Book 14 - Microserfs

 While I am not raving about this book as much as Generation A, Microserfs was a good enough book I suppose. I don't really have a whole lot to say about it, and so I guess really I wasn't all that impressed. On the surface this book is about a group of young people who work at Microsoft in the early 90s, narrated to us in journal form by Daniel. We meet his closest coworkers as they are rushing to be able to ship out a product, coding and debugging all day and night long.

We eventually meet his roommates as well, and get a glimpse into the dorm-like lifestyle that the lead. Quite early on in the book, the core group of characters is given an opportunity to join in a start-up company and leave Microsoft and head down to Northern California.

All technical mumbo jumbo aside, this is really a book about relationships, family and finding your own tribe. The characters are all working in a small space that they call the habitrail (one of them has gerbils and has an elaborate collection of Habitrail tunnels and so forth, some of which are lining the space of their basement cum office. Working really long hours in such small spaces can make you either love or hate your coworkers, and in this case it is mostly the former. There is lots of talk of love, and lots of musings and a sort of philosophy.

I am having a bit of trouble accurately describing this book, and I think that I am going to stop trying. It was a decent story, but not really my cup of tea.