Please "Check In" here to "The Rosie Project: A Novel" book discussion!

[Chris OConnor]

Everybody benefits by knowing who else is planning to read and discuss the book so please make a brief post here checking in and letting us know of your intention to join the The Rosie Project: A Novel by Graeme Simsion book discussion. Thank you!

[LanDroid]

If you're wondering why you should read this book, perhaps it will earn you $100 Billion!

Bill Gates: This book was so good, ‘I stayed up with it until 3 a.m.’—then gifted it to 50 friends

...And while the Microsoft co-founder has shared hundreds of his favorite reads, there’s one in particular that has been given the ultimate seal of approval: “The Rosie Project,” by Graeme Simsion. Gates was introduced to the book by his wife Melinda, who “kept stopping to recite parts of it out loud” to him, he said in a 2016 interview with The New York Times. “Eventually, I decided to take a look. I started it one night at 11:00 p.m. and stayed up with it until 3:00 a.m.”

Simsion’s debut novel centers around Don Tillman, a geneticist who may or may not have Asperger’s Syndrome. Determined to find a suitable wife, he creates a double-sided, 16-page questionnaire to help complete the mission. “The book is less about genetics or thinking too logically or the main character’s hilarious journey than it is about getting inside the mind and heart of someone a lot of people see as odd — and discovering that he isn’t really that different from anybody else,” Gates wrote in his review. “It’s an extraordinarily clever, funny, and moving book about being comfortable with who you are and what you’re good at.”

Gates also called it “one of the best novels” he’s read in a long time, which is quite the praise coming from someone who doesn’t read a lot of fiction. In fact, Gates thought it was so good that he gifted it to at least 50 friends.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/13/billion ... iends.html

Here's Gates's full review of this book. There is a sequel...
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-Rosie-Effect

Here's his blog, where he reviews and recommends many books.
https://www.gatesnotes.com/

Goodreads has 400,971 ratings = 4.02 average and 36,991 reviews.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/161 ... E0s&rank=1

[Chris OConnor]

I'm going to read this one. My wife just told me she has it on her Kindle and thinks she can send it to my Kindle as a loan. We're on some sort of family plan.

[LanDroid]

Well this is a little embarrassing - I suggested this book, read it, and did not write anything about it. Did anyone else read it?

I found it an enjoyable read about a high functioning male somewhere on the autism or asperger spectrum. The book provides interesting insights into those weird thought processes. It is lighthearted, not meant to be a deep dark exploration of the depths of that experience.

In one example Don Tillman actually gets a date with a woman after using a lengthy questionnaire to narrow the field. He takes her to an ice cream shop. They don't have her favorite flavor so she declines to order. Don says "Oh don't worry, ice cream is so cold you cannot actually taste it. Here, let me order two different flavors for you and I bet you can't tell the difference." Again she declines. A few minutes later, Don is shocked as he returns to the table with the two scoop ice cream test and finds his date has left the shop.

Quirky and amusing.