An intrepid author sets himself a remarkable task: to find the most perfectly average person in the nation
John Q Public. Plain Jane. The Average Joe. We think we know the type, but have we ever actually met the person? To be the perfectly average American is harder than it might seem: You must live within three miles of a McDonald's, and two miles of a public park; you must be better off financially than your parents, but earn no more than $75,000 a year; you must believe in God and the literal truth of the Bible, yet hold some views that traditional churches have deemed sacrilegious.
Equipped with his trusty Mr. Q, a notebook that he has compiled with over 1,000 facts about the Average American, Kevin O'Keefe has completed a tour of America in search of the sublimely ordinary, the man and woman who each represent most definitively all that is average in our country.
In his travels from New York to Nevada, Pennsylvania to Hawaii, Kansas to Connecticut and beyond, O'Keefe talks business and pleasure with the proprietors of Average Joe and Jane Athletics, visits the polls on election day with the first candidate for the Average American party, bypasses both Peoria and Normal, Illinois (for, as he explains, they are not that normal), watches the magician Myklar the Ordinary wow the kids at a church in rural Maryland, and delivers a fascinating, often surprising, look into the history and culture of the common man and woman. At the end of the road he discovers that the Average American is, up close, rather extraordinary.
-- book description taken from Amazon.com
19 comments:
I'll start reading this next week! Right now I'm finishing my funny funny Fanny Flagg book! I had to read a funny book after my really sad book "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. It was good, but really sad!
We're still waiting on our book to arrive from Amazon. Hopefully, it'll be here soon.
I'm in the middle of "My Sister's Keeper", but I'll read the book club book as soon as I'm done - which shouldn't be long because it is SO GOOD.
I just finished Da Vinci Code...I know, everybody's already read it, and now I'm going to read this one next. I sounds pretty intersting. I do want to join the book club, but I don't know what to pick for my book. I have a few in mind, but I'm afraid people may have already read them. I can't wait to get started though.
Hey Angie,
Cool, I'll add you to the schedule. Let us know what book you end up picking.
I just finished reading Sister Carrie. I really really liked it, to my surprise. It's not really a page-turner, more of a "read before you go to bed" book. It's a thinker though, I really liked the character development. Now I'll put the Average American next to my bed and hopefully I'll finish it soon.
Ok I can't wait to hear what you all say about this book. I can't seemed to make it past the first chapter ro two. Some of the facts and stories are interesting but I'm struggling. I might need to start Dracula soon to keep myself awake. Jordan is giving it a try now. Tell me your thoughts I can't wait, maybe I just need some encouragement or caffiene maybe.
Oooo..."My Sister's Keeper" is a good one, I read it earlier this summer. I was so shocked by the ending that I couldn't stop being angry about it for a week!
Krista - did you sob at the end like me and my mom did? Haha. I started reading "Average American" too. I like it, but I'm also struggling a little. I'm going to try to read it a bunch this weekend and see what happens. It's interesting, but a little slow so far.
I've started "Average American" too. It's definitely not a book that is hard to put down, but it is interesting.
My favorite part so far is his arguments about how media today (ie - TV, internet, video games, etc) isn't necessarily something that makes you dumber - like most people think.
Finally some fuel that I can use to rationalize my video game addiction....ha ha ha!
My goal is a chapter or two a day. It's interesting, but a little weighted down with statistics. I really liked the part about education. I think I'm on about chapter three now.
If you want a cry book, try the Time Traveler's wife. I loved it! I wouldn't recomend it for Jordan, but Krista and Erica, you would love it!
I think we should extend the deadline until the end of October for the Average American book and start reading the Dracula one too. It isn't a sit down and read all at once kind of book.
Sounds good to me!
I'm up for that.
Ok guys, this Dracula book is good. I had no idea what the original story of Dracula was I've just heard different versions. Anyway, I'm only 6 chapters or so into it, but I was telling it to Brad and he's ready to read it now too. He's been reading the Hobbit and now I bet he'll swipe this book from me. My only handicap is my extreme exhaustion. I've really got to focus or go back a few times to make sure I got it all. Anyway, it's getting me into the fall/time/ Halloween time spirit :).
I finished reading this one. On the whole, I thought that it was good, but way, way, way, way too wordy. I had to skim through a bunch of stuff that I didn't really care about.
I also thought that he could have done a better job showing more graphics. This is the type of book where that would have helped.
There were a lot of interesting facts that I gleaned from the book, (eg - I didn't know that John Kerry was also a C student, same as Bush), and I especially liked his discussion about red and blue states, politics, religion, race, gender and what it means to be average.
I also liked the conclusion where we find out who was to be the most average and what part of the country he was from.
I'm only 74% average!! Guess I should be living somewhere else and playing more video games.
Apparently I'm not very average. Only 70%! Yikes.
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