Join Me

Rating:
Summary: A Definite Must Read!
Review: Join me in adding this book to your list of favorites. It's an incredibly funny, uplifting book -- one that reinforces the message that one person can truly make a huge difference in the world.

Rating:
Summary: To Join or Not To Join
Review: Join Me is a breath of fresh air from the overcluttered pile of predictable refuse that is so often published and fed to the American people. Danny Wallace has born the idea of creating a club that any willing person can become a member of. While the people may not know what they are joining, the fact that they join demonstrates the trust that people have in others. The book begins with the commencement of the join me campaign and follows it throughout its growth as more and more people join Danny Wallace and his creative idea. Danny promotes his book throughout the European continent and we are able see his excitement as more and more people join him. Many people took a chance on Danny by joining his campaign. You can take a chance on this book and take a chance on joining Danny. Why not, I did?



Rating:
Summary: Join Me
Review: Join me is a must read!! One lazy day, Danny Wallace has a crazy idea pop into his head, and it starts a cult phenomenon. Join Danny, as people from all over the world become his followers for no apparent reason than to belong to something. This is a humorous true story that will definitely keep your interest.

Rating:
Summary: Why not?
Review: Join Me is a witty, desperate & poignant reach-out read.
-Wannabe Joinee MP

Rating:
Summary: Why not?
Review: Join Me is a witty, desperate & poignant reach-out read.
-Wannabe Joinee MP

Rating:
Summary: Nothing else like it
Review: Join me is in a class all it's own. The whole basis of the book is that the author decides to start a "collective" out of the blue. He is unsure of what the "collective" will be about. It was interesting to read how Danny was going to pull this off. I found myself cheering him on when he was trying to reach his membership goals. I gave this book 4 stars because it does have a few tedious parts. Overall, though this book is laugh out loud funny.

Rating:
Summary: Hooray for excuses to be kind!
Review: My first introduction to Join Me was last fall. My friend and I were on a long bus ride and halfway through she pulled out the book. She told me the director of our very untraditional school had convinced the publishers that were working on the book here in the States to send him a trial copy. He had finished it quickly and recomended it to my friend who was now half way through. She informed me that it was very funny and proceeded to find her favorite passages to read to me. I was intrigued....I wished to read the book after her but it never happened. So imagine my happiness when, in January, I find out that one of the classes to be offered the coming quater was to be based around the book! Since the book is baisically about Random Acts of Kindness, which has been a big theme throughout my school's history, we decided to read from the book occasionally, focusing mainly on the acts of kindness themselves. It was brilliant except for the fact that I still was unable to read the whole book, when I wished to read it. So I finally went down to a bookstore to find out when the book was going to be published. They told me they could hold a copy for me when it came in in a month. Around the same time, the director of the school informs us that Danny is on a book tour here in the US and is doing a book reading at the bookstore 5 blocks down from our school. And that he has talked to the person booking Danny's readings.
Danny would be coming to our school!
And he did! By that time I had long ago finished the book and was ecstatic that the Leader would actually be visiting MY school! Unfortunately I got sick. But there was no way I was missing this! Nothing would stop me from going. When I came into school Danny was already there and was just being led downstairs by the director. The director stopped when he saw me and told me it was great I could make it in. "And this is Danny," he said to me. And to Danny, something like, "Tesha's sick today, but came in to see you!" Danny thanked me for coming in even when I was sick but then a huge rush of people came over and I didn't get to say anything back. Danny talked to the school for about an hour and after that a smaller group took him on a tour of the area around our school. We took him to get bubble tea (he'd never heard about it and wanted to try it even after some of us advised against it) and got lots of pictures including ones at the bookstore with an almost lifesize posterboard cut-out of himself! On the walk around I did get to talk to him more and he told me when he saw me he thought to himself that I looked like I should be in bed. Skipping forward, he had to leave, but, again ignoring my sickness (though I swear I got a bit better just from the sheer excitement), I went to the bookstore that night to the book reading. Needless to say, I brought a passport sized photo with me as it seemed much more meaningful to give it to him in person rather than to send it through the mail to get lost in all the other photos people all over the States had promised to mail him. So now I am a Joinee, doing kind acts whenever the opportunity arises, feeling great and a Danny sits in the corner of the biggest room at school, arms spread wide and reminding us daily of the happiest cult/collective to exist and the incredible, if accidental, brilliance behind it.
A note to everyone: I know you know this, but I'll tell you again. IT'S A TRUE STORY! It didn't really occur to me that it was until I had the chance to hear from Danny, some stories about the people in the book that have happened after where it leaves off. You can email these people, talk to them. For example, Whitby is in charge of the Join Me online community and many of the first joinees use the Join Me forum! It's all real! Come and say hi!
-Joinee Karpoff

Rating:
Summary: like a real life fight club, without the fighting
Review: pretty interesting, it reminded me of fight club, only instead of mayhem there were good deeds. the coolest part is it's true, thats what keeps it going. i enjoyed the author's sense of humor. well written and funny and overall good read. it reads pretty quickly. it's a fun book.

Rating:
Summary: quirky !! now I am ready to join
Review: The first thing about this book that I loved is its ability to make me laugh out loud. It was extremely enjoyable and entertaining. I couldnt believe that people actually did what Danny wanted them to do. I enjoyed it also because people interest me so much and this showed me what people will do that you would never think they would. JOIN ME!

Rating:
Summary: When a bloke bet gets out of hand
Review: There is a certain species of twentysomething male (frequently British and living in London) who spends a substantial amount of his time playing video games, watching movies, engaging in spurious debates with his flatmates over cans of lager and embarking on pointless bets for entertainment. Anyone familiar with the 'Men Behaving Badly' comedy series will understand. Sadly the majority of attempts to turn such Stella fuelled ravings into readable material fall sadly flat.
'Join Me' is rather refreshing however. It chronicles the extraordinary but true story of the 'Collective' that Danny Wallace spawns as a result of placing a simple advert in 'Loot Magazine'. The way this collective (Wallace is eager for it not to be called a cult) takes on a life of its own as its increasingly bewildered leader tries to formulate a purpose for his creation leads to encounters with characters from the more derivative sides of British life - witness a Metallica obsessed vicar from Inverness.
Wallace tells his story in a witty, engaging and light hearted manner that really brings out the element of 'good blokeness in him'. The story rattles along well, with several improbable coincidences happening to Danny to ensure his project does not become tedious such as his discovery that the first person his joinees helped on his 'Make an old man happy' mission was a convicted con man. And the reader really feels for Hanne, Danny's long suffering girlfriend who is kept in the dark about his harebrained scheme for so long.
The book could have been a rather sad depiction of a bloke bet that went a bit far, but Wallace is funny and intelligent enough to avoid slipping into that mode. The end is a little flat compared to the end of the book, one half expects the joinee collective to turn into something really remarkable. But it is an enjoyable romp through the semi lunatic antics of one personable and funny young Londoner.