Happy hump day! Can you see the weekend? It’s just over there!
If you’ve been following along, you know that I set a goal of reading 30 books in 2015. Back on November 24 I achieved my goal. Wohoo!! I’ve kept reading, and today I’m on book 37, Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari.
I really didn’t know anything about this book before I started reading it. I know Ansari from the TV show Parks and Recreation, and some of his stand-up stuff. I figured it would be a funny, fairly light read. I’ve only just started, but have come to realize the book is actually based on some real research he did into modern day romance. Here’s part of the blurb from Goodreads:
For years, Aziz Ansari has been aiming his comic insight at modern romance, but for Modern Romance, the book, he decided he needed to take things to another level. He teamed up with NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg and designed a massive research project, including hundreds of interviews and focus groups conducted everywhere from Tokyo to Buenos Aires to Wichita. They analyzed behavioral data and surveys and created their own online research forum on Reddit, which drew thousands of messages. They enlisted the world’s leading social scientists, including Andrew Cherlin, Eli Finkel, Helen Fisher, Sheena Iyengar, Barry Schwartz, Sherry Turkle, and Robb Willer. The result is unlike any social science or humor book we’ve seen before.
In Modern Romance, Ansari combines his irreverent humor with cutting-edge social science to give us an unforgettable tour of our new romantic world.
The researcher in me (I’m a market researcher) is interested in that aspect of the book, but I’m also still hoping it’s an entertaining read. I’ll let you know!
With a little over 2 weeks left in 2015, I’m now hoping I can hit 40 books read this year. I’m not sure it will happen, since I am totally unprepared for Christmas and any free time I have should be spent shopping for gifts, but I’m going to give it my best shot! Wish me luck.
What are you reading?
My Pursuit of Happiness and Skinny Jeans 
Good for you to keep going! Have you read “The Boys in the Boat”? It’s the story of the US Men’s 8 Rowing team that went to the Berlin Olympics. An excellent story that I was reminded of earlier today while reading another blog (https://nerdyrunnergirlblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/15/the-boys-in-the-boat/). I often recommend this non-fiction book as it deals with grit and determination to accomplish things, traits that are often missing or unrecognized in people today.
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Thanks. I will add it to my list. My friend’s dad won a silver in rowing with the Canadian 8’s at the 1956 Olympics.
I’m on the wait list at the library for the last one you recommended.
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