The world's most daring self-testing social scientist undergoes his most audacious experiment yet
"The goal is that the pain of the experiment will end up making life better in the end. And that my wife will forgive me."
Far too immersive and well-researched to be dismissed as mere stunt journalism, AJ Jacobs' missions of self-improvement take aim at basic human concerns: career, fame, time-management, honesty, rationality. It's only for scientific reasons that The Guinea Pig Diaries has him impersonating a woman online, sneaking into the Oscars and wearing a chastity belt. Jacobs' nutball experiments often lead him down some less-traveled roads — see also 2004's The Know-It-All, for which he read the encyclopedia cover to cover (to cover to cover…) and 2007's The Year of Living Biblically, which had him bearded, sandaled, and stoning adulterers in the street — but this collection of mini-quests is his funniest and weirdest yet. He spends a month taking orders from his wife, Julie. He obeys George Washington's absurdly genteel "110 Rules of Civility." He outsources his household duties (shopping, emailing, arguing with Julie) to Bangalore, India. He abides by tenets of the Radical Honesty movement, which is all about switching off mental filters and just saying what you're thinking. That one leads to a lot of apologizing. The next-to-last word goes to Julie, who is often called a saint for putting up with her husband's shenanigans. She reveals herself to be a funny kind of nut in her own right. It's sweet how right they are for each other.
Rate it!
Avg: 4.0 (1 rating)
- Written and Narrated by: A. J. Jacobs
- Publisher: Audioworks
- Genre: Biography & Memoir, Personal Memoir, Humor Nonfiction
-
We Say...
The world's most daring self-testing social scientist undergoes his most audacious experiment yet
"The goal is that the pain of the experiment will end up making life better in the end. And that my wife will forgive me."
Far too immersive and well-researched to be dismissed as mere stunt journalism, AJ Jacobs' missions of self-improvement take... -
They Say...
"Jacobs...could be the funniest nonfiction writer this side of Bill Bryson....[His] storytelling is lighthearted and frequently laugh-out-loud funny....There aren't a lot of nonfiction books you want to read over and over, but this is certainly one of them." (starred review)"The nine stories reveal an everyman who is willing to try just about anything and doesn't even try to gloss over his foibles. Witty self-deprecation is Jacobs' bread, butter and jam, and his attempts to correct (or at least confront) his flaws drive the action." -
You Say...
Write a ReviewI would like to say...
Update Nickname
Your default nickname is . If you would like to post album reviews or other content to the site, you must change your nickname first. Please note that you may change your nickname only once, so please choose carefully.
Audiobook Download Information
- Edition: Unabridged (Audioworks)
- Length: 6 hours, 16 minutes
- File Size: 172 MB (6 files)
- Published: September 2009
Summary
For his first book, The Know-It-All, A. J. Jacobs read the entire Encyclopædia Britannica from cover to cover in a quest to learn everything in the world. In The Year of Living Biblically, he followed every single rule of the Bible -- from the Ten Commandments right on down to stoning adulterers.
Now comes a collection of his most hilarious and thought-provoking experiments yet. In his role as human guinea pig, Jacobs fearlessly takes on a series of life-altering challenges that provides readers with equal parts insight and humor. (And which drives A.J.'s patient wife, Julie, to the brink of insanity.)
Among the many adventures:
• He outsources his life. A.J. hires a team of people in Bangalore, India, to take care of everything in his life from answering his e-mails to arguing with his spouse.
• He spends a month practicing Radical Honesty -- a movement that encourages us to remove the filters between our brains and mouths. (To give you an idea of what happened, the name of the chapter is "I Think You're Fat.")
• He goes to the Academy Awards disguised as a movie star to understand the strange and warping effects of fame.
• He commits himself to ultimate rationality, using cutting-edge science to make the best decisions possible. It changes the way he makes choices big and small, from what to buy at the grocery store to how to talk to his kids. And his revelations will change how you make decisions, too.
• He attempts to follow George Washington's rules of life, uncovering surprising truths about leadership and politics in the twenty-first century. He also spends a lot of time bowing and doffing his hat.
• And then there's the month when he followed his wife's every whim -- foot massages, Kate Hudson movies, and all. Depending on your point of view, it's either the best or worst idea in the history of American marriage.
A mix of Bill Bryson, George Plimpton, and Malcolm Gladwell, A.J. explores the big issues of our time -- happiness, dating, morality, marriag...
Now comes a collection of his most hilarious and thought-provoking experiments yet. In his role as human guinea pig, Jacobs fearlessly takes on a series of life-altering challenges that provides readers with equal parts insight and humor. (And which drives A.J.'s patient wife, Julie, to the brink of insanity.)
Among the many adventures:
• He outsources his life. A.J. hires a team of people in Bangalore, India, to take care of everything in his life from answering his e-mails to arguing with his spouse.
• He spends a month practicing Radical Honesty -- a movement that encourages us to remove the filters between our brains and mouths. (To give you an idea of what happened, the name of the chapter is "I Think You're Fat.")
• He goes to the Academy Awards disguised as a movie star to understand the strange and warping effects of fame.
• He commits himself to ultimate rationality, using cutting-edge science to make the best decisions possible. It changes the way he makes choices big and small, from what to buy at the grocery store to how to talk to his kids. And his revelations will change how you make decisions, too.
• He attempts to follow George Washington's rules of life, uncovering surprising truths about leadership and politics in the twenty-first century. He also spends a lot of time bowing and doffing his hat.
• And then there's the month when he followed his wife's every whim -- foot massages, Kate Hudson movies, and all. Depending on your point of view, it's either the best or worst idea in the history of American marriage.
A mix of Bill Bryson, George Plimpton, and Malcolm Gladwell, A.J. explores the big issues of our time -- happiness, dating, morality, marriag...
For his first book, The Know-It-All, A. J. Jacobs read the entire Encyclopædia Britannica from cover to cover in a quest to learn everything in the world. In The Year of Living Biblically, he followed every single rule of the Bible -- from the Ten Commandments right on down to stoning adulterers.
Now comes a collection of his most hilarious and thought-provoking experiments yet. In his role as human guinea pig, Jacobs fearlessly takes on a series of life-altering challenges that provides readers with equal parts insight and humor. (And which drives A.J.'s patient wife, Julie, to the brink of insanity.)
Among the many adventures:
• He outsources his life. A.J. hires a team of people in Bangalore, India, to take care of everything in his life from answering his e-mails to arguing with his spouse.
• He spends a month practicing Radical Honesty -- a movement that encourages us to remove the filters between our brains and mouths. (To give you an idea of what happened, the name of the chapter is "I Think You're Fat.")
• He goes to the Academy Awards disguised as a movie star to understand the strange and warping effects of fame.
• He commits himself to ultimate rationality, using cutting-edge science to make the best decisions possible. It changes the way he makes choices big and small, from what to buy at the grocery store to how to talk to his kids. And his revelations will change how you make decisions, too.
• He attempts to follow George Washington's rules of life, uncovering surprising truths about leadership and politics in the twenty-first century. He also spends a lot of time bowing and doffing his hat.
• And then there's the month when he followed his wife's every whim -- foot massages, Kate Hudson movies, and all. Depending on your point of view, it's either the best or worst idea in the history of American marriage.
A mix of Bill Bryson, George Plimpton, and Malcolm Gladwell, A.J. explores the big issues of our time -- happiness, dating, morality, marriage -- by immersing himself in eye-opening situations. You'll be entertained by these stories -- some of which are new, some of which had their start in Esquire magazine. But you'll also learn to look at life in new ways.
The Guinea Pig Diaries is a book packed with both laughs and enlightenment -- and that's a promise we can make with Radical Honesty.
Now comes a collection of his most hilarious and thought-provoking experiments yet. In his role as human guinea pig, Jacobs fearlessly takes on a series of life-altering challenges that provides readers with equal parts insight and humor. (And which drives A.J.'s patient wife, Julie, to the brink of insanity.)
Among the many adventures:
• He outsources his life. A.J. hires a team of people in Bangalore, India, to take care of everything in his life from answering his e-mails to arguing with his spouse.
• He spends a month practicing Radical Honesty -- a movement that encourages us to remove the filters between our brains and mouths. (To give you an idea of what happened, the name of the chapter is "I Think You're Fat.")
• He goes to the Academy Awards disguised as a movie star to understand the strange and warping effects of fame.
• He commits himself to ultimate rationality, using cutting-edge science to make the best decisions possible. It changes the way he makes choices big and small, from what to buy at the grocery store to how to talk to his kids. And his revelations will change how you make decisions, too.
• He attempts to follow George Washington's rules of life, uncovering surprising truths about leadership and politics in the twenty-first century. He also spends a lot of time bowing and doffing his hat.
• And then there's the month when he followed his wife's every whim -- foot massages, Kate Hudson movies, and all. Depending on your point of view, it's either the best or worst idea in the history of American marriage.
A mix of Bill Bryson, George Plimpton, and Malcolm Gladwell, A.J. explores the big issues of our time -- happiness, dating, morality, marriage -- by immersing himself in eye-opening situations. You'll be entertained by these stories -- some of which are new, some of which had their start in Esquire magazine. But you'll also learn to look at life in new ways.
The Guinea Pig Diaries is a book packed with both laughs and enlightenment -- and that's a promise we can make with Radical Honesty.
Loading...
© 2010 Muze Inc. For personal non-commercial use only. All rights reserved.