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Cory Doctorow - Down and Out in the Magic Kindom
Hallo
Thought I would give everyone a heads up on this great book after listening to the Oldening podcast.
I just got back from holiday and read it all on the return journey, it's a quick read but still enjoyable.
It lacks in a few things, character development could be a little deeper but the story is pretty cool and proposes some interesting ideas. The plot is set in a post-scarcity world in the future where a guy lives in Disney World and some stuff happens. I'm not really selling it there but its hard to explain it without giving away spoilers.
One of the main things the book talks about but is never truly explained is Whuffie, a kind of social capital. I found this interesting as the book was written in 2003, before the 'gameification' of so much stuff we are seeing today such as XBox gamer score etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_and_Out_in_the_Magic_Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whuffie
If you've already read it, let us know what you think... if not, grab yourself a copy and give it a whirl!
ps, why is there no book category?
Thought I would give everyone a heads up on this great book after listening to the Oldening podcast.
I just got back from holiday and read it all on the return journey, it's a quick read but still enjoyable.
It lacks in a few things, character development could be a little deeper but the story is pretty cool and proposes some interesting ideas. The plot is set in a post-scarcity world in the future where a guy lives in Disney World and some stuff happens. I'm not really selling it there but its hard to explain it without giving away spoilers.
One of the main things the book talks about but is never truly explained is Whuffie, a kind of social capital. I found this interesting as the book was written in 2003, before the 'gameification' of so much stuff we are seeing today such as XBox gamer score etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_and_Out_in_the_Magic_Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whuffie
If you've already read it, let us know what you think... if not, grab yourself a copy and give it a whirl!
ps, why is there no book category?
Comments
Oh, and let me be the first to welcome you to the forum!
You're right though, Doctorow's writing is indeed so-so. If the book were any longer (its about 200 pages), I think I'd start to take issue but it's an easy reading style and it's the ideas that I found to be most interesting.
The protagonist is kind of a jerk that doesn't really think things ahead all that well.