- Title: Modern Romance
- Author: Aziz Ansari
- Publisher: Penguin Press
- Publish Date: June 16, 2015
- Book Form: Audiobook
- Pages: 279
- Genre: Nonfiction, Humor
- Dates Read: Dec 3- Dec 5
- Rating: ★★★.5
A hilarious, thoughtful, and in-depth exploration of the pleasures and perils of modern romance from one of this generation’s sharpest comedic voices …
… 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.
– Goodreads
Modern Romance was a club read over in Book Battle this month. I was so excited this was chosen because I had been wanting to read it. Plus I love nonfic books narrated by celebrity authors, so this was perfect for me! (Those are really the only audiobooks I can get into.)
This book was not what I expected. Part of that is on me. I didn’t read the synopsis. I saw a comedian wrote a book called Modern Romance and I just assumed it was going to be funny story after funny story of his dating life. While that is part of it, it is mostly a book about his investigation into ‘modern romance’ and what makes finding that special someone so hard these days.
Now, don’t get me wrong. It was interesting. I loved seeing how technology played a part in how people date now. One part that really resonated with me was how people are so quick to leave during the ‘companionship’ stage of love. That stage where the fire is gone. Maybe you have kids, a 9-5, car note, mortgage, and more stress than ever before. Instead of leaning to your partner and trying to make it work, we look for the next best thing to get us out of our slumps. I’ve seen it happen time and time again, and it’s nice to see some science behind that!
This book really makes you look at your love life during today’s time to see what you could improve on. A few times I was like, ‘ouch. I did that while dating.’ So sorry to all my exes. I was probably a terrible girlfriend rofl.
So, Modern Love got 3.5 stars from me. I couldn’t get over my disappointment over this book not being what I expected. And like, it isn’t a bad book! It was interesting. If you read the print book there’s graphs and stuff. It just wasn’t what I wanted and the disappointment is all on me.
Until next time…
Mithah Reads 