I found this slightly-battered softcover at a local Salvation Army thrift shop and nabbed it for another release copy. I'd read and enjoyed it a while back (that edition was titled The Guinea Pig Diaries). It's by the author of The Year of Living Biblically, who, here, reports on a variety of... well, experiments and/or adventures starring himself...

I enjoyed the author's writing style, and his quirky way of taking simple ideas to extremes by way of practical experiment tickled me very much. Among the experiments here: he spends some time online, posing as a beautiful woman seeking romantic partners. He's writing on behalf of an actual woman, the one who will go on any dates that are arranged, but he's doing the writing, and he learns more than he expected to about appearance vs. reality on the internet.

Then there's "My Outsourced Life", in which he outsources as many of his daily chores as he can, hiring people in India to handle his bills, send letters of complaint to businesses he's upset with, etc. He even goes so far as to have his "people" compose letters of apology or negotiation to his wife and family - and notices that their editing of his original messages tends to improve communication considerably {wry grin}.

One of his experiments is something that anyone could attempt - it doesn't require hiring help from overseas, though it might result in losing one's current job. This was "radical honesty", a movement suggesting that if people are always completely honest it will improve their lives and those of everyone around them, removing misunderstandings and generally reducing confusion. As one can imagine, spouting any thought that comes into one's head could have seriously nasty results, but if one allows for the "don't say anything at all" option, the idea of speaking honestly is intriguing.

The "rationality project" interested me most in a practical (as well as amusing) way; it had to do with changing one's decision-making processes to maximize rationality and reduce emotional bias. There were plenty of intriguing ideas here, some of which I'd like to put in place.

The "unitasking" segment deals with focusing on one thing at a time, cutting down on as many distractions as possible. This is another interesting experiment to try, but I suspect that people vary widely as to whether they work better when multitasking or not - and the types of secondary activities (background music, conversation, street noise, web surfing...?) probably affect people differently too. And there are probably some tasks that are easier to do when NOT focused on them. I enjoyed this segment and got some ideas from it, as well as more amusement; I especially liked the bit where the author discovered a Wii Fit "meditation" game called "Lotus Focus", which uses the Wii sensor board to determine whether you're staying still!

Then there's the chapter "Whipped". In this one, the author recruits his wife in his attempt to be the Ideal Husband, meaning that he will do whatever she says for an entire month. (He notes that his friends all joked as to how that was different from any other time, but he admits to many occasions where he chooses not to remember a chore he'd agreed to do.) He also notes that he hopes to be so much of a doormat that his wife will realize she doesn't want him that way; will it turn out like that? Read and see!

Very entertaining, and often thought-provoking.

I left this book in the Little Free Library at around 5; hope the finder enjoys it! (And I was glad to see the LFL back in place after the long, snowy winter!)

Was walking by the Little Free Library at Prospect & South Street and spotted this book. It did contain a few moments of laugh out-loud humor. A.J. Jacobs did undertake some novel experiments. He must be a hoot to live with. I'm probably going to shoot this book off with someone leaving town so it can travel more widely. If not it will go back to the lending library.

Found in little free library just started to read.