Modern Romance By Aziz Ansari

Sometimes I read actual research, like in a peer-reviewed journal that Ph.D.’s have labored over for long periods of time. And this book is full of authentic, applicable research for single people. It’s not just Aziz riffing on dating – it’s often apt and hilarious commentary thoughtfully inserted into rigorously collected data. Think of a college class where the professor is giving you a really interesting lecture on dating and Aziz is there too, freely adding commentary.
Since I’m single, I also read and compose text messages, on-line messages, and the occasional voice mail to people I’m dating or trying to date. And even with a doctorate and some acquired skill in manipulating and arranging words, I still blow it. I’m too eager, wordy, sincere or just plain naive.( The good news is I don’t think I’ve ever sent the dreaded “hey” text to anyone, ever.) And this book clearly and somewhat surprisingly understands that all of us (even Aziz) blow it, in one way or another, in dating sometimes.
So at the heart of this book is a compassionate understanding of the vulnerabilities of modern singleness – that all of us – from the beautiful, to the intellectual, to the total player, to the absolutely earnest relationship seekers – from NYC to Tokyo (literally) – aren’t going to escape our need to love and be loved. Simultaneously, we aren’t going to escape the necessity of playing the game, at least on some level. And this book accurately, and thoroughly as it can, encapsulates the game of being single, as it stands in the here and now. And it reaches out a sincere, helping hand to singles.
Aziz and his collaborators bring much that is enlightening, entertaining, and sometimes controversial here. And by the end of this book, I had enjoyed some good laughs, but I also breathed a sigh of relief. Because while I’m still single, I may not be as alone in this phenomena as I once imagined.

When I read that Aziz had a book coming out, I decided I needed to treat myself.

To start, I think anybody contemplating buying the Kindle version should really just spend the extra bucks for the hardcopy, as the book is filled with cool colored pictures and graphs that I think really add to the overall experience. It just wouldn’t be as fun reading on a black and white Kindle.

That being said, when I first started the book I was expecting another biography similar to that of Mindy Khaling’s or Amy Poehler’s. Just another comedian writing a book about their lives in a humorous way while occasionally doing some name dropping of other famous people.

I’m glad that ended up not being the case at all. This book was actually written based on numerous research and study group experiments. Aziz teamed up with a renowned sociologist who is an expert in this field to learn as much as he can about modern dating. All of that made up for a very informing read backed by lots of data and interviews with real people. Of course, all this data is presented in an Aziz way – full of humor in the best way possible. Not once did I feel bored about all the numbers that were on the pages, and I found myself laughing out loud a lot every so often from the ridiculous stories Aziz came up with.

Most of the book is focused around online dating and how the current generation is navigating themselves through this new world. Why is it so hard to feel satisfied when there are so many options at our fingertips? How did people even find anybody before with their limited options? What happens after we finally settle on one person? Will we be more satisfied with our choices 20 years in the future?

This book tries to answer a lot of those questions by looking at older generations before us and how it eventually evolved to where we are now. Aziz even went to places like Japan, Paris and India to compare the dating cultures there. All of this combined created a very interesting perspective at how different dating can be.

There were a couple times in the book where I felt like things started to drag on from too much repetition. But never did I feel like the book was a drag to read, and I quickly finished this book within a couple hours of reading time.

All said and done, definitely take the moment to just treat yoself and read this book. If you don’t know much about modern dating, you’ll learn about it, and if you think you already know a lot about modern dating, you’ll learn how to be better at it and then some.

Amazing book. You can really tell they put in the time and effort to do the research and write this. Not even all the way through it yet and it’s already been very eye opening.

Si buscas tener una perspectiva informada en estadística del amor en la actualidad, estas buscando el libro correcto.
¿Quien hubiera pensado que Aziz Ansari, un comediante de standup estadounidense pudiera escribir un libro sobre el amor y la tecnología? Tras varios años de investigación en la realización de este libro, Aziz reúne la data de varias dating apps como OK Cupid, Tinder, EHarmony incluso Grinder para poder generar hipótesis sobre las nuevas relaciones amorosas. Acompaña cada capítulo de humor negro, firma especial de Aziz Ansari. Lo recomiendo si te preguntas porque la dinámica desde conocer a nuevas personas hasta llegar a relaciones serias han cambiado tanto.