Rating: 
Summary: A truly enjoyable and original piece og literature
Review: I really loved thid book, it was so amazing and quite a experiance. I dont know exactly how to describe this book except it is absolutley fantastic. Pick it up today!
Rating:
Summary: maybe not staggering, but I would say genius
Review: I thought this was a great book, the honesty of the writing, the post modern approach to the beginning notes and end notes. Just when you think everything has been invented and there is nothing new under the sun, something like this comes and blows a clean breeze through your mind. Maybe it is for some, overly clever, but I loved stepping outside the regular process of reading fiction and exploring the roles of reader, writer, truth, plot, characters with Dave. Beyond all the "gimmicks" there is a solid, mostly true heartwrenching story about real people. Dave does a great job at creating an emotional honesty and truth in the characters. Editing the truth, or more accurately, not editing the truth is a tough job in a memoir and I think he succeeds admirably. Maybe I am just a little over-fascinated with the twenty-something urbanite as I also am quite enamoured of Doug Coupland and Nick Hornby and the like, but HWSG was my favorite book of 2002
Rating:
Summary: I LOVE THIS BOOK
Review: I love Daid Eggers. he is so funny. I didn't think he is boring at all. I think everything he says is hilarious. I read his other book you shall know my velocity first and loved that too. it is a great book. not boring at all. don't listen to them dave.
Rating: 
Summary: Traffic school
Review: It looks as though the Eggers mystique has diminished markedly since this book first came out. I finished the book after forcing myself to slog through the final 175 pages. There are a few moments that definitely glimmer. He has a paragraph describing his frustration with San Francisco that is one of the best rants about San Francisco I've ever read. But the rest of it is repetitive and almost numbingly self-indulgent, ripe, stick-to-the-sole-of-your-shoe crap. All in all, reading this book was like suffering through a day of traffic school.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it...
Review: First off, I'll admit that I do understand some of the gripes of other reviewers. I myself, enjoyed the book enough for it to probably catapult into my top 5 list...among them To Kill a Mockingbird, Catch 22, and Memoirs of a Geisa. Also, I must add, I'm only 17, so this review is based on a mere 15ish years of reading...I'll let you decide whether to agree with me. The main reason that I loved this book was the pathos that the author seemed to convey throughout his memoir. As someone who feared the death of her parents at a young age, it seemed as if Eggers was constantly saying, "It's ok...bad things happen." This was comforting to me as a young reader...the knowledge that intelligent people can handle difficult situations placed upon them whether they want to or not. The other thing i loved was simply his self deprecating manner. Yes, he knew he was funny, and yes, he almost knew his self deprecation was funny. But the fact that he acknowledge the boring parts of his book (and he was right!) made him all the more interesting...overall, loved the book, whether u end up loving it or not, i think it's an amazing book for everyone to at least try. You might even like it.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and Boring at the Same Time
Review: I'm not really sure what to think of this book--it will be interesting to discuss with my book club later this month, as from the reviews I've read there are a lot of different ways to view this book. Overall, I found myself agreeing more with the negative reviews, while at the same time appreciating several aspects of the book. I enjoyed most the scenes with Dave and his brother Tophe, how they joke around and play together, and some of the scenes really made me laugh a lot. And I'm always curious about the lives of other people, and enjoy getting insight on the thoughts and experiences of other people, esp when they're close to my age(27). The beginning of the book was more gripping, as many reviewers noted, and I found myself horrified by the mother's death process. The insights the book helped give me on how much current generations have been affected by the media, so much so that we sometimes don't really have our own, unadulterated experiences anymore, and the general desperation in seemingly normal, quiet lives were really interesting to me. The main aspects of the book which make my overall review a disappointed one, however, are the style of writing used and the horrifyingly egotistic viewpoint of the author. It is hard for me to really describe what I mean, but I'll try. About the style: I generally don't do well with really long-winded verbose writing styles, being much more a fan of the beautifully written, well-turned phrase, that doesn't rely on length for impact. (Charles de Lint is my favorite author btw--if you like fantasy you should really check him out--beautiful writer... :-) I don't mind long description where appropriate, but make it worth my while to read, not just a bunch of dripping paint thrown on a canvas. I myself, perversely enough, can be a bit long-winded, but happen to appreciate short and sweet writing in others (go figure). I love to read and think I am an intelligent person, and would have to say I think the author seems quite intelligent. However, his style really could use some more editing. I get the whole point of the book in a lot of ways is to show the author's actual thought processes, and so stream of consciousness makes sense in a lot of ways. But after awhile it just became one huge, repetitive yawn, a real slog in places. Ended up skimming at the end (a huge rarity for me). Needs more action, less self-involved internal long-winded monologue in short. The other major gripe with this work is how self-absorbed the author is. It's like he's an actor on a stage, constantly watching himself and trying to dramatize himself. Constantly seeking attention. This creates distance for me as a reader, and I find myself not really caring about him. The egotism and over self-focus got to me after awhile. Not that I'm not guilty of self-absorption myself, but Eggers' level of it just seemed over-the-top at times, a bit sickeningly so. My overall advice--read the book--it's interesting in how it elicits such different reactions from people, and is interestingly interesting and extremely boring all at the same time. But honestly I wouldn't buy it (check it out of the library as I did) as you might hate it, or be really mixed in your feelings as I am. Or you might love it. Find out for yourself. :-)
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT book! - No Doubt!
Review: This was definitely a challenging book. At times I felt like I was reading my own life recorded by someone else. The thoughts that the main character (the author) was having were often the same as the ones that I experienced in similar situations. At other times, though, Dave was the last person with whom I wanted to identify. This book is a recount of Dave's life through his early to mid twenties. His parents both die within a month of each other, and he is forced to take care of his seven-year-old brother. Some of the best parts of the book relate instances where he is trying to be a good "parent," but he cannot shake the fact that he's only twenty-two years old. Eggers probes some very taboo topics, such as the pathetic image of one attempting to throw his mother's ashes into an ocean while a stiff breeze makes it nearly impossible, but he always addresses them with an air of biting realism. This book is definitely a must-read for all people in their twenties. Eggers masterfully embodies the whole spirit of our generation in the book with the strange title. The strangest part is that the title is eerily accurate. I'd also like to thank the other Amazon reviewer who recommended THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez -- another novel I enjoyed!
Rating:
Summary: truly lives up to its name
Review: Dave Eggers is 21 and his brother Toph is 7 when their parents die of cancer within weeks of each other. Although his 24-year-old brother Bill and 22-year-old sister Beth are legally named Toph's guardians, Dave is Toph's caretaker (Beth and Bill live nearby when the whole family leaves Chicago behind for California.) From there we see the strange, funny and sad relationship of a brother who has to be a father as well. Dave is hilarious -- he and some friends found "Might" magazine in 1993 in San Francisco, the same year that MTV is launching a season of "The Real World" in that city. Dave decides he should try out for the cast. His transcript of his interview is amazing. I am sure MTV was not expecting someone so complex and ironic --- instead, they inform him later that they cast a cartoonist named Judd. (Remember Judd? He married his housemate Pam!) As the years pass, the relationships shift -- Dave is amazed that Toph has a great social life and his becoming a heartthrob. Dave himself is a self-admitted weird nerd. But one you would really want to hang out with. The guy is a great writer.
Rating:
Summary: Okay but hardly great
Review: It's amazing how many negative and one-star reviews this book spawned. I myself was tempted to say the title of this book should have been "A Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Mediocrity," but actually the book is okay; it's just that it doesn't live up to its very pretentious title. There are some funny and clever things in the book, too, but the title itself might be the cleverest part. Anyway, if you can pick it up used it's worth checking out in case you're one of the people who find it truly worthwhile reading, as some people here apparently did.
Rating:
Summary: Pulled in and spit out
Review: The author pulls you into what seems like should be a fantastic ending only to find out that the spoiled rich kid (despite what the author says) really has nothing to say. The ending is bothersome and bizarre and I suggest he recieve some therapy (or maybe that's what the ending's purpose was for) before another book expresses those same immature emotions.
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