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Join Me (Paperback)

by Danny Wallace (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Ebury Press (3 Jul 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 009188800X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0091888008
  • Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.4 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 42,153 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #54 in  Books > Biography > Religious > Christianity

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

How could you refuse the polite invitation of begoggled Danny Wallace in Join Me? You don't know what you could be missing out on. It's all about living for the moment in this quirky, seemingly pointless yet addictive narrative. Finding himself with too much time on his hands after quitting his BBC job, Danny revels in "sitting around in his pants" and generally taking a break from the responsibilities of working life. Danny attends the funeral of his great uncle Gallus and finds out that he had set up a commune of like-minded people to escape Swiss small town small-mindedness in the 1940s. Intrigued by this idea, on his return to London Danny places a cryptic advert in the classified ads paper Loot and gets some surprising results.

His Norwegian radio-producer girlfriend Hanne is bemused and infuriated that this has become more than a transient interest; it takes over his life--and hers. The number of "joinees"--people replying to his ad--escalates as word gets out about this new "happy cult", but without a clue about what he wants to achieve, or do with all his newfound friends, Danny has to think fast as dissent rises in the ranks. Now the reluctant leader of a troop of random hopefuls, he maintains their interest with obscure e-mails and watches as his joinees meet and bond.

Whatever he had created, it was bigger than he had anticipated. From an initially puerile idea, it had grown into something of a social experiment--why were people willing to take the risk? What was lacking in their lives that they thought they might get out of contacting a stranger? Taking risks, no matter how big or small, is the essential crux of the matter here and of course, nothing ventured, nothing gained. --Angela Boodoo



Nicholas Barber, Independent on Sunday

Danny Wallace does things few people would and writes about them in ways that few people could. He’s as funny as Bill Bryson used to be.
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Customer Reviews

72 Reviews
5 star:
 (56)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (72 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Murder: Let's nip it in the bud!, 2 Jul 2004
This review is from: Join Me: The True Story of a Man Who Started a Cult by Accident (Paperback)
It appears I have actually been living in a cave, because the oddly successful Join Me campaign passed me by entirely in 2002 (and onwards). And also, I did read Are You Dave Gorman before this. That book was pointless, yet life-affirming - and it had something important to say about friendship, and being nice to people. Nothing you could quite pin down, though.

Danny Wallace's first solo book, detailing his quest to get 1000 people to "Join him", is hilarious. Like Are You Dave Gorman, it's occasionally a little convenient and hard-to-believe at best. But life imitates art, and strange things really do happen.

Also, unlike said novel, Join Me has a definite message, and Danny's collective isn't a "bored man's experiment" at all. It merely started as one. It's basically a religion, minus all the trappings of sermons and scripture, with just a single aim: make people happy by being nice to them. It's starkly simple stuff, and the sense throughout the novel that Danny truly doesn't see the scale of what he's done is rather humbling. Hundreds join him out of sheer curiosity and trust. Hundreds do good deeds, finally feeling they have the excuse and right to. After reading this, you'll be truly hard-pressed not to sign up.

If anything, the book makes the human race seem a warmer, more lovable breed than before. An absolutely touching, sweet (and more importantly), funny story.

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Join. No, buy the book first, no - join first, no..., 15 May 2003
By Mr. M. J. Whitby "Music Fanatic" (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Join Me is testament to how a crazy idea can bring people together for the good of others. It proves undeniably that the majority of people wish to help each other and sometimes they just need the smallest of excuses to do it. With a cast of odd characters the story goes from a silly idea by an exceptionally bored man to the whole scheme going wildy out of control to the heady heights of appearing on Belgium's top-rated TV show. This is most certainly a book with it's heart in the right place. Every joinee has learnt from the experience. Whether it's that a small, random act of kindness can have a big effect on the recipient, that strangers truly are friends we've not yet met, or perhaps just that it's not a good idea to look at pictures of peoples flats on the internet - and then mention it in casual conversation. Did I mention that the book is very funny? -- and by the way... It's not a cult, it's a collective. Only 2% of the vote? Damn.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Very Funny, 8 Jul 2004
This book is simply fantastic.
Having been Dave Gorman's ignored voice of reason in Are you Dave Gorman? Danny Wallace (not the one who used to play for Southampton and Man Utd) shows he too has the gift of being able to complete a daft undertaking and then recount his tale in a charming, easy to read and thoroughly amusing style.
Just like AYDG? you end up willing a total stranger to suceed at a task so marvelously pointless that even at your drunkest you'd never do it yourself.
The only problem is he writes so well someone's bound to try to get him to do a novel and stop him doing something much more entertaining instead.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A Warming Read in the End
A reasonably good story that dragged on in places. However I made myself finish the book and glad I did. Read more
Published 2 months ago by kpj

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent writing - shame about the subject matter
Wonderful writing, with a delightful self-mocking sense of humour, But it was mainly that that kept me reading to the end. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Old Al

5.0 out of 5 stars I promise it will be great, it's not a cult it's a collective, please - JOIN ME?
Laugh-out-loud hilarious book by an awesome man about brilliant people getting up to all sorts of insanely nice things. Read more
Published 3 months ago by BookJumper

5.0 out of 5 stars Pointless fun
As the protganist's long suffering girlfriend points out repeatedly, Danny Wallace is off on one of his "stupid boy projects". Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. Adil-smith

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring, predictable, not funny or interesting
...but of minor sociological/historical interest, because (a) it describes the most perfect example of a granfalloon I have ever seen ("a group of people who outwardly choose or... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Jezza

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!!
All i have to say about this book is that it is absolutely amazing! A must buy!

Well done Danny Wallace! Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ian Halton

1.0 out of 5 stars Swimming Agaist the Tide
Oh dear. I'm a bit out of step with most of the reviews here I see.

But, truth be told, I didn't like this book at all. I didn't find it funny. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jon D

3.0 out of 5 stars Not his best work.
After reading 'Are you Dave Gorman?' I was excited to read this book however my high hopes were not what it was in reality. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Bowski

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and very funny!
Nothing much to add to all the other reviewers' positive comments. This book may well change your life, or, at the very least, make you take a long hard look at the life you... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Juno

2.0 out of 5 stars contrived and pointless zaniness
everything about danny wallaces projects seems very contrived, and false, it fairly obvious he approaches everything in a much more cynical way then his writing suggests, it seems... Read more
Published 11 months ago by simon gurney

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