Extra Life: Coming of Age in Cyberspace

by David S. Bennahum

Book Overview

Today's digital culture traces its roots to the 1980s, when the first computer generation came of age. These original techno-kids grew up with home-brew programs, secret computer access codes, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465012361
• ISBN13: 9780465012367
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A walk down 64k memory lane

I find it annoying that someone gave this book 2 stars because he couldn't relate to the author. How is that is standard for whether a book is good or not? If that's how we judge books, then Star Wars and Lord of the Rings suck!Anyways, this book is excellent. I was too young to notice the computer age in the 80s, but reading this book is as close as I'll ever get. It makes me appreciate where we were in technology and kindof wish that things were still as simple and straigtforward. But it also makes me marvel at where we're going as well. Thanks David.

A great book!

I found this book 100% pure excellence. The way it weaved high technology with the realities of the times and growing up in the 70's and 80's. I have often thought that writing such a book would be terrific fun, but who would read it? I doubt I could ever write such an engrossing and entertaining book about myself the way David did with Extra Life. He succeeded in making an autobiography read more like a combination of a novel and reference manual. Thanks for such a great book!

Utterly fascinating. I saw myself on every page.

This extraordinary book traces the author's coming of age through computer development. Examining his personal life through a digital lens, he illuminates my (and, I bet, your) murky history of interacting with everything from the Commodore 64 and my Atari game console to my present laptop. My mind reeled as I saw, and recognized, my personal history excavated by this perceptive writer. I heartily recommend the book to anyone wanting to better understand this most human of revolutions, the digital revolution.

An excellent book for those who appreciate the technology

I throughly enjoyed this book, I am older than David but felt the same fascination the first time I used a Dragon 32K. I never mastered programming to the same degree but understand his enchantment. The book's underlying theme is understanding the interaction between the human and the computer not just the "human computer interface". The parallel between the PDP computer and the Internet should be compulsory reading for those (including my kids) who believe that the Internet just happened. I strongly recommend this book both for its literary merits and its insights into our recent history.

A touching story about growing up in the Computer Age

David Bennahum's "Extra Life" is one of the most touching, gripping, and interesting books I've read in a long time. The book is a personal account of the authors youth, his early descent into the world of drugs and alcohol, and how discovering the fascinating world of computers brought him out and changed his life forever. It was a powerful moment when the meaning of the book's title hit me.. like in video games, David was granted an "Extra Life", a chance to pull himself up by the bootstraps. Computers were the answer.Perhaps I enjoyed this book so much because many of David's experiences hit very close to home -- while I was never did drugs or drank alcohol, and I am a bit younger than him (Pac Man instead of Pong), I found myself relating closely to Bennahum's memoirs. The similarities between us are scary, from our first computers (Atari 800), to our interviews with Microsoft later in life. "Extra Life" is the first book I've read that has hit the spirit of the computer programmer straight on the head. Finally, someone who shared the same passion for programming that I have! Bennahum expresses this passion eloquently."Extra Life" is a fascinating story, most likely the first of many personal experiences about growing up in the computer age we'll see in the future. After reading David's story, I had the strange urge to share my similar experiences. Personally, I can't wait to give this book to my parents to read, and I urge those parents who are curious -- and maybe a bit concerned -- about the hypnotic attachment their kids have with the computer to pick up a copy of "Extra Life" and read what that attachment is all about. Cheers to David S. Bennahum on his first book. I can't wait for his next.