Rating: 
Summary: Long and tiresome with the occasional sparks...
Review: Yes, I did enjoy parts of this book. But for the most part, I found this book to drag go on and on and on... It was touching in some aspects, in some ways it was so very shallow. I wouldn't say 'don't read it', but definitely don't expect this to be a page turner b/c that it is not! I guess I just expected so much more from the title and the 'rules' - it seems like it could be such a great read but unfortunately, it isn't quite that.
Rating: 
Summary: Pulitzer? Puleeze!
Review: I might have hated this book less if it hadn't been nominated for a Pulitzer. Or if I hadn't read it immediately following a reading of 'I Captured the Castle' by Dodie Smith. I felt like I was observing the decline of literature and culture over the last 50 years. Smith's book is a little, somewhat obscure English novel of such complete characters, such rich plot - that you feel as if you have a new family by the end. Eggers book is the opposite. He certainly has a heartbreaking story to tell, but he fails to draw the reader in at all. I might have grieved for him, for his mother dying such an agonizing death, for his little brother having to grow up too fast. But I never got to know these people. Eggers's writing is self-involved, self-conscious and clearly written under the delusion that every tiny little thought in his head is of interest to the rest of us. The MTV of literature - a hyperactive spew of words and images without depth or meaning. A waste of time and paper. If this is what 'young people' (I'm only about 10 years older than Eggers)are reading nowadays....well, that IS heartbreaking.
Rating: 
Summary: I should have listened
Review: This really is a good book and I do reccommend that you read it. The best sections of the book are not even part of the story, but rather the "rules" and acknowledgements. I should have listened. Eggars tells us not to read it all, that perhaps he indulged himself a bit and perhaps he's right but he warned me. I should have listened. That said I must admit there are some endearingly funny and some breathtakingly sad parts to this incredible journey. It is certainly worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: An engaging book that made me laugh out loud
Review: Dave Eggers' book is a hilarious and poignant memoir. Mr. Eggers tells an extremely sad story with a backdrop of humorous observations on the life he has led and the sudden demanding situation that is thrust upon him. The book is an obvious cathartic effort. While this emotional outpouring provides for most of the engaging qualities of the story, it sometimes goes overboard. A number of passages lapse into stream of consciousness prose which many times works but sometimes runs on too long or becomes incoherent (I've read the last two pages three times now and still don't know what the heck he's talking about). I prefer the narrative portions, the commentary leading up to the death of his parents, his life afterwards, and the flashbacks that occur along the way. And I very much like the whimsical experimentation in the preface and the title and copyright pages. I highly recommend this book, even though sometimes you get the urge to skip a few pages.
Rating:
Summary: I Think He Meant Stuttering Genius
Review: The brilliant title notwithstanding, novelized autobiographies require something more interesting than the death of parents (barely etched at that) to make it interesting. At 22, the author pretends to know more and feel more than other less sexy mortals. The narcissism of this exercise becomes tiresome rather quickly. If Eggers were truly funny, he could have salvaged something. But Eggers is earnest, unflaggingly earnest, ironically earnest. While irony is a useful self-deflation device, Egger's overuse of it is instructive. If you need to mock your own work to defang critics, your issue is approval, not world-weary hipness. Readers might be better steered in the direction of Frederick Exley, whose similar novel/memoir A Fan's Notes is immensely and mordantly entertaining. But then Exley was writing outside the shadow of youth, and the tragedy of his failed expectations rings heroically true. Eggers needs to live a life before he starts writing about one.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: I wasn't impressed at all and I'd started this book with such high hopes, too. In fact, I found this book annoyingly self-concious and rather shallow emotionally. The protagonist does all sorts of wacky or destructive things and we're supposed to glean what? Does he leave things a mess because he's living life his way, because he's bereft with the loss of his parents, or because he's a slob? Don't bother thinking too hard, he'll tell you in just a second, at length, and it'll be just what you expected. While some of the story is interesting, such as his work on the magazine, too much of this book is as though it was an equation worked out using formulas.
Rating: 
Summary: Could've been so much more
Review: After reading the preface (despite the warning from Mr. Eggers) I thought this book was really going to go places. And for a while it did, with one tragic story piling up on the next. Then he diverged into the most self-absorbed 200 pages I have seen in a while and never really ends the book. 20 pages on his warped interview with MTV Real World was about 18 pages too many. He has some amazing insights, tragic and funny story lines, but in the end it felt pointless. I kept waiting for the staggering genuis and he never showed up. So I was heartbroken.
Rating: 
Summary: i don't really know why...
Review: this book was excellent. i have noticed it around for awhile now, and not knowing precisely what to make of it or what it was about, i ignored it. but when i finally picked it up and read it, i was blown away. not because it was deep or because dave eggers had the most amazing life or whatever. i dont't really know why i enjoyed it so much. but right from the beginning, the book had my full attention. the preface, suggestions for enjoying the book, etc. were almost as good as the book itself. the story was interesting as well- mostly because of the idle mind-wanderings of the author. the way he would go off into the past, or think about his brother and their relationship, was captivating. i don't exactly know why, but i loved this book, and i think everyone should give it a chance....
Rating:
Summary: This is a REALLY excellent book.
Review: If you haven't read this book, you definitely should. It's very funny, but even if there was no humor it would still be great. Actually I can't even describe it by comparing it to another book because it's written in its own brilliant style. I can only say that it's an excellent book, the best book I've read, and you, whoever you are, should read it.
Rating:
Summary: A very entertaining read
Review: Having read this book about 8 months ago, I must say it's one of the better ones I've come across in some time. For those people who criticize this book because it is written by a young man and therefore given more credence than if it was written by a woman, all I can say is pfft... if I woman wrote this book it would be just as good, and this boy's life story transcends the simple "single mom" theme. As for the enjoyment of the book, you'll like it if you can digest a serious and saddening story coated in witty dialog, a theme of accomplishment, and like reading a story which partitioned into smaller tales each with its own meaningful message. This books a keeper (not that I'm really into throwing my own books in the trash).
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