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A review by thomas_edmund
The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A.J. Jacobs
4.0
I read this out of order to 'A year of Living Heathily' and noticed something strange. In my review of that book I felt a strange connection with Jacobs and his eccentric but thoughtful take on life. My lovely wife attributed this to skillful writing, which I pooed pooed assuming I had found an author who truly 'got' me.
I think after reading Guinea Pig my wife was right.
Less polished this book perhaps shows more of Jacobs personality (we're not that similar it seems) which was oddly disappointing.
Although perhaps we do have rambling non-fiction narratives in common... Now to actually review.
Life as a Human Experiment is a nice quick read, humorous in approach and more fun than serious. Radical honestly was a stand out chapter that provided a lot of food for thought, some other experiments I felt were pursued with too much focus on forced comedy when its Jacobs' balance between jokes and insights that makes his work.
Ended up calling it at four stars (not because I felt oddly distant from Jacobs in this piece) but because after a while the structure and narrative got a little repetitive and I began to feel like I was just listening to Jacobs' thoughts on a variety of topics rather than a well-constructed experiment (the number of I statements where a giveaway)
I think after reading Guinea Pig my wife was right.
Less polished this book perhaps shows more of Jacobs personality (we're not that similar it seems) which was oddly disappointing.
Although perhaps we do have rambling non-fiction narratives in common... Now to actually review.
Life as a Human Experiment is a nice quick read, humorous in approach and more fun than serious. Radical honestly was a stand out chapter that provided a lot of food for thought, some other experiments I felt were pursued with too much focus on forced comedy when its Jacobs' balance between jokes and insights that makes his work.
Ended up calling it at four stars (not because I felt oddly distant from Jacobs in this piece) but because after a while the structure and narrative got a little repetitive and I began to feel like I was just listening to Jacobs' thoughts on a variety of topics rather than a well-constructed experiment (the number of I statements where a giveaway)