diegopetrucci's review
2.0
I've got mixed feelings about this book. Although it's a good story, in various occasions while reading it I've felt that it's a story I could have written — it's almost cliché-y, exactly what you would expect. I can't say anything more, I might spoil it, but I can say the book takes an analytical look at technology using it as a background for a mediocre story (we all want escape from technology, we'd love technology to be the root of our problems, and yet our weaknesses are the roots of our problems).
christymoyer's review
2.0
I wanted to love this book. Not only is Cheng an NYC local and a member of the tech community, he funded this novel—his first—on Kickstarter with a $10K goal. Had I known about the campaign before it ended, I probably would have donated, too—the plot was both fresh and intriguing.
But the book fell totally flat. Cheng read like a first-time author from the beginning. There were so many adjectives and adverbs worked into a single sentence—as if he had just passed the 4th grade lesson on descriptive writing ("...a frontal view of a handsome table topped with lightly faded oak standing on gently faded wooden legs." *cringe*). He also had a strange predilection for brand name-dropping. In one page he mentioned 12 brands, from Napster to Netflix. It was totally off-putting and weird, and felt like he was writing for a YA crowd that might value those references. Add in his flippant start-up buzzwords ("pivot", anyone??) and the reading experience felt like one giant eye-roll.
These nit-picky observations aside, the plot was anticlimactic and the characters had no chemistry to boot. I think Cheng felt a lot of pressure to prove his ability as a writer coming from a technical background, and in the process completely overcompensated—resulting in a book that felt sophomoric, boring and somehow pretentious all at once.
But the book fell totally flat. Cheng read like a first-time author from the beginning. There were so many adjectives and adverbs worked into a single sentence—as if he had just passed the 4th grade lesson on descriptive writing ("...a frontal view of a handsome table topped with lightly faded oak standing on gently faded wooden legs." *cringe*). He also had a strange predilection for brand name-dropping. In one page he mentioned 12 brands, from Napster to Netflix. It was totally off-putting and weird, and felt like he was writing for a YA crowd that might value those references. Add in his flippant start-up buzzwords ("pivot", anyone??) and the reading experience felt like one giant eye-roll.
These nit-picky observations aside, the plot was anticlimactic and the characters had no chemistry to boot. I think Cheng felt a lot of pressure to prove his ability as a writer coming from a technical background, and in the process completely overcompensated—resulting in a book that felt sophomoric, boring and somehow pretentious all at once.
marlynna20's review
5.0
I signed up for the Kickstarter on a whim, because I always like when someone is willing to explore how modern technology is having an impact on society through the lens of a love story. I wasn't expecting the torrential, soulful outpouring of the writing process on a near weekly basis!
Needless to say, I was quite excited to finally read the finished work, and it didn't disappoint. Upon finishing the first chapter, I was a little worried this love story would fall on the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, but don't fret! Both Connor Vast and K are given time for the reader to see the story from their point of view, and Jack Cheng paints a rich backdrop of New York City, people, and the start-up scene. Even though I don't have nearly as much experience with the technical aspects of coding, programming, or starting a new business based on tech, I could follow along with the ideas Cheng was showing. I was especially impressed by Connor's difficulty in breaking away from the constant presence of the internet in the form of his smartphone and "the stream," which is sadly a mark that hits close to home for myself and quite a few people I know.
For a love story, this is one of the most complex I've read in a while. It has all the beauty, ugliness, and heartbreak of a real relationship, so Harlequin romancers may not find the book as satisfying. The book reads more like journal entries from someone's biography, and has as much meatiness to it.
I enjoyed it a lot, and if anyone wants my hard copy to sink their teeth in, I'd be willing to lend it out!
Needless to say, I was quite excited to finally read the finished work, and it didn't disappoint. Upon finishing the first chapter, I was a little worried this love story would fall on the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, but don't fret! Both Connor Vast and K are given time for the reader to see the story from their point of view, and Jack Cheng paints a rich backdrop of New York City, people, and the start-up scene. Even though I don't have nearly as much experience with the technical aspects of coding, programming, or starting a new business based on tech, I could follow along with the ideas Cheng was showing. I was especially impressed by Connor's difficulty in breaking away from the constant presence of the internet in the form of his smartphone and "the stream," which is sadly a mark that hits close to home for myself and quite a few people I know.
For a love story, this is one of the most complex I've read in a while. It has all the beauty, ugliness, and heartbreak of a real relationship, so Harlequin romancers may not find the book as satisfying. The book reads more like journal entries from someone's biography, and has as much meatiness to it.
I enjoyed it a lot, and if anyone wants my hard copy to sink their teeth in, I'd be willing to lend it out!
kgagne's review
3.0
I am seldom a reader of fiction that is not rooted in fantasy or science, so books set in our modern world are foreign to me. So I was pleasantly surprised to find how engaging [b:These Days|17664652|These Days|Jack Cheng|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1365800626s/17664652.jpg|24657214] was. Author Jack Cheng has a fluid narrative that is colorful and evocative of New York City and the characters' physical sensations. Reading a book where the events are realistic — two twenty-somethings meet, one who's planning his future, the other who's escaping her past — was actually a refreshing change and gave me ideas for my own life.
The characters were also very relatable, at least on a personal level. I saw much of myself in the protagonist, Connor: makes his living online, connected to the social web, and perhaps a bit naive and needy in relationships. But I also related to his love interest, K, who never carries a cell phone and enjoys her time offline. It was in fact that technological divide between the love interests that led me to originally back Cheng's Kickstarter to publish this book. But this is not "a story about technology", as the crowdfunding video suggested. Connor uses technology to distract himself from the present but capture and relive the past, through photos, videos, tweets, and status updates. K, by contrast, is all about living in the moment but wants desperately to forget her own history. The scene describing her motivation for doing so was so evocative, I cried — I can't remember the last book to have that effect on me. These are the true challenges the characters are facing.
The book takes us through several anecdotes that demonstrate these opposing philosophies, but the narrative never really leads anywhere. Connor hates his job, quits, and gets a new one. He doesn't like his new job, thinks about quitting, but decides to stick around. He and K go out to dinner and have a conversation. They ride on the subway and make observations about the other commuters. With the exception of some flashbacks that are occasionally hard to place in the tale's chronology, it's vignette after vignette, without any real build-up.
That's why the novel's ending came as such a shock. And again, it's one I relate to personally, as something nearly identical happened to me, which may color my reception of the book. I look to fiction to vicariously experience situations I've not yet encountered, and to get into other people's heads and learn how they feel, that I might better empathize. But These Days offered neither alternative to nor insight into reality. I had hoped that the message would be either "Things don't have to be this way" as I find in the unreal fiction I normally gravitate to, or "Things are this way, but here's why". I received neither source of closure from this book. It was an abrupt and heartless ending that left me unsure why anything had just happened, what the characters' motivations had been, or what either of them was supposed to learn from this experience or how they were expected to grow from it.
I normally dive right from book to book, but I was preoccupied with These Days for days afterward. Perhaps that's a sign of a good book, that it stays with you and makes you think. But, like Connor, I don't know what just happened, and I don't know that I ever will.
The characters were also very relatable, at least on a personal level. I saw much of myself in the protagonist, Connor: makes his living online, connected to the social web, and perhaps a bit naive and needy in relationships. But I also related to his love interest, K, who never carries a cell phone and enjoys her time offline. It was in fact that technological divide between the love interests that led me to originally back Cheng's Kickstarter to publish this book. But this is not "a story about technology", as the crowdfunding video suggested. Connor uses technology to distract himself from the present but capture and relive the past, through photos, videos, tweets, and status updates. K, by contrast, is all about living in the moment but wants desperately to forget her own history. The scene describing her motivation for doing so was so evocative, I cried — I can't remember the last book to have that effect on me. These are the true challenges the characters are facing.
The book takes us through several anecdotes that demonstrate these opposing philosophies, but the narrative never really leads anywhere. Connor hates his job, quits, and gets a new one. He doesn't like his new job, thinks about quitting, but decides to stick around. He and K go out to dinner and have a conversation. They ride on the subway and make observations about the other commuters. With the exception of some flashbacks that are occasionally hard to place in the tale's chronology, it's vignette after vignette, without any real build-up.
That's why the novel's ending came as such a shock. And again, it's one I relate to personally, as something nearly identical happened to me, which may color my reception of the book. I look to fiction to vicariously experience situations I've not yet encountered, and to get into other people's heads and learn how they feel, that I might better empathize. But These Days offered neither alternative to nor insight into reality. I had hoped that the message would be either "Things don't have to be this way" as I find in the unreal fiction I normally gravitate to, or "Things are this way, but here's why". I received neither source of closure from this book. It was an abrupt and heartless ending that left me unsure why anything had just happened, what the characters' motivations had been, or what either of them was supposed to learn from this experience or how they were expected to grow from it.
I normally dive right from book to book, but I was preoccupied with These Days for days afterward. Perhaps that's a sign of a good book, that it stays with you and makes you think. But, like Connor, I don't know what just happened, and I don't know that I ever will.
ellenchisa's review
5.0
I backed Jack Cheng's Kickstarter project almost a year ago (July 2012). I did it sort of on a whim, and sort of because a bunch of my friends had and it seemed like the "cool" thing to do. I was skeptical about if it would come across as cliche, or anti-technology.
After that, I got a weekly update about the process of writing the book. I learned fascinating things about the cover design (which actually made me think I'd broken my fifth Kindle), the typography, and the process of editing at a high and low level. By the time I finally got the book Friday, I was dying to read it.
It didn't disappoint! I feel like this is the best interpretation that I've seen about where our current culture is headed. It might speak mostly to the micro-chasm of society that I'm personally a part of, but it hits on very real issues.
I was sad when I finished it.
After that, I got a weekly update about the process of writing the book. I learned fascinating things about the cover design (which actually made me think I'd broken my fifth Kindle), the typography, and the process of editing at a high and low level. By the time I finally got the book Friday, I was dying to read it.
It didn't disappoint! I feel like this is the best interpretation that I've seen about where our current culture is headed. It might speak mostly to the micro-chasm of society that I'm personally a part of, but it hits on very real issues.
I was sad when I finished it.
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