What I Do: More True Tales of Everyday Craziness
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Product Description
Product Description
In the second volume of his collected Guardian journalism, Jon hilariously demonstrates how our everyday lives are determined by the craziest thoughts and obsessions; how we spend our time believing in and getting worked up by complete nonsense. But also, as he chillingly demonstrates, there are clever people working in the highest echelons of business who are employed to spot, nurture and exploit the irrationalities of those among us who can barely cope as it is.
Book Description
In part one, read about the time Jon inadvertently made a lewd gesture to a passing fourteen-year-old girl late at night in the lobby of a country-house hotel. And about his burgeoning obsession with a new neighbour who refused to ask him what he did for a living, despite Jon’s constant dropping of intriguing hints. And about the embarrassment of being caught recycling small talk at a party. In part two, read some of Jon’s longer stories, which explore manifestations of insanity in the wider world: the tiny town of North Pole, Alaska, where it’s Christmas 365 days of the year; behind the scenes at Deal or No Deal, which Jon likens to a cult with Noel Edmonds as its high priest; a meeting with TV hypnotist Paul McKenna, who has joined forces with a self-help guru who once stood trial for murder – but can they cure Jon of his one big phobia? As hilarious as it is perturbing, Jon Ronson’s new collection is a treat for everyone who has ever suspected themselves to be at the mercy of forces they can barely comprehend.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
In this installment of investigative journalism, Jon Ronson peers behind the scenes of British TV's "Deal or No Deal" where he discovers obsessive participants holed up in their hotel believing that the show's "Banker" is watching and listening to their every move. He investigates the phenomenon of the "Indigo Children" where some parents would prefer to believe that their child's issues are due to them being highly-evolved and divine "Chosen Ones" rather than suffering from anything more mundane. Ronson visits the Alaskan town of North Pole, a tourist resort where it's Christmas 365 days of the year, to discover a group of teenagers so sick of it having been Christmas every day all their lives, they were caught plotting a Columbine-style shooting. Ronson also looks at the case of the man driven to suicide through relentless pressure from credit card companies.
This is the second of Ronson's engaging and well-written books that combine a selection of his Guardian newspaper columns about his life with his own family, and the more interesting section where he's investigating the stories as mentioned above.
This is the second of Ronson's engaging and well-written books that combine a selection of his Guardian newspaper columns about his life with his own family, and the more interesting section where he's investigating the stories as mentioned above.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Jon Ronson should write all books - I'd have read everything by now! A brilliant mix of everyday encounters and deeper journalistic pieces. See also Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness for more of the same.
Format:Kindle Edition
It's okay.
It's a collection of stuff from The Guardian, basically - like other of Ronson's books, though this one is less connected.
Ronson's rather embarrassing personal revelations make up half the book (made more embarrassing by the fact that I identified with almost all his 'odd' behaviour). The second half of the book consists of a few longer-form articles, culled from the pages of Guardian magazines.
One piece, about credit card hucksters, makes Ronson appear like a consumer affairs jounalist. Another, following two "we can change your life" ex-hypnotists, is more of his classic, slightly cynical, Louis Theroux-a-like writing.
It's good stuff, partly, though parts are less good. I'm not, however, sure that it all holds together as one book; and, while reading it, I did have a nagging feeling that I could have read all this stuff for free on the web anyway...
It's a collection of stuff from The Guardian, basically - like other of Ronson's books, though this one is less connected.
Ronson's rather embarrassing personal revelations make up half the book (made more embarrassing by the fact that I identified with almost all his 'odd' behaviour). The second half of the book consists of a few longer-form articles, culled from the pages of Guardian magazines.
One piece, about credit card hucksters, makes Ronson appear like a consumer affairs jounalist. Another, following two "we can change your life" ex-hypnotists, is more of his classic, slightly cynical, Louis Theroux-a-like writing.
It's good stuff, partly, though parts are less good. I'm not, however, sure that it all holds together as one book; and, while reading it, I did have a nagging feeling that I could have read all this stuff for free on the web anyway...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A weak collection of Ronson's articles.
A poor man's Louis Theroux...that's the best way to describe Jon Ronson. A feather-light Louis Theroux. Read more
Published on 10 July 2008 by Hanglemez Pallaccini
Amusing
Not being an avid Guardian reader I was not that familiar with Jon Ronson's column and articles for the paper and had I not been given 'What I Do' as a present I doubt I would have... Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2008 by C. Green
Buy this book!
Simply the most fun I have had reading a book in a long time, I am regularly to be seen laughing out loud while reading about Jon's somewhat neurotic (yet very normal) everyday... Read more
Published on 20 Dec 2007 by Stephen Mcauley
Listmania!
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