Reviews

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

jayseewhy's review against another edition

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4.0

I hope Aziz writes some more books sometime.

funteamjen's review against another edition

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4.0

Despite it being wildly different than my expectations, I found this book fascinating. What I expected was humor, what I got was an interesting analysis of how technology has changed love and romance. How we think about and find love today is vastly different than how our grandparents did. And romance in the US is surprisingly different from other cultures across the world. This book also has some great lessons on how to leverage this technology, but not let it over-complicate the search for love. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in human behavior and how it changes over time.

archerb's review against another edition

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Really interesting, I didn't expect this from Aziz! I picked it up because I like his comedy, didn't realize it was a sociology study on, you guessed it, Modern Romance.

redowns1022's review against another edition

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4.0

Huge plus = the audiobook is read by Aziz :)

lauraborkpower's review against another edition

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3.0

This book wasn't what I thought it would be. I hadn't read much about it, but assumed that a book about romance by Ansari would be his own personal narratives about navigating late-twenties/early-thirties dating.

But that's not it at all, and I'm so glad.

Ansari teamed up with sociologist Eric Klinenberg to do about a year's worth of research about romance: interviews with sociologists and psychologists; investigation into historical research and studies; analysis of survey results from organizations like Match.com; discussions with people around the world who participate in all sorts of dating activities (online, traditional). And they wrote a book analyzing what people do when they date, and, sometimes, how they could be doing it better.

He disclaims that they focused on heterosexual dating practices among middle-class people in developed countries. He peppers his own experiences throughout, but it's supplemental and not the focus, which I liked. It's not a personal narrative; it's the result of a curious (and very funny) mind. My only complaint is that it's not tremendously detailed. I'd have liked it about twice as long to really get into some of these topics. But it's a pop-psychology book written by a comedian, so I knew that going in.

Ansari narrates the audiobook, so if you like his stand-up, you'll love his performance here.

ckeithjohnson's review against another edition

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3.0

This was a really intriguing book. I am absolutely glad I don't live in this world of dating. I enjoyed the statistics and the conversation around it, though.

zachghalayini's review against another edition

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4.0

Really easy reading, Aziz makes some sober observations about modern romance and he focuses and dating in the age of tinder. I enjoyed all the analysis on our generations ways of communicating and how romance has evolved so much from the old days.

tiffditto's review against another edition

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I didn’t finish because I couldn’t get into the subject matter. It all seemed pretty obvious and like none of the information was riveting. 

emileers's review against another edition

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3.0

My rating is probably due more to my lack of interest in the topic than the quality of the book, so take that for what it's worth.

daumari's review against another edition

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5.0

I think I mentioned this in an earlier update, but this book showed me the anecdotes and research behind some of the storylines in Master of None, which I thought was a wonderful true-to-life take on modern life as a 20-30s year old.

I've read various books by comedians over the last few years, with some better than others. Ansari's was neat in that I learned stuff while reading without getting too dry (am now curious about [b:Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone|11797459|Going Solo The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone|Eric Klinenberg|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347918144s/11797459.jpg|16750253] by co-author [a:Eric Klinenberg|2611|Eric Klinenberg|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1332895127p2/2611.jpg] because MR seemed entirely in Aziz's voice). Surprisingly well researched compiling literature, focus groups, interviews across age groups and countries to form a snapshot of how we're relationshipping in today's world of tinder & sexting.

I'm not single, but I want to encourage my friends fruitlessly trying okcupid for the 11tybillionth time to read and figure out best practices for using digital tools to meet mr/ms. right.