Reading: The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life As An Experiment

I really enjoy A.J. Jacobs, I really do, but this book seemed a bit like a throw away to me. I thought that The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World was an interesting book, and I loved The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. This book just didn't have the same "umph" that either of those books had. Instead of focusing on one big project with ultimate dedication and enthusiasm, Jacobs attempts, apparently half-heartedly, several different tasks for a month each. Some of them are interesting, like radical honesty, and some less so, like a ban on multitasking.

Now because I know that Jacobs likes to Google himself I will say this: there are still funny moments in this book. I think that he portrays his wife in a much better light in this book (even letting her write the last section). I think my favorite part was learning that they've had twin sons since the last book he wrote. The downfall was that every chapter was filled with exceptions. "I just couldn't stick to the task this time." Well, that's not how it worked in the other two books, and if you couldn't commit, maybe you should have tried something else.

All in all, it was just passable. I wouldn't call it "bad" but I can't recommend everyone go out and get it rightthissecond. It's a fairly quick read though, and the format allows for short reading stints, but overall not my favorite.