Shopping in Jail: Ideas, Essays, and Stories for the Increasingly Real Twenty-First Century

Interesting perspective

Great books sometimes come in small packages. This is one of those cases.

If you like something a bit more intelligent than the next novel then read this collection of essays. I read everything I can of his and this just as good as ever, read, learn, grow. Or something.

coupland, i love you (and these essays)

This is a very short collection of essays by Douglas Coupland, most of which have previously appeared in journals, magazines and catalogues. If - like me - you enjoy Coupland's idiosyncratic, quirky view of the world (in particular, those parts of it concerned with technology, religion and postmodernism), then you'll appreciate his publishers going to the trouble of pulling these pieces together. Every now and again, he catches the reader's eye with a snappy, well-crafted phrase (e.g. "The zeitgeist of 2012 is that we have a lot of zeit but not much geist" [p24]) which pulls you in, and you stay to share his view of topics such as British Columbia, biography, China and Hari Kunzru's Gods Without Men. Some of these pieces are more successful than others but, overall, it's a pleasant and stimulating read.