Skipped a few of the chapters (honesty and a couple others). Loved the chapter on George Washington, but still felt like a month is too short for most of these experiments.

Definitely more adult... That might have added to my lack of enjoyment. ( )

If you've got a rebuke to the literary mission of A.J. Jacobs, he's already heard it and put it behind him. He knows his wife is a saint. He knows he isn't as natty as Plimpton or Robert Benchley. And he knows that his work could be called market-ready fluff. I'm sure that feels like a day well spent at the office for some critic. To me it's like dissecting a rendition of "Happy Birthday." You may be perfectly right. You're also a humorless jerk.

To this reader, Jacobs' experiments are about understanding oneself, making life more interesting and showing the reader a good time. And I love them for it.
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A series of essays/articles about trying various lifestyle theories for a month at a time. Probably quite entertaining singly in a magazine, but it became rather dull. ( )

3.5 stars

A.J. Jacobs decides to put himself through a series of “experiments”, a month at a time. He will live in a different way each month. For example, one month is living rationally, examining and correcting for all his biases (at least as much as possible). Another month, he will tell the truth all the time, whatever comes into his head, he will say. Another month, he helped his nanny with online dating; that is, he mostly looked over the replies and replied back, etc (he calls this his month of living “as a beautiful woman”). He lives by George Washington’s 110 rules. He outsources his life, both his work and personal life. And more.

I enjoyed this! I think I enjoyed all of these. Of course, there were bits of humour here and there. Possibly my favourite was when he did his wife’s bidding for an entire month. This was in return for all the other odd experiments she’d had to put up with. Enjoyable book! ( )

Read before Goodreads ( )