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Title: The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment
Author(s): A.J. Jacobs
Paperback: 236 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: September 8th 2009
(first published 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416599061
ISBN-13: 9781416599067
Book Description
For his first book, The Know-It-All, A. J. Jacobs read the entire
Encyclopædia Britannica from cover to cover in a quest to learn
everything in the world. In The Year of Living Biblically, he followed
every single rule of the Bible -- from the Ten Commandments right on
down to stoning adulterers.
Now comes a collection of his most hilarious and thought-provoking
experiments yet. In his role as human guinea pig, Jacobs fearlessly
takes on a series of life-altering challenges that provides readers with
equal parts insight and humor. (And which drives A.J.'s patient wife,
Julie, to the brink of insanity.)
Among the many adventures:
• He outsources his life. A.J. hires a team of people in Bangalore,
India, to take care of everything in his life from answering his e-mails
to arguing with his spouse.
• He spends a month practicing Radical Honesty -- a movement that
encourages us to remove the filters between our brains and mouths. (To
give you an idea of what happened, the name of the chapter is "I Think
You're Fat.")
• He goes to the Academy Awards disguised as a movie star to understand
the strange and warping effects of fame.
• He commits himself to ultimate rationality, using cutting-edge science
to make the best decisions possible. It changes the way he makes choices
big and small, from what to buy at the grocery store to how to talk to
his kids. And his revelations will change how you make decisions, too.
• He attempts to follow George Washington's rules of life, uncovering
surprising truths about leadership and politics in the twenty-first
century. He also spends a lot of time bowing and doffing his hat.
• And then there's the month when he followed his wife's every whim --
foot massages, Kate Hudson movies, and all. Depending on your point of
view, it's either the best or worst idea in the history of American
marriage.
A mix of Bill Bryson, George Plimpton, and Malcolm Gladwell, A.J.
explores the big issues of our time -- happiness, dating, morality,
marriage -- by immersing himself in eye-opening situations. You'll be
entertained by these stories -- some of which are new, some of which had
their start in Esquire magazine. But you'll also learn to look at life
in new ways.
The Guinea Pig Diaries is a book packed with both laughs and
enlightenment -- and that's a promise we can make with Radical Honesty.
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Title: Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea
Author(s): Kira Salak
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
Publication date: November 1st 2004 (first
published 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0792274172
ISBN-13: 9780792274179
Book Description
Following the route taken by British explorer Ivan Champion in 1927, and
amid breathtaking landscapes and wildlife, Salak traveled across this
remote Pacific island-often called the last frontier of adventure
travel-by dugout canoe and on foot. Along the way, she stayed in a
village where cannibals m was still practiced behind the backs of the
missionaries, met the leader of the OPM-the separatist guerrilla
movement opposing the Indonesian occupation of Western New Guinea-and
undertook an epic trek through the jungle. The New York Times said "Kira
Salak is tough, a real-life Lara Croft." And Edward Marriott, proclaimed
Four Corners to be "A travel book that transcends the genre?It is, like
all the best travel narratives, a resonant interior journey, and offers
wisdom for our times."
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