Hello, beautiful readers! I hope you had a great week and weekend. Thank you for being patient while I took a week's hiatus to enjoy my vacation in Israel. I am super excited to share all my adventures with you.
Before I dive into the Israel explorations (and indulgences) I wanted to start with a review of the book I read on the plane. Knowing I was about to endure two 12 hour long flights, I thought I deserved to treat myself and buy a new book.
After seeing Aziz Ansari perform a bit about dating on Conan, I knew his newly released book "Modern Romance" was the only choice. Check out the Conan clip:
When I ordered my copy of "Modern Romance" I was expecting it to be a book filled with honest (and hilarious) moments like the one Aziz shared with Conan. Unfortunately, the book was really more of a giant research study with a few personal stories sprinkled in.
Aziz wrote the book with sociologist Eric Klinenberg, however Klinenberg's name does not appear on the cover. It does appear on the title page inside the book, on the book's interior jacket and in the acknowledgements. Aziz's publicists know what's up.
As I said, the book is really a heap of relationship research organized into chapters that mimic the natural progression of a monogamous relationship. Aziz infuses his light hearted humor wherever he can. For example, in a chapter about online dating, Aziz shares the story of a young guy named Arpan who was so tired of online dating that he minimized his efforts in every way.
"When he started online dating he would often take women out to dinner, but at a certain point he decided this was a 'rookie mistake.' If he didn't hit it off with this person, he was in for the long haul, stuck in a seemingly endless dinner, so he decided to switch to drinks. He also felt that investing time in picking a fun place to go was too much effort considering that most of the dates ended being a bust, so he narrowed his date spots to a few bars that were walking distance from his apartment. So: just drinks, minimal effort on his part, and you have to travel to him. Ladies, are you getting sexually excited just reading this?!"
In one of my favorite chapters, Aziz and Eric travel to France, Japan and Argentina to interview singles about their dating habits. At the start of that section, Aziz explains why they chose each country.
"Tokyo was the next place I suggested. This was done less in the interest of the book and more in the interest of me enjoying some delicious ramen. However, after discussing the idea with Eric, we realized Tokyo was a great place to go because Japan is going through a crisis of sorts. Marriage and birthrates are in a huge decline, many young people are showing a lack of interest in romance, and also, again, I love ramen. It was clear Tokyo was a great choice, both for the book - and our tummies."
While the research regurgitation bored me, I did appreciate how much Aziz shared about his current relationship, including the first 5-10 texts he and his current girlfriend sent to each other when they first met. You do get the sense that this topic is truly fascinating for Aziz and that he enjoyed every minute of researching, interviewing and sharing personal moments.
The book is only 256 pages and flies by (thanks to the charts, graphs and sample online dating profile photos). I don't think you need to splurge on a hard copy, but if you can borrow it from a friend or from the library, you'll definitely relate to the conundrums facing today's singles and you won't be able to stop laughing when Aziz admits some of his own dating faux pas.
