drunken stupor. Fair play to the guy. As we all know, we've had some fantastically brilliant ideas when under the influence, but very few are looked on in the same way the following morning. Thankfully for the literary world, this one was still a right corker. The book centres around the exploits of two friends, Arthur Dent and Ford...

Salgirl 12.05.2001 · Read review
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Review of The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy - Douglas Adams