Books like 'Microserfs'
Readers who enjoyed Microserfs by Douglas Coupland also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary sc-fi comedy 20th century humor technology literary-fiction satire epistolary friendship
-
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 60 ratingsA gargantuan, mind-altering tragi-comedy about the Pursuit of Happiness in America... -
![The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams]()
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsSeconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of the The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out of work actor...Categorized as:
classics humor literary-fiction satire university 20th-century action-adventure aliens -
![The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsThe Sirens of Titan is an outrageous romp through space, time, and morality. The richest, most depraved man on Earth, Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a space journey to distant worlds with a beautiful woman at his side. Of course there’ s a catch to the invitation–and a prophetic vision about the purpose of human life that only Vonnegut has the courage to tell...Categorized as:
classics humor literary-fiction satire university 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders]()
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsIn six stories and the novella, Bounty, Saunders introduces readers to people struggling to survive in an increasingly haywire world...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire university 20th-century 21st-century -
-
![The Golden Apple by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson]()
The Golden Apple by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNausea, then microamnesia, then the laughing jag, then sex. Be patient. The clear light comes next. Then we can discuss Truth. As if we haven't been discussing it all along. -Hagbard Celine, The Golden Apple Illuminatus! Part II, from the original and genuine trilogy of conspiracies, is performed in all its unabridged brilliance by a full ensemble cast...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor satire 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Monday Begins on Saturday by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky]()
Monday Begins on Saturday by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsWhen young programmer Aleksandr Ivanovich Privalov picks up two hitchhikers while driving in Karelia, he is drawn into the mysterious world of the Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry, where research into magic is serious business... -
![Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 76 ratingsTold with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it ...Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding 'fathers' of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to the world. For he's the inventor of 'ice-nine', a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire university 20th-century -
![Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Курт Воннегут]()
Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Курт Воннегут
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsWelcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, these superb stories share Vonnegut’s audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire university 20th-century adult -
![Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Grant Naylor]()
Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Grant Naylor
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe first lesson Lister learned about space travel was you should never try it. But Lister didn't have a choice. All he remembered was going on a birthday celebration pub crawl through London. When he came to his senses again, with nothing in his pockets but a passport in the name of Emily Berkenstein.So he did the only thing he could... -
![Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 70 ratingsAlternate cover for this ISBN can be found hereIn Breakfast of Champions, one of Kurt Vonnegut’s most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see the truth...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire university 20th-century -
![Leviathan by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson]()
Leviathan by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe ultimate weapon isn't this plague out in Vegas, or any new super H-bomb. The ultimate weapon has always existed. Every man, every woman, and every child owns it. It's the ability to say No and take the consequences. - Hagbard Celine, LeviathanIlluminatus! Part III cheerfully ushers in the apocalyptic high-camp conclusion of the Illuminatus! Trilogy...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor satire 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F. Saint]()
Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F. Saint
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA freak accident renders an ordinary stock analyst invisible, and though invisibility has its pitfalls, he is able to eavesdrop his way into amassing a fortune in this side-splitting, tear-jerking mixture of fantasy and nightmare... -
![Better than Life by Grant Naylor]()
Better than Life by Grant Naylor
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA wild and wacky SF series--based on the popular BBC-TV series--reminiscent of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Lister--who passed out drunk in London and awakened in a locker on a moon of Saturn--now finds himself trapped in a computer game that transports players to the perfect world of their imaginations--a game people are literally dying to play... -
![Pastoralia by George Saunders]()
Pastoralia by George Saunders
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsWith this new collection, George Saunders takes us even further into the shocking, uproarious and oddly familiar landscape of his imagination.The stories in Pastoralia are set in a slightly skewed version of America, where elements of contemporary life have been merged, twisted, and amplified, casting their absurdity-and our humanity-in a startling new light... -
-
![Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsBroad humor and bitter irony collide in this fictional autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, who, at age seventy-one, wants to be left alone on his Long Island estate with the secret he has locked inside his potato barn...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire university 20th-century -
![God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsSecond only to Slaughterhouse-Five of Vonnegut's canon in its prominence and influence, God Bless You, Mr...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire university 20th-century -
![Bellwether by Connie Willis]()
Bellwether by Connie Willis
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsConnie Willis has won more Hugo and Nebula awards than any other science fiction author. Now, with her trademark wit and inventiveness, she explores the intimate relationship between science, pop culture, and the arcane secrets of the heart.Sandra Foster studies fads - from Barbie dolls to the grunge look - how they start and what they mean...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century action-adventure animals audiobook -
![Armageddon in Retrospect: And Other New and Unpublished Writings on War and Peace by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Mark Vonnegut]()
Armageddon in Retrospect: And Other New and Unpublished Writings on War and Peace by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Mark Vonnegut
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTo be published on the first anniversary of Kurt Vonnegut's death, Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of twelve new and unpublished writings on war and peace, imbued with Vonnegut's trademark rueful humor...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century 21st-century adult -
![Physicists by Friedrich Dürrenmatt]()
Physicists by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsThe Physicists is a provocative and darkly comic satire about life in modern times, by one of Europe’s foremost dramatists and author of the internationally celebrated The Visit.The world’s greatest physicist, Johann Wilhelm Möbius, is in a madhouse, haunted by recurring visions of King Solomon... -
![While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Dave Eggers]()
While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Dave Eggers
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsForeword by Dave EggersSmart, whimsical, and often scathing, the fiction of Kurt Vonnegut influenced a generation of American writers—including Dave Eggers, author of this volume’s Foreword... -
![Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul]()
Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsShiva Naipaul was the brother of V. S. Naipaul and author of Firefles and The Chip-Chip Gatherers. Fireflies, his first novel, published in 1970 and longlisted for the 'Lost Man Booker Award' in 2010, is set in Naipaul's native Trinidad. It includes a new foreword by Amit Chaudhuri. The Khojas are Trinidad's most venerated Hindu family... -
![Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsKurt Vonnegut’s first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul’s rebellion is vintage Vonnegut—wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality... -
![Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.87 of 5 stars · 58 ratingsGalápagos takes the reader back one million years, to A.D. 1986. A simple vacation cruise suddenly becomes an evolutionary journey. Thanks to an apocalypse, a small group of survivors stranded on the Galápagos Islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave, new, and totally different human race...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century action-adventure -
![God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsFrom Slapstick's "Turkey Farm" to Slaughterhouse-Five's eternity in a Tralfamadorean zoo cage with Montana Wildhack, the question of the afterlife never left Kurt Vonnegut's mind. In God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian, Vonnegut skips back and forth between life and the Afterlife as if the difference between them were rather slight...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century adult afterlife -
-
![White Noise by Don DeLillo]()
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Rated: 3.87 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsA brilliant satire of mass culture and the numbing effects of technology, White Noise tells the story of Jack Gladney, a teacher of Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America. Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism... -
![A Fairy Tale of New York by J.P. Donleavy]()
A Fairy Tale of New York by J.P. Donleavy
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA Fairy Tale of New York is a funny, lusty, and sad novel of comic genius. Returning from study abroad, Cornelius Christian enters customs with his luggage and his dead wife. His first encounter in New York is with a funeral director, with whom he reluctantly takes employment to pay for the burial expenses... -
![Отель У погибшего альпиниста by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky]()
Отель У погибшего альпиниста by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the Russian masters of sci-fi comes "The Dead Mountaineer s Inn," a hilarious spoof on the classic country-house murder mystery.When Inspector Peter Glebsky arrives at a remote ski chalet on vacation, the last thing he intends to do is get involved in any police work. He s there to ski, drink brandy, and loaf around in blissful solitude... -
![The Dalkey Archive by Flann O'Brien]()
The Dalkey Archive by Flann O'Brien
Rated: 3.82 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsHailed as "the best comic fantasy since Tristram Shandy" upon its publication in 1964, The Dalkey Archive is Flann O'Brien's fifth and final novel; or rather (as O'Brien wrote to his editor), "The book is not meant to be a novel or anything of the kind but a study in derision, various writers with their styles, and sundry modes, attitudes and cults being the rats in the cage... -
![Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsHere is the adventure of Eugene Debs Hartke. He's a Vietnam veteran, a jazz pianist, a college professor, and a prognosticator of the apocalypse (and other things Earth-shattering). But that's neither here no there. Because at Tarkington College—where he teaches—the excrement is about to hit the air-conditioning. And its all Eugene's fault...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire university 20th-century -
![Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.82 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsDeadeye Dick is Kurt Vonnegut’s funny, chillingly satirical look at the death of innocence. Amid a true Vonnegutian host of horrors—a double murder, a fatal dose of radioactivity, a decapitation, an annihilation of a city by a neutron bomb—Rudy Waltz, aka Deadeye Dick, takes us along on a zany search for absolution and happiness... -
![Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsWampeters, Foma & Granfalloons (Opinions) is a rare opportunity to experience Kurt Vonnegut speaking in his own voice about his own life, his views of the world, his writing, and the writing of others. An indignant, outrageous, witty, deeply felt collection of reviews, essays, and speeches, this is a window not only into Vonnegut’s mind but also into his heart... -
![Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 30 ratings"[Kurt Vonnegut] is either the funniest serious writer around or the most serious funny writer."--Los Angeles Times Book ReviewIn this self-portrait by an American genius, Kurt Vonnegut writes with beguiling wit and poignant wisdom about his favorite comedians, country music, a dead friend, a dead marriage, and various cockamamie aspects of his all-too-human journey through life... -
![The Face of Another by Kōbō Abe]()
The Face of Another by Kōbō Abe
Rated: 3.77 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsLike an elegantly chilling postscript to The Metamorphosis, this classic of postwar Japanese literature describes a bizarre physical transformation that exposes the duplicities of an entire world. The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident–a man who has lost his face and, with it, his connection to other people. Even his wife is now repulsed by him... -
![The Queen and I by Sue Townsend]()
The Queen and I by Sue Townsend
Rated: 3.72 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTownsend, author of the phenomenally successful Adrian Mole books, here brings off an audacious notion with considerable elan. She imagines a Britain where an unforgiving, newly elected Republican Party decides that the entire Royal Family must learn to live like other Britons, or in their case, like desperately poor lower-class Britons on a hideous housing estate in a provincial city...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century alternate-history audiobook -
-
![Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem]()
Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsGumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems—there's a rabbit in his waiting room and a trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. Near-future Oakland is a brave new world where evolved animals are members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mind-numbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage.Metcalf has been shadowing Celeste, the wife of an affluent doctor... -
![My Teacher Is an Alien by Bruce Coville]()
My Teacher Is an Alien by Bruce Coville
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsSixth grade is just out of this world!Susan Simmons can tell that her new substitute teacher is really weird. But she doesn't know how weird until she catches him peeling off his face -- and realizes that "Mr. Smith" is really an alien! At first no one will believe her except Peter Thompson, the class brain. When Peter and Susan discover Mr... -
![Zodiac by Neal Stephenson]()
Zodiac by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 3.73 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsSangamon Taylor's a New Age Sam Spade who sports a wet suit instead of a trench coat and prefers Jolt from the can to Scotch on the rocks. He knows about chemical sludge the way he knows about evil -- all too intimately. And the toxic trail he follows leads to some high and foul places...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction technology university 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist by Mark Leyner]()
My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist by Mark Leyner
Rated: 3.64 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMy Cousin, My Gastroenterologist is a postmodernist/absurdist book composed of 17 loosely-related chapters with no general storyline. It is voiced in first-person by an anonymous narrator often using jargon, broken grammar and punctuation with a poetry-like structure... -
![No Word From Gurb by Eduardo Mendoza]()
No Word From Gurb by Eduardo Mendoza
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsA shape-shifting extraterrestrial named Gurb has assumed the form of Madonna and disappeared in Barcelona’s backstreets. His commanding officer and best friend has sent off in pursuit, scrupulously recording his observations of a human life in the city while munching through vast quantities of churros. No stone is left unturned, no danger too much, in the search for his old pal Gurb... -
![Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett]()
Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt's just a game . . . isn't it?The alien spaceship is in his sights. His finger is on the Fire button. Johnny Maxwell is about to set the new high score on the computer game Only You Can Save Mankind.Suddenly, a message appears:We wish to talk. We surrender...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction humor satire 20th-century action-adventure aliens audiobook -
![Stark by Ben Elton]()
Stark by Ben Elton
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsStark is a secret consortium with more money than God, and the social conscience of a dog on a croquet lawn. What's more, it knows the Earth is dying.Deep in Western Australia where the Aboriginals used to milk the trees, a planet-sized plot is taking shape. Some green freaks pick up the scent: a pommie poseur; a brain-fried Vietnam vet; Aboriginals who have lost their land.. -
![Bagombo Snuff Box by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Bagombo Snuff Box by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.73 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsNew York, 1950. A young PR man working at General Electric sold his first magazine piece. By the time he'd sold his third, he decided to quit his job and join the likes of Salinger, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Faulkner, and make a living as a full-time writer. That young man was Kurt Vonnegut... -
![Vineland by Thomas Pynchon]()
Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
Rated: 3.70 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsVineland, a zone of blessed anarchy in northern California, is the last refuge of hippiedom, a culture devastated by the sobriety epidemic, Reaganomics, and the Tube. Here, in an Orwellian 1984, Zoyd Wheeler and his daughter Prairie search for Prairie's long-lost mother, a Sixties radical who ran off with a narc...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire university 20th-century adult -
![Little Green Men by Christopher Buckley]()
Little Green Men by Christopher Buckley
Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsJohn is convinced that he was abducted from his exclusive golf club by aliens. When he is kidnapped a second time, he realises he has been chosen to spearhead a vital crusade - to persuade the White House to take alien abduction seriously... -
-
![A Friend of the Earth by T. Coraghessan Boyle]()
A Friend of the Earth by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Rated: 3.68 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsOne of LitHub's 365 Books to Start Your Climate Change Library "Fiction about ecological disaster tends to be written in a tragic key. Boyle, by contrast, favors the darkly comic." -Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth ExtinctionOriginally published in 2000, T. C. Boyle's prescient novel about global warming and ecological collapseIt is the year 2025. Global warming is a reality...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century adult animals anthologies -
![Confessions of a Crap Artist by Philip K. Dick]()
Confessions of a Crap Artist by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsConfessions of a Crap Artist is one of Philip K. Dick's weirdest and most accomplished novels. Jack Isidore is a crap artist -- a collector of crackpot ideas (among other things, he believes that the earth is hollow and that sunlight has weight) and worthless objects, a man so grossly unequipped for real life that his sister and brother-in-law feel compelled to rescue him from it... -
![The Golden Gizmo by Jim Thompson]()
The Golden Gizmo by Jim Thompson
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsToddy Kent was born with a "gizmo" in his head--talent for finding easy money--but when Toddy's gift deserts him and he finds his wife murdered, he goes on the run from a sinister man and his hymn-singing... -
![Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World by Donald Antrim]()
Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World by Donald Antrim
Rated: 3.62 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsPete Robinson never meant to suggest the drawing-and-quartering of Mayor Kunkel, although he did mention that Toyotas and Subarus might make excellent substitutes for horses. But, after all, the fact that Mayor Jim Kunkel had first fired Stinger missiles into the Botanical Garden reflecting pool, massacring innocent picnickers, did require some kind of response... -
![As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem]()
As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsAnna Karenina left her husband for a dashing officer. Lady Chatterley left hers for the gamekeeper. Now Alice Coombs has her boyfriend for nothing … nothing at all. Just how that should have come to pass and what Philip Engstrand, Alice’s spurned boyfriend, can do about it is the premise for this vertiginous speculative romance by the acclaimed author of Gun, with Occasional Music... -
![The Doctor is Sick by Anthony Burgess]()
The Doctor is Sick by Anthony Burgess
Rated: 3.61 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsDr. Edwin Spindrift, a very ordinary lecturer in linguistics, has been sent home from Burma with a brain tumor. Closer to words than people, his sense of reality is further altered by his condition. The night before he is to be operated on, Spindrift decides—shaven-headed, shirtless, and penniless—to postpone the surgery by escaping from the hospital...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.
