Onto my TBR pile...

A slightly surreal read in a postmodern sort of way, as three american gen-x-ers attempt to make some sort of sennse of their lives. Generation X is already somewhat dated, since the events in it are set almost a decade ago, but the quite a few of the concerns of its protagonists resonated with me (though I'm probably just a few years too old to be a 'proper gen-xer'). I liked the definitions at the bottom of many pages, I liked the intelligent, witty, bittersweet style. I'll be watching out for more Coupland.

Picked up from UrbanSpaceMan at the London Meetup - thank you! I've enjoyed "Girlfriend in a Coma" and "Generation X" is regarded as a classic, so I'm glad to have come across it. To go on my to be read pile.

My 64th read was Douglas Coupland’s “Generation X” (shin jin rui) which was recommended to me by Urbanspaceman as an absolute classic. I concur. This makes it into my year’s most memorable reads so far. It follows a group of career dropouts - “underemployed, overeducated, intensely private and unpredictable” keeping afloat with the aid of McJobs, drugs and philosophy. I think I’ll have to start a bookring for it if I’m, not the last person to pick up on exactly how much on the spot this is. Too many quotes really grabbed me - here’s a selection:
“Occupational Slumming: Taking a job beneath one's skills or education level as a means of retreat from adult responsibilities and/or avoiding possible failure in one's true occupation.” See: “I began occupational slumming: taking jobs so beneath my abilities that people would have to look at me and say, ‘Well of course he could do better.’”
“”I began to see this world as one where the citizens stare, say, at the armless Venus de Milo and fantasise about amputee sex or self-righteously apply a fig leaf to the statue of David, but not before breaking off his dick as a souvenir. All events became omens; I lost the ability to take anything literally.”
“Anti-sabbatical: A job taken with the sole intention of staying only for a limited period of time (often one year). The intention is usually to raise enough funds to partake in another, more personally meaningful activity such as water-colour sketching in Crete or designing computer knit sweaters in Hong Kong. Employers are rarely informed of intention.”
“I’ve seen this flavour of happiness before. It’s of the same phylum of unregulated relief and despondent giggliness I’ve seen in the faces of friends returning from half-years spent in Europe [...] faces also gearing up for the inevitable “what-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life?” semiclinical depression that almost always bookends a European Pilgrimage.”
“After you're dead and buried and floating around whatever place we go to, what's going to be your best memory of earth? What one moment for you defines what it's like to be alive on this planet? What's your takeaway? Fake yuppie experiences that you had to spend money on, like white water rafting or elephant rides in Thailand don't count.”
“Bradyism: A multisibling sensibility derived from having grown up in large families. A rarity in those born after approximately 1965, symptoms of Bradyism include a facility for mind games, emotional withdrawal in situations of overcrowding, and a deeply felt need for well-defined personal space".
“Knee-Jerk Irony: The tendency to make flippant ironic comments as a reflexive matter of course in everyday conversation.”
“Obscurism: The practice of peppering daily life with obscure references (forgotten films, dead TV stars, unpopular book, defunct countries, etc.) as a subliminal means of showcasing one's education and one's wish to disassociate from the world of mass culture.”
Lots more of Generation X neologisms can be found here: http://www.scn.org/~jonny/genx.html

Thanks, Kidnapper Extraordiaire - I really loved this one.

This book is going on a bookray journey.
The first recipient is:
bigcurlyloz followed by
MrsDanvers and
QuantumAyla
...
and yourself?

Arrived in the post this morning - thank you!

I'm looking forward to reading this, so hopefully I'll finish my current book and get to this within a week....

Although slightly dated and missing some of the cultural references (due to not having visited America extensively and being a good decasde too young to be of Gen X, so much of this book rang true with me. I liked the ease of his narrative style and the inclusion of the statistics at the back. I wonder what the UK figures were for the same years, and what they are now...

Will post this on once I recieve MrsDanvers address.

Thanks bigcurlyoz it arrived earlier this week, very, very neatly wrapped. Number 3 on rings/rays TBR.

Sorry - I should have journalled this much earlier. I'm presently awaiting an address from QuantumAyla to send the book on.

An enjoyable read , although a bit dated; for me it encapsulates the "Slacker" generation - too many brains - too little Protestant work ethic.
My favourite aspects of the book were the footnotes and the neologisms. Semioticghost seems to have listed the best ones in her JE.

Thanks for sending this out! I'll get on to this as soon as I've finished the book I'm reading at the moment.

Apologies for never getting back to this book. I've only just got back into Bookcrossing, after an absence of some years.

I'm almost certain that this book got mixed into a box of things that were given to my local Help The Aged charity shop.

It seems I was mistaken! Just found this book.

I'm going to offer it up as a RABCK.

Since this came to me as a Ray it seemed a shame for it to stay with me, so I am sending this out as a RABCK.

Hope you enjoy the book! :)

Thank you so much for this wishlist book! I am really excited to start reading it.

Very interesting and surreal. I have read a few of Douglas Coupland's later work, which I have to admit I enjoyed more than this one. Maybe because Generation X is already a bit dated, I just did not feel the same relevance as I did with his other books. I have taken this book with me on holiday so I am going to wild release it somewhere in the area.

Wedged in a wall close to Cowshed Cottage.

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havent read yet, but lookin 4ward 2