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14
Book Review: The Guinea Pig Diaries by A.J. Jacobs
2009 at 10am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Published September 2009 by Simon & Schuster
After reading the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica and living by all of the rules in the Bible, A. J. Jacobs found himself addicted to “experience journalism.” He couldn’t get enough of putting himself (and his saint of a wife Julie) through odd, uncomfortable, horizon-broadening experiments. So he decided to try nine more, for about a month each, and to collect his thoughts on those experiences in The Guinea Pig Diaries.
Opening with a chapter entitled “My Life as a Beautiful Woman,” Jacobs recounts assisting his nanny with an experiment in online dating. They create a profile together and discuss ground rules, and the nanny gives Jacobs permission to write emails and reject potential suitors—the internet is full of unseemly ones—on her behalf. What begins as an exercise in seeing life from a new point of view ends up giving Jacobs insight into the power beautiful women have and the extreme vulnerability (and desperation, vulgarity, and chauvinism) men reveal in their online pursuit of love, and Jacobs’s thoughts on all of it are comic gold.
Moving on, Jacobs recalls the month he spent outsourcing the details of his life—related to matters both personal and professional—to India. Jacobs asks his long-distance assistants to do just about everything, including write emails to his boss, buy a birthday present for his wife, handle his weekly phone call to his parents, order his takeout for dinner, and argue with his wife (those emails are particularly hilarious). When he finds himself too busy to read to his son one night, he even outsources that, putting his assistant on speakerphone and asking him to read whatever is at hand until his son falls asleep. Jacobs admits that he might have taken it a bit too far with that one, but the convenience of not having to deal with mundane tasks of daily life and the always encouraging emails Jacobs receives from his overseas cheerleaders assistants make it all seem worthwhile.
And then there’s Jacobs’s experiment with Radical Honesty, during which he attempts to tell everyone the truth all the time and say whatever comes to mind. So what if it means confessing to a lunch companion that he tried to look down her shirt? As expected, this experiment results in more than its fair share of awkward moments, but Jacobs learns that people can handle more truth than he expected and that his relationships are not as fragile as he believed.
Less remarkable but still interesting are the chapters on Project Rationality (in which Jacobs tries to remove all bias and avoid logical fallacies in his everyday decisions), posing nude (in response to a challenge from Mary-Louise Parker, who was posing nude for an article she wrote for Esquire), and attempting to live by George Washington’s 110 “Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation.”
The chapter on Operation Focus, in which Jacobs attempts unitasking (doing one thing at a time) in an acknowledgment that multitasking is actually inefficient and can be dangerous (he once wrecked his car while distracted by an audio book), is entertaining and important. Beginning with the idea that we “fetishize speed and equate quickness with intelligence,” Jacobs sets out to discover new levels of productivity—and the challenges and rewards of “unplugging”—even when it means tying himself to his desk chair, disconnecting the internet, meditating, and trying a Bill Murray-inspired method for creating focus.
But the highlight of The Guinea Pig Diaries is, by far, the closing chapter on Operation Ideal Husband, in which Jacobs rewards his wife for her infinite patience by agreeing to do whatever she says for an entire month. He cooks. He cleans. He fixes things around the house. He watches the movies she wants to watch and bites his tongue when he wants to make sarcastic remarks, and he even gives her the ultimate level of control by wearing a male chastity belt. Sure, his wife gets a little drunk on her newfound power, but she deserves it, and their marriage ultimately benefits from lessons learned during the project.
The Guinea Pig Diaries is classic A. J. Jacobs—a combination of information, humor, morality class, and voyeuristic experimentation—and my only complaint is that there isn’t more of it. This is a quick, fun read made even better by Jacobs’s signature sarcasm and wit, and I devoured it in one sitting. Jacobs’s books are a perfect example of the ways in which nonfiction can be both information and entertaining, and I’d recommend this one to just about anyone. 4 out of 5.
Visit A. J. Jacobs’s website to learn more, and enjoy this short video of Jacobs discussing his experiment with Radical Honesty.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ncWBJhT5uY]
Hey, FTC: I checked this one out from the library. How do you like them apples?
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[...] Book Review: The Guinea Pig Diaries by A.J. Jacobs [...]
I really enjoyed his book about living the bible. Extremely funny. I can’t wait to read this one as well. Your review was great. Definitely makes me want to get to this book faster!
Have you read “The Know It All”? That’s my favorite of all of his work, although I really enjoyed this one. Great review!
I really enjoyed The year of living biblically and this sounds like another great offering from Jacobs. Thanks for the great review. Now I want to read this!
OMG this is a total trip. I’ve read reviews of this book before, but I think you have done an excellent job of communicating its essence! What a nutty guy. That poor wife of his deserved her piece of the action, that’s for sure.
Yes! I loved The Know-It-All and agree that it’s the best of his 3 books….it has everything a nerdy booklover could want.
Every time I hear about a new A.J. Jacobs book, I commit to read it. I haven’t gotten to any of them yet, but I think I’ll start with this one. Thanks for the review.
I’m going to add this book to my wish list since it sounds like something I would enjoy. Great review, as always.
It sounds crazy. I was just talking with my husband the other day about how many kinds of jobs are outsourced nowdays- but your correspondence? and arguments? and bedtime stories? Unbelievable!
I read Jacobs’ first to books back to back last summer and really loved them, even though I needed a little bit of a break from experience journalism afterwards. I actually read his Esquire (I think) piece about outsourcing his life and thought it was quite funny. I’m glad there’s a chapter about being an idea husband — his wife has gone through a lot! Thanks for reminding me about this book!
I know, right? If I could find someone to outsource the bickering about the best way to load the dishwasher, I would SO be there.
This sounds great – I’m putting it on my to-read list now
I agree with you … my only real complaint was that there wasn’t more of it!! I wanted him to do more more more! I’m hoping he does another year long experiment next!
His wife totally deserves Operation Ideal Hubbie. I’ve only read (actually, listened to) Year of Living Biblically, but that’s all I could think about during that one…what she had to put up with!
I have this on my TBR-pile and can’t wait to get to it. I’m glad that his wife gets a mention – she’s my favorite “character” in his other books!! There are some parts in those books that just makes me want to write her a letter and ask her to be my friend!
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I cannot wait to read this book! I need to give my husband that last chapter…
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