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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
The Guinea Pig Diaries is a book of crazy stunts, not unlike the stunts I dream up to try in my life. What fun to read about someone else pulling these silly stunts! And boy, is the author's wife a saint, which the author knows. His first two books I have heard of but not read: The Year of Living Biblically, and The Know-It-All.
The book collects Jacobs’ various articles written about experiments doing things such as outsourcing his life to India, or trying to behave rationally all of the time, or living a brutally honest life. These are all funny and some are even laugh-out-loud funny. When he outsources his life, he has personal assistants in India respond to all of his emails and buys all of his gifts online. He got the idea from the book, The World is Flat, which describes how much of our day to day lives is already outsourced (at least that is what I gather, because I have not read that book). He loves not having to worry about all of this email, and his assistants, in addition to being cute, write the best email responses! The brutal honesty chapter was one of my favorite chapters because that's I how I try to live my life. I am a direct communicator. I don’t beat around the bush. But I suppose 90 percent of my readers already know this. Ha. Jacobs, on the other hand, often lies. Little white lies. We all tell them. But when he stops telling the lies, both large and small, he feels somehow liberated. But he kind of feels bad for hurting people’s feelings too.
Because he wrote all of the articles at sometime in the past, he adds a coda to the end of all of the experiments. He said the rationality project has been the most lasting or life altering. In that experiment, he read up of cognitive behavioral psychology and tried to put what he had learned into action. I do this when driving; when I am in traffic I try to rationally remember that the other lanes only seem to be moving more quickly, because it's an optical illusion that the lanes look like they are moving more quickly.
His most genius experiment is spending the month being his wife’s slave. He does everything she asks, including turning up the volume on the TV manually even though she has the remote in her hands. His wife does the coda in this chapter, where she reveals the positive impact the experiment had on their relationship. Jacobs realized how much of the household work his wife does in comparison to him. Maybe this is something we should all try?
Jacobs said in his notes that he responds to all emails he gets. So as an experiment, I emailed him a few things I thought might interest him: 1. A photo of Bumpass, Virginia because of a reference to a similar sounding town in Virginia found in the book, 2. The essay I wrote about men sitting down to pee in Germany, something also mentioned in the book, and 3. I asked him to respond.
And he did! I was so excited! I got the response and did a little happy dance, until Brent reminded me that in his brutal honesty experiment he coped to having lied to a bad poet to protect the poet’s feelings. So his calling the German men peeing essay hilarious might have just been his being nice to me.
In any event, the book is good fun and the main qualms I have with it are the cover and the title. The cover sucks and the title is not as enticing as it could have been. If the book had not been recommended by someone else, I never would have picked it up. I did not tell Jacobs this when I emailed him though: it seemed gratuitously mean...maybe I am not as brutally honest as I think.
The book collects Jacobs’ various articles written about experiments doing things such as outsourcing his life to India, or trying to behave rationally all of the time, or living a brutally honest life. These are all funny and some are even laugh-out-loud funny. When he outsources his life, he has personal assistants in India respond to all of his emails and buys all of his gifts online. He got the idea from the book, The World is Flat, which describes how much of our day to day lives is already outsourced (at least that is what I gather, because I have not read that book). He loves not having to worry about all of this email, and his assistants, in addition to being cute, write the best email responses! The brutal honesty chapter was one of my favorite chapters because that's I how I try to live my life. I am a direct communicator. I don’t beat around the bush. But I suppose 90 percent of my readers already know this. Ha. Jacobs, on the other hand, often lies. Little white lies. We all tell them. But when he stops telling the lies, both large and small, he feels somehow liberated. But he kind of feels bad for hurting people’s feelings too.
Because he wrote all of the articles at sometime in the past, he adds a coda to the end of all of the experiments. He said the rationality project has been the most lasting or life altering. In that experiment, he read up of cognitive behavioral psychology and tried to put what he had learned into action. I do this when driving; when I am in traffic I try to rationally remember that the other lanes only seem to be moving more quickly, because it's an optical illusion that the lanes look like they are moving more quickly.
His most genius experiment is spending the month being his wife’s slave. He does everything she asks, including turning up the volume on the TV manually even though she has the remote in her hands. His wife does the coda in this chapter, where she reveals the positive impact the experiment had on their relationship. Jacobs realized how much of the household work his wife does in comparison to him. Maybe this is something we should all try?
Jacobs said in his notes that he responds to all emails he gets. So as an experiment, I emailed him a few things I thought might interest him: 1. A photo of Bumpass, Virginia because of a reference to a similar sounding town in Virginia found in the book, 2. The essay I wrote about men sitting down to pee in Germany, something also mentioned in the book, and 3. I asked him to respond.
And he did! I was so excited! I got the response and did a little happy dance, until Brent reminded me that in his brutal honesty experiment he coped to having lied to a bad poet to protect the poet’s feelings. So his calling the German men peeing essay hilarious might have just been his being nice to me.
In any event, the book is good fun and the main qualms I have with it are the cover and the title. The cover sucks and the title is not as enticing as it could have been. If the book had not been recommended by someone else, I never would have picked it up. I did not tell Jacobs this when I emailed him though: it seemed gratuitously mean...maybe I am not as brutally honest as I think.
Such a pleasurable read - I finished it super quickly, it was a wonderful quick, light read, and it was funny. I was barking with laughter at a couple of moments. It was enjoyable. It was refreshingly honest. I wish for a little more detail for certain experiments, but overall, Jacobs is skilled at crafting the short stunt memoir: it's organized, well-paced, and funny as fuck.
Not as strong as his previous works, but still an enjoyable and thought provoking read.
A fun and quirky read. I might look for his other books, especially the year of living biblically.
Oh, the author's wife? Total saint.
Oh, the author's wife? Total saint.
In this book, AJ describes 9 different experiments that he did to write about either for Esquire or for this book. I enjoyed the chapters on outsourcing his life to India, and radical honesty.
My very favorite was when he spent a month doing everything his wife told him to.
I want my husband to read that chapter.
I would also love to be able to outsource parts of my life.
The book is well-written, funny, and thought provoking.
The rationality project and acting like George Washington were quite interesting as were his attempts to unitask.
I highly recommend this book - and I especially highly recommend the last chapter to my husband.
My very favorite was when he spent a month doing everything his wife told him to.
I want my husband to read that chapter.
I would also love to be able to outsource parts of my life.
The book is well-written, funny, and thought provoking.
The rationality project and acting like George Washington were quite interesting as were his attempts to unitask.
I highly recommend this book - and I especially highly recommend the last chapter to my husband.
I finished this book in record time. It was very easy to read, had a good pace (sometime too good of a pace... more details in some areas, please!) and was amusing while also being educational.
I think I will try implementing some of Jacobs' ideas into my own life. Perhaps not to the extent that he decided to, but there are quite a lot of Washington's Rules which are still applicable! That, and finding a very rational toothpaste is something I've been trying to do for years. Okay, so perhaps I already have a lot of the more positive traits in my own life. Still, adding a few more couldn't hurt! (*cough* you did want to start meditating, Xeni! *cough*)
I found this book via my friend Kim, who posted that he wanted to find a copy in the group, Literary Exploration. I'm glad I found a copy before he did, so now I can gush about how awesome it is! (And it definitely is awesome, Kim!) Anyway, it was a great find. I am sure I'll read the author's other two books... especially when he starts stoning adulterers!
I think I will try implementing some of Jacobs' ideas into my own life. Perhaps not to the extent that he decided to, but there are quite a lot of Washington's Rules which are still applicable! That, and finding a very rational toothpaste is something I've been trying to do for years. Okay, so perhaps I already have a lot of the more positive traits in my own life. Still, adding a few more couldn't hurt! (*cough* you did want to start meditating, Xeni! *cough*)
I found this book via my friend Kim, who posted that he wanted to find a copy in the group, Literary Exploration. I'm glad I found a copy before he did, so now I can gush about how awesome it is! (And it definitely is awesome, Kim!) Anyway, it was a great find. I am sure I'll read the author's other two books... especially when he starts stoning adulterers!
AJ Jacobs has a habit of experimenting on himself. These experiments have included trying to read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica, and trying to live his life exactly as the Old Testament commands. Jacobs now embarks on a series of experiments to try and improve his own life, much to the chagrin of his long-suffering wife. One of these experiences include outsourcing his life, by hiring a team of people in India to deal with his emails. Another sees him follow his wife’s every whim. Massages and rom-coms ensue, as he attempts to see how this affects his marriage.
You will find yourself laughing, being engaged by interesting philosophies, and scratching your head at the insanity of it all.
You will find yourself laughing, being engaged by interesting philosophies, and scratching your head at the insanity of it all.
AJ Jacobs has been one of my favorite writers since I chanced to discover him about 3 years ago. I love the way he writes so candidly and without regard to what others may think (despite his confession that he really cares about others' opinions of him). This book was a nice quick and light read. I'd read most of the articles on Esquire a couple of years ago and found them so humorous I decided to read the book. It includes many of the same articles but with updates and new experiments. It wasn't my favorite book of his. What I enjoy most is his deep introspection and insight because I feel it comes from a very sincere place. He isn't pretentious and doesn't spend the book arguing a side, rather he earnestly communicates what he's learning from each experiment-be it the year of living biblically or reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. That said, I felt this book fell a bit short of my expectation only because the time frame for the experiments was around a month, and perhaps that didn't really allow for his usual in-depth analysis. Regardless, it was an enjoyable read.
Brilliantly funny! I enjoyed the many different experiments he went through and now am reading more of his books to see more in detail.