I would probably rank Douglas Coupland among my favourite authors, despite the fact that I’ve really only taken the time to read three of his books thus far. Microserfs and JPod are two novels that I’ve particularly enjoyed, partially because they focus on characters working in the tech industry that I could identify with in some way, but also because they’re funny and so well-tuned to cultural trends. Most recently, Coupland wrote a movie for the big screen similar in tone to these books called Everything’s Gone Green; I caught it at the Toronto Film Festival last year and enjoyed it a great deal (you can read my review here).

Anyway, I guess JPod is coming out on paperback this month, and they’ve taken an interesting approach to promoting it. Bookshorts and Showcase have produced a short film based on the book (less than 5 minutes) and released it online. I suppose this is a pretty good way to get the attention of media-savvy folks who don’t read books very often, but I have to admit that I didn’t really like the short much. Granted, it’s hard to capture a book in 5 minutes of screen time. I think it was mainly the guy who plays Ethan that really turned me off. You can check out the video below (but if you don’t like it you should still give the book a chance!).

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