Take your mind for a run on the exercise wheel, read The Guinea Pig Diaries
Written: Sep 21 '09 (Updated Sep 21 '09)
Product Rating:
Pros: Humorous and real at the same time, situations readers can empathize and cringe at simultaniously.
Cons: Seems a bit scattered at times as stories have little continuity with each other.
The Bottom Line: Again Jacobs pulls off a difficult feat, capturing real moments that teeter on mortifying at times without going all gross-out or stupid. Genuine book that keeps you reading.
openroad's Full Review: A. J. Jacobs - The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life As ...
Leaning back in my chair as I neared the end ofThe Guinea Pig Diaries, a rather odd thought struck me; A.J. Jacobs as an author is a bit like John Delorean as a car designer. He comes up with unique (okay, I'm gonna say crazy) ideas that most authors wouldn't attempt to implement, then has to try and sell them to his editor. Thankfully unlike Delorean's one-hit-wonder car creations best known for their appearance in the Back to the Future series, A.J. Jacobs keeps convincing the powers that be to let him publish new material every few years.
I first noticed Jacobs as author after reading his last literary experiment in biblically bearded living and taking the Old Testament to its literal extremes in every way. The Year of Living Biblically took me by surprise as it was incredibly funny as I assumed it would be, yet also managed to touch a deeper vein of faith and religion, exposing several core questions we all face from time to time. It was worth noting that Jacobs dives into his roles so completely that often times he will be unable to completely detach from all he's experienced during his "roleplaying". Anyway, I had vowed to keep an eye open for any future books by him and sure enough, this month we have The Guinea Pig Diaries.
That said, don't expect Guinea Pig Diaries (hereafter shortened to GPD) to be nearly as substantial as his last book. Jacobs is in fact a writer for Esquire magazine and this book takes an appropriately jaunty, irreverent look at many different unrelated areas of life most men would never dare to venture. This isn't to say women wouldn't like or appreciate GPD, but Jacobs puts himself in situations that men in particular would squirm violently or at least be very uncomfortable in. That is the beauty of the book, it's a bit like passing a car crash on the tollway; offering a somewhat voyeuristic look at something we wouldn't want to be involved in but find irresistable to watch. - - - What type of situations are we talking about? - - -
Chapter 1 tackles what it's like to be a drop-dead beautiful woman in an image-heavy online dating world. Sure, most of us wouldn't mind being hot and totally attractive to the opposite sex, however the road isn't all roses on the sexy side of the fence. Surprisingly Jacobs actually generates sympathy for both sides of the fence as he acts as a date screener for his son's gorgeous 20-something nanny and wades through countless replies from shy dudes and schmucks alike.
Moving on through chapter 2, Jacobs tests the business theory that you can "outsource anything" by hiring personal assistants to streamline his life and do most of his daily tasks. These ladies are actually in India and work a nearly opposite 8 hour schedule from N.Y. Several outsourced tasks include paying his bills, emailing his boss, ordering food for the family, reading bedtime stories to his son, wishing his parents happy anniversary, and apologizing to his wife, I laughed harder at portions of this chapter than anything else in the book, mostly because I would love to get an email response from a lovely Indian lady named "Honey" relaying a message from a friend a mere 5 miles away. You see the irony, ah so choice.
Other chapters include "Radical Honesty" (eliminating the filter between your brain and mouth and forcing you to say exactly what you think), "What Would George Washington Do", (revolutionary thinking applied in a modern world), "Betting in the Buff" (a business agreement leads to a rather embarrassing photo shoot), "Monotasking" (intentionally doing ONLY one thing at a time), to "Operation Obedient Husband" (doing every single thing your wife asks for a month). With nine different experiments in all there's at least one or two things that will click with everyone as they read it, personally I laughed and cringed nearly every chapter. Somehow Jacobs takes rather ordinary, everyday situations and creates an entirely new sitution just based on how he approaches it and his social interactions. To be honest, I usually read his books just to see what he learned from his experiments and what he found himself implementing in his life. It's worth noting that after each chapter Jacobs jots a few of his personal thoughts down after the experiment is over with.
After reading The Know it All andYear of Living Biblically, GPD is a bit more "raw" book and has the occasional profanity or innuendo dropped here and there, however in their context it's understandable. I almost see Jacobs as a bit of a cultural comedian, not so much cracking jokes but showing us how stupid and funny we can be. He does this about as subtly as a pumpkin dropped from a bridge, however it's his going to excess that makes the point. If you've read his other books I recommend giving this one a read too, however A.J.'s books aren't similar enough you can expect what's coming. If you want to see inside the head of A.J. Jacobs, this book is probably your best shot short of actually meeting him... although he'd probably just give you a quick bow (Washington) and tell you to sod off, he doesn't need anymore friends (Radical Honesty).
Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!
The Guinea Pig Diaries Author: A.J. Jacobs Publisher: Simon & Schuster First released: 2009 Genre: Non-Fiction ISBN: 1416599061
From the senior editor of Esquire magazine comes a book of essays on all of his hilarious adventures as a human guinea pig, including My Outsourced Li...More at Buy.com
From the senior editor of Esquire magazine comes a book of essays on all of his hilarious adventures as a human guinea pig, including My Outsourced Li...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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