You Shall Know Our Velocity

This book is mindblowingly brilliant. It manages to go beyond being a book and brings the story into the real world, almost as a piece of performance art. I can't say more about that without giving any spoilers, but I will say the best way to read it is to read the first edition, wait until you would go back to reread as with any other book, but read the second edition instead.

Regardless of which you read, the episodes are touching, funny and horrifying by turns. The characters are wonderfully rendered and the structure (travel accounts alternating with flashback sequences) will never leave you bored.

My first exposure to Eggers. This is REALLY well written, the pure writing. The novel itself is kind of John Barthes meets Douglas Coupland meets 'The Worlds Most Dangerous Places'. I was disappointed in that the author kept returning to a depressing and morbid event that the main characters had to emotionally deal with - what could or should have been 10% of the content was like 30% of the content. It became annoying. I suspect either people into emotional work, grieving and resolution and friend memories of high-school will like half this book; the other half will like the main story/travel story. The talent here is amazing. The writing style kind of reminds me also of Vonnegut sans science fiction for some reason - not sure why. I am show more really looking forward to another Eggers book. show less

I absolutely loved this book. I love Eggers period. This book kept me fascinated. I love how Eggers always makes you think that you know what is happening, only to take the story and completely flip it upside down. I loved all the themes in the books. I thought the characters had good depth and were interesting. I love how crazy Eggers is. His writing always keeps me entertained, even though once in a while I find him a bit arrogant. But maybe that’s part of why I like him so much, he can pull it off.

I really wanted to like this book, but I just did not. It is not that the book is badly written or that the concept is boring (it is really quite outrageous and unique to travel around the world giving out your inheritance to those "deserving" poor), it is just that the sense of adventure that I expected from a journey around the world is missing. Maybe it's just that I expect a lot because I have travelled a lot and I find the exotic locales and peoples of this book can be and must be much more fascinating than presented in these pages.

Will, burdened with a large inheritance, sets off round the world with his friend Hand with the aim of giving it away. Aside from the rather odd plot, the relationship between the two friends and their absurd activities make it a good read.

Very cool travel story meets Brewster's Millions. I love the concept of the journey, the friendship between the main characters, and the layout of the book. Leave it to Dave Eggers to redefine how to publish a book.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a bit "Catcher in the Rye goes on Holiday" and now that I've seen Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited 3 or 4 years later, I'd say they are similar in tone.