Review: “My Life as an Experiment” by A. J. Jacobs

Thumbs up for My Life As An Experiment: One Man’s Humble Quest to Improve Himself by A. J. Jacobs. Humor.

Jacobs is a funny guy, though unfortunately this book is nowhere near as good as The Know-It-All or The Year of Living Biblically, simply by dint of the fact that it’s not as extensive (some might say obsessive) in scope as those. I’d say, read this one only if you are already a fan of the other two, and have also read Stephen Fatsis’s Word Freak, and Julie Powell’s Julie and Julia, and Susan Orlean, and Mary Roach, and and and….

Partly, of course, I’m drawn to these experiments because I’m a writer. And a writer who is cursed with a relatively uneventful upbringing. My dad was not a carny or a drunk or a spy, as far as I know. My ordinary life doesn’t merit a book. So I put myself into extraordinary situations, and see what happens.