What I’m Reading Wednesday
November 1st, 2006 | by Scott |I thought I would take my Wednesday posts and dedicate them to the books I have been reading lately. We will see how it goes, anyway.
As a reminder, the books I read are listed in my left sidebar (with the exception of what I read for sermon prep and ministry stuff. I don’t include that since most people wouldn’t be interested). If you click through any book I link to and then buy it off of Amazon, I get a commission. I’ve made 33 cents so far.
I just finished Douglas Coupland’s JPOD last night. I’ve never read any of his books before but I have heard good things. He did bring the phase Generation X into the lexicon so he has that working for him. This is apparently a semi-sequel to his book Microserfs. I can say this: it is laugh-out-loud funny. It’s not long on plot but then that is the plot. It features 6 employees of a Vancouver Video Game company who have been placed into a work pod. They all just happen to have a last name that ends in “J.” Get it?
My only quibble, and it’s a big one, is that Coupland inserts himself as a character in the book. I understand the commentary on the google-ization of the world and how technology has placed us in the midst of this meta-narrative. But how self-referential and ego-driven do you have to be?
Anyway, if you are looking for a light, humorous read then pick this up.
Has anyone read any of his other books? What do you think of Coupland?
I found this book, Mark Kurlansky’s Nonviolence: 25 Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea, at my local library. I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across this, as I had not noticed it in my study on the issue. Kurlansky writes from a secular approach and gives us a concise and brief history of nonviolence. I am not convinced of his conclusions and found him to be argumentative from time to time. However, when he sticks to the history it’s great. If you are interested in learning different views through the years of the viability of nonviolence, then this is a quick and informative read.
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Tonight, I start James Joyce’s Ulysses. Any bets on how far I make it into the book before I give up?