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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A.J. Jabobs is a collection of essays. Most are humorous, some are a bit "whatever", but some are super funny and had me laughing out loud. Not my favorite book by A.J. Jacobs, but was good, nonetheless.
I love the books of A.J. Jacobs and this one is no exception. In The Guinea Pig Diaries, Jacobs devotes a month each to several "experiments". He outsources his life to two firms in Bangalore, India--this was actually an on-going experiement--and representatives of the firms took care of his schedule, answered his email, argued with his wife, and even, on occasion, read to his son at bedtime. He spends a month practicing Radical Honesty, which is removing all filters between the brain and the mouth. I have a friend who practices this approach to life--has actually almost perfected it--and I have to admit that I'm not a fan having had my self-concept stomped to the ground on numerous occasions. He pretends to be a beautiful woman and signs up his Nanny for an on-line dating service and answers all of the emails that are sent. And for a month he tries to follow all of George Washington's 101 Rules of Conduct. An easy to read, light-weight, fun book. A good choice if you have a spare afternoon.
This might actually be closer to a 3.5 stars for me -- it was a brisk, often funny read, and his chapters on meditation, George Washington's code of conduct, unitasking, and rational thinking gave me some things to ponder in terms of my own behavior and biases.
Less successful for me were the chapters on posing nude for Esquire, outsourcing his personal life to workers in India, and his one-month attempt to carry out "Operation Ideal Husband." I give him credit for being as honest as he is about his own character flaws, but at times he comes across as annoying, craven, and even (when obessessing about his kids' attractive nanny) downright creepy.
Less successful for me were the chapters on posing nude for Esquire, outsourcing his personal life to workers in India, and his one-month attempt to carry out "Operation Ideal Husband." I give him credit for being as honest as he is about his own character flaws, but at times he comes across as annoying, craven, and even (when obessessing about his kids' attractive nanny) downright creepy.
Like all non-fiction, I feel this novel simply skims the surface. More detail please.
Funny and interesting, though not quite as laugh-out-loud nor as engrossing as his earlier The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically. Though the vignette chapter style allowed for Jacobs to explore different topics and put himself into a wide latitude of zany situations, it didn't have the same cohesiveness or growth of his long-form experiments.
This book is sooooo funny! I was reading this on the plane ride to Florida and kept laughing out loud through it - something that I NEVER do. I'm smiling right now just thinking of some things he says in his book. AJ Jacobs writes for Esquire and he conducts different experiments on his life so he can write about it. He conducts some really awesome experiments and has such a witty writing style. The only negative is that there was one experiment done with someone who cussed a lot and said some sexual things. So this book would be PG13, but pretty close to be R. Just a warning! I'd recommend this book to people who are in the mood for a good laugh.
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
I didn't enjoy this one as much as the other two. Yes, it had a few funny lines. This one was basically a compilation of articles he had written in the past, with a "Coda" attached to the end of each one. I kind of get the impression that he cranked this book out just to crank a book out.
medium-paced
I love AJ Jacobs’s writing, but some of the things he picked to do for 30 days were a little boring, so I caught myself skimming through those chapters.