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Esquire Presents: What It Feels Like: *To Walk on the Moon*To Be Gored by a Bull*To Survive an Avalanche *To Swallow Swords*To Go Over Niagara Falls in a Barrel*To Be Shot in the Head*To Win the L
 
 
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Esquire Presents: What It Feels Like: *To Walk on the Moon*To Be Gored by a Bull*To Survive an Avalanche *To Swallow Swords*To Go Over Niagara Falls in a Barrel*To Be Shot in the Head*To Win the L [Paperback]

A.J. Jacobs (Editor)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)


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Book Description

September 23, 2003
Have you ever wondered what it feels like:

to be stuck in a tornado?

“[It] is exactly the feel of a freight train approaching—that low, ever-louder howl and the shuddering ground.”

to participate in an orgy?

“And all the while, the thought that keeps going through your mind (and through the cab ride home, and into breakfast the next day): ‘I’m at an orgy! I’m at an orgy!’”

to have a severe stutter?

“The thing is, there’s a disconnect thing between my mind and my tongue. My mind’s processing a thousand words a minute, and the tongue is only squeezing out ten or twelve.”

to be a mob hitman?

“It’s nerve-racking. Don’t let anyone tell you any different. Anybody who’s any good at this is concentrating with every nerve in their body, trying to get it done right and trying not to get caught.”

to be 105 years old?

“I was born in 1897 and I’ve seen a lot in the world. I’ve seen everything there is to see. You look back and tell yourself, ‘What have I been doing all these years?’”

If these tidbits whet your appetite for real, first-person accounts of some of life’s most exhilarating, harrowing, or downright strange experiences, then you’ll be sucked in by Esquire Presents: What It Feels Like. Collected by the ever-curious editors of Esquire magazine, here are more than fifty gripping tales—straight from the mouths of the people who’ve lived them.


Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Have you ever wondered what it feels like:

to be stuck in a tornado?

?[It] is exactly the feel of a freight train approaching?that low, ever-louder howl and the shuddering ground.?

to participate in an orgy?

?And all the while, the thought that keeps going through your mind (and through the cab ride home, and into breakfast the next day): ?I?m at an orgy! I?m at an orgy!??

to have a severe stutter?

?The thing is, there?s a disconnect thing between my mind and my tongue. My mind?s processing a thousand words a minute, and the tongue is only squeezing out ten or twelve.?

to be a mob hitman?

?It?s nerve-racking. Don?t let anyone tell you any different. Anybody who?s any good at this is concentrating with every nerve in their body, trying to get it done right and trying not to get caught.?

to be 105 years old?

?I was born in 1897 and I?ve seen a lot in the world. I?ve seen everything there is to see. You look back and tell yourself, ?What have I been doing all these years???

If these tidbits whet your appetite for real, first-person accounts of some of life?s most exhilarating, harrowing, or downright strange experiences, then you?ll be sucked in by Esquire Presents: What It Feels Like. Collected by the ever-curious editors of Esquire magazine, here are more than fifty gripping tales?straight from the mouths of the people who?ve lived them.

About the Author

A.J. JACOBS is a senior editor at Esquire magazine. He is the author of The Two Kings: Jesus and Elvis, America Off-Line, and Fractured Fairy Tales. He lives in New York City with his wife.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 144 pages
  • Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1 edition (September 23, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0609809768
  • ISBN-13: 978-0609809761
  • Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.4 x 7.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #596,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A.J. Jacobs is the editor of What It Feels Like and the author of The Two Kings: Jesus and Elvis and America Off-Line. He is the senior editor of Esquire and has written for The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, New York magazine, New York Observer, and other publications.

 

Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Betcha can't read just one!, July 2, 2004
This review is from: Esquire Presents: What It Feels Like: *To Walk on the Moon*To Be Gored by a Bull*To Survive an Avalanche *To Swallow Swords*To Go Over Niagara Falls in a Barrel*To Be Shot in the Head*To Win the L (Paperback)
This is what I call bon-bon journalism. The pieces are all under a thousand words, some are under three hundred. They are pithy, quickly sketched and to the point, written in the first person as told to some of the writers at Esquire. I call it bon-bon journalism because the book is like a box of chocolates: you pop one into your mouth and then another and before you know it you've read the whole thing!

There are sixty-one of these little tales taken from the pages of the magazine. I wouldn't be able to pick a best one, but I liked Buzz Aldrin's reprise of what it feels like to walk on the moon: "powdery dust...the sky velvety black...surreal..." Naturally he was super focused on the task and aware that "if we made a mistake, we would regret it for quite a while."

I also liked "Going over Niagara Falls in a Barrel." It was a lot more high tech than you'd think. It took them almost a year and a half to construct the barrel. "Geoffrey Petkovich, 39, self-employed" who did it with a pal got roughed up a bit. His mouthpiece "got driven, hard" into his gums. He had two cans of beer and a pack of smokes in the barrel and two hours worth of oxygen in tanks in case the barrel sank.

Good too was "What It Feels Like to Have an Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder." This guy, "Craig Strobeck, 24, actor" has to take two and a half hour showers. He runs out of hot water but doesn't stop. He has to clean every inch of his body about a thousand times. Sometimes he has to get back in the shower because one area just doesn't feel clean enough.

I was surprised to learn that when giving birth all that pushing that you have to do not only pushes the baby out, but also empties the bowels, etc. leaving a clean up detail that I never heard about before. But the endorphin rush is tremendous, so says "Dee McManamy, 43, housewife."

You get the picture. I think this would be a perfect book to take on a cross country flight, just enough light reading to keep you distracted, but you might want to skip the "What It Feels Like to Be in a Plane Crash." Then again "Ellen Hassman, 55, retired advertising executive" walked away from the detached section of the plane's tail while more than thirty other people died...

As a writer, I admired the crisp way the pieces were edited: tell the story and stop.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Great fun; fast read, December 23, 2003
By 
A. Kozak (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Esquire Presents: What It Feels Like: *To Walk on the Moon*To Be Gored by a Bull*To Survive an Avalanche *To Swallow Swords*To Go Over Niagara Falls in a Barrel*To Be Shot in the Head*To Win the L (Paperback)
This is great fun to read. Who ever thought of ASKING people what these experiences were like? Genius. Most of the essays are only a page or two long - quick read on the bus or in the bathroom. Some are too short (albino is about 2 paragraphs?) - none are too long, most are just right to give you the feel for the event without too much detail. Nothing heavy or meaningful here, just the facts according to each survivor!
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Enthralling: Live Vicariously through the the Writers!, February 6, 2004
This review is from: Esquire Presents: What It Feels Like: *To Walk on the Moon*To Be Gored by a Bull*To Survive an Avalanche *To Swallow Swords*To Go Over Niagara Falls in a Barrel*To Be Shot in the Head*To Win the L (Paperback)
I'm a lady who loves to read Esquire for the quirky and fun but highly intelligent subtle humor and peek behind the scenes of the male mind. Esquire has presented us with a glimpse into some things we'd hope never to do... or, have always wondered about. You get the insider info. on (for ex.) having OCD (hilariously, the editors repeat the same picture around the border of this story), being attacked and almost ripped apart by a grizzly and (ew!) surgically and sensationally going from a male to a female and from a female to a male. Some of the experiences I did not want to know about (I'm sensitive) but others were just cool to imagine: like winning the lottery. Buy it, read it, or hey, use the library once in a while and check it out. Peace.
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