AJ Jacobs Chooses His Own Adventure Interview!

CYOAI is an interview series with authors, where I send them 10 questions, and ask them to answer whichever they feel inspired to tackle.  The questions are generally about the author's opinions and personal experiences, but are meant to be light-hearted and a window into a person's creative nature.

This month's interview features AJ Jacobs, author of Drop Dead Healthy! A big thank you to AJ for humouring me in answering my questions!  Let's see what his answers were!

What's your first book/reading/writing-related memory?

It was terrified of the book "Are You My Mother?" Childhood is stressful enough. I didn't need to read about an abandoned bird. 

Have you ever gotten a book hangover from a book?  

(A book hangover being a feeling of being unable to start another read because you're still wrapped up in the last one.)

I've gotten hangovers from writing books, where I've never wanted to write again.  But reading? It's too much of a pleasure. 

Is there one word or turn of phrase that you've felt compelled to work into your writing?

I'm a fan of the word vainglorious. I'm not even sure I've ever used it in writing till that previous sentence, but I've been a longtime fan. 

What book by another author do you wish you had written?

I'm jealous of Josh Foer, who wrote Moonwalking With Einstein. It's about how he became the memory champion of the United States. Of course, writing that would have necessitated such feats as memorizing the order of four randomly-shuffled decks of playing cards, which I'm not quite sure I could accomplish. Or pretty sure I couldn't. 

Where do you find inspiration for your writing?

I often force myself to spend 15 minutes brainstorming every day. I know that forced creativity sounds paradoxical -- but it works! 

(I wrote about it here

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131107131742-4061630-the-most-important-fifteen-minutes-of-my-day?trk=mp-reader-card )

Do you reread books?  If so, which ones?

I have the opposite problem. I have trouble finishing books because there are so many other ones I want to start. I'm monogamous in my marriage, but quote a philanderer in my reading habits. 

If you weren't a writer, what would you do as a profession?

I'd be the social media director for Praeger's, makers of delicious spinach pancakes. Highly recommended! 

What's your opinion on Shakespeare?

I might come off as a rampallian (aka a "mean wretch," I had to look it up too), but I'm only a partial Shakespeare fan. I love his use of language and his tragedies. But his comedies? I'm sure they were groundbreaking in their day, but now it just seems like a Three's Company episode -- mistaken identities, men dressed as girls, lots of puns. 

Use the word 'margarine' in a sentence.

Margarine is vainglorious. 

If you could only read OR write for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

I'd have to say write. Since, at least for now, until the publishing model implodes, I make my living that way.

**If you’re an author that would like to participate in the Choose Your  Own Adventure Interview series, please contact me at elise.guest@alumni.uottawa.ca.**

Drop Dead Healthy, by A.J. Jacobs

I am a big fan of A.J. Jacobs’ writings.  It all started for me with The Year of Living Biblically and Know It All.  Jacobs’ latest book, Drop Dead Healthy, is another read that’s made my list of favorites from him.

For the uninitiated, Jacobs lives his life as if it were a combination of an experiment and living-art instillation.  In Biblically and Know It All, Jacobs spent a year of his life devoted to his spiritual and intellectual health; in Biblically, Jacobs spent a year living my all the rules that could be found in the Bible from the big ones (that shall not kill) to the less relevant ones (i.e. feel free to stone adulterers).  In Know It All, Jacobs spent the year reading through the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.  Both books come with a wealth of personal stories that are at once humorous and emotionally sincere.  Ever since I’ve read them, I haunt the shelves of Chapters waiting for Jacobs’ next release.

In Drop Dead Healthy, Jacobs takes up the same type of challenge, but this time he is concerned about his physical health.  In the world we currently live in, you can’t go a week without hearing about the obesity epidemic in Western culture (complete with news stories full of B-roll of fat people shot from behind and the neck down walking – ps. I live in fear of recognizing my own ass one day….) or about the newest diet craze.  Jacobs set out to be the healthiest specimen he could be – but his first task was how to figure out how to make that happen.

In true Jacobs-style, the reader is treated to the gamut of experiments that Jacobs went through in order to meet his goal.  From the trendy gym classes/fitness crazes, to the diets, to the medical tests, the reader gets to go along with Jacobs as he test-drives the latest and greatest in how to get and stay healthy.  From that summary, it might sound less than riveting, but when coupled with Jacobs’ intrinsic sense of self-deprecating and satirical humour, it’s an ode to all that is wrong with our culture’s obsession with image.  In the end, I think the take away is simple; eat health, eat less, exercise often, exercise efficiently, get a good night’s sleep and you’ll be healthy.

Coupled with Jacobs’ own quest for health, the reader get the parallel story of his grand-father’s declining health.  This is what makes Jacobs so relatable as an author.  In his other works, we get a view of Jacobs’ family life with his (long suffering and loving) wife Julie and their three boys.  This book doesn’t lack that aspect, but it also includes the story of Jacobs’ grandfather who lived an amazingly full and celebration-worthy life.  However, as with all things in nature, Grandpa Ted is declining in his later years and, as Jacobs works to get healthy, his efforts are contrasted against the inevitable decline of the human body in its later years.  More heart-breaking is Jacobs’ account of what can happen to someone who seems perfectly healthy and does all the right things (I won’t give more details – it would ruin the read).  In the end, the take away is that we should make the most of what we have when we have it – a certain amount of that is living as healthy as possible, but the reality is that fate always has the last laugh.

My only complaint about this book was a lack of clarity from the author.  With Biblically and Know It All, Jacobs confined his experiments to a year-long period; with Drop Dead Healthy, the book spans two years.  This left me wondering halfway through the book when Jacobs was going to wrap things up, which was quite distracting.  I just wish that Jacobs had explained his break with tradition up-front.  Other than that minor annoyance, I had no complaints.

So, final verdict?  Read this book.  Read all of Jacobs’ books – they’re funny, enlightening, and relatable.  Jacobs’ is a wonderful author, and a funny, funny man, and I’ll be keeping him on my list of must-reads.  Oh, and one last thing – eat your vegetables.