Challenging and rewarding, a good intellectual stimulus - Rated 
I'm very glad I purchased this book; I bought it on recommendation of hearing a Will Self talk about psycho geography as well as having socialist leanings.
It was initially difficult for me to penetrate, but the more I progressed with the books the gladder I became that I did as it seemed to open itself up more.
It was also enjoyable to have a something that propelled me to challenge my own behaviour, especially towards my consumer habits.
starts okay then fades - Rated 
The opening couple of chapters introduce the interesting idea of the 'spectacle'. Unfortunately this is never really explained and after chapter 4 we are left with nothing more than a discourse of marxism, anarchism (which is dismissed by Debord) and the struggle between the proles and the bourgeois...which did not interest me at all.
Unless you are a student of 19th century class struggle there is little of interest here.
Completely torturous, unreadable, piece of navel gazing garbage - Rated 
I cant believe that this book has had a single positive review and am tempted to believe that there something of an "emperor's new clothes" dynamic going on, intellectuals tell you what's hot, you'd like to be an intellectual yourself, therefore you agree.
The writing style is horrendous and convoluted in the extreme, for entire chapters I thought that I must surely be missing the point or lacked the insight being an initiate of some strange mystery school would provide.
The entire idea, from what I can tell, is that consumer society and economy have all sorts of ways of stealing your time, identity etc. and selling it back to you. No matter how much you attempt to develop yourself independently you are, in reality, only working to buy a sembalance of yourself. Everyone's reduced to a spectator and bystander.
Now the problem is that this is easily said, in a single paragraph, and other authors have hit upon this alienating aspect of modern life before but it doesnt deserve an entire book, some of them summed it up in a paragraph.
In addition I would say that its a very weak criticism of consumer culture, society and economy, lots of people are more than content with being relegated to the position of spectator, or so it would seem. The popularity of socialism, for instance, in third world nations for instance has often been premised upon the idea of fast tracking the country to the point that Guy criticises.
The promises, hopes or vision of socialism elsewhere couldnt provide the same allure or attraction compared with the prospect of constructing an identity through consumer choices and accessorise, accessorise, accessorise ruled the day.
To acknowledge my bias I'm not a fan of continental philosophy, classical philosophy, anglo-american philosophers can appear pedantic, repetitive and conservative by contrast but they are not inaccessible or convoluted in their style. It depends what sort of read you want but I think this will prove a disatisfying read to anyone who thinks about it.
society of the spectacular! - Rated
This book - in conjunction with some secondary literature and other NOT RANDOM situ texts - is one of the few which can come to revolutionise your perception ALL THE WAY DOWN. Of course : it is obscure and relies on a familiarity with alot of marxist terminology - but it bares, and demands, repeated readings which demonstrates how these concepts have alot of life in them! If I was to formulate its thesis then today it would be : you are always watching others do things instead of doing something which would exceed the gaze of another watching you. This is the road towards de-reification et al...
Disconcertingly accurate statement of things in general. - Rated
Don't let the other reviews put you off, this is a great book, although I've not read this translation. It's nothing as tedious as a critique of consumerism or the like - its a really revolutionary book. The surprise that such a thing can exist tends to disorientate its younger readers for a while.
Get it, read it, resist his tendency to overwhelm you with his impressive grasp of reality, and then go around feeling superior to everybody else while musing on how to overthrow the autonomous rule of our products, preferably in your lifetime. I recommend it.
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