Customer Reviews

One Red Paperclip: Or How an Ordinary Man Achieved His Dream with the Help of a Simple Office Supply

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First this young man trades a red paperclip for a house and now I'm paying him (book royalties)to tell me his story. But it's well worth the price of admission. He combines a clever idea and internet savvy with strong interpersonal skills to entice each trader and thousands of others to join his cause. Easy to read, hard to put down, and the pictures clinch the deal.

I would have given it five stars except that I think he tries a little too hard to convince you he's "an Ordinary Man", which clearly he isn't.

I read this in one day, sneaking off from all the other things I was supposed to be doing (sort like Kyle running out to trade a red paperclip when he's supposed to be working on his resume) It's just a lot of fun! A real exercise in see-where-life-takes-you. I love that although Kyle sort of wanted to trade up to a house what was always most important was the next trade and picking the right person by what felt right. A real delight! Way to go Kyle! Can't wait to see what the house trades for!

Kyle MacDonald is a rock star if you ask me. His savvy and sense of humour make him instantly endearing and this book is aspirational for anyone looking for "a great big adventure". Love the writing style, love the content, love it's simplicity.

Kirsty Dunphey, Author Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can

One of the best and funniest books I've read in a long time! I had seen Kyle's story on t.v. a couple of months back and was excited when I stumbled upon his book. Kyle has a great writing style and gives great advice for following your dreams. Moral of the story: take action and have fun!

A modern day fairy tale where a brave youn man magically turns one red paperclip into a cottage for his fair young maiden. Loved the story from start to finish. What a crazy unpredictable journey. . . and Kyle never forgets that its all about the journey.

This is truly one of the best, inspirational books I've ever read. It helped me to finally complete my first book, after several years. I LOVED the author's passion and determination, his sense of adventure and trust was outstanding. His book is written as if I was sitting down with a great friend at dinner and learning about this amazing experience. The pictures are perfect too, although, everyone that I tell about the book, I mention to make sure not to look at the pictures ahead of time.

Janet Spurr, Marblehead, MABeach Chair Diaries

This book is absolutely fantastic. What a great story. It is a breeze to read and keeps you interested from the first chapter. You'll probably be in semi-disbelief at what Kyle is able to accomplish but can't help being proud of the mentality that democracy, capitalism and the internet have created for us all, and that allow Kyle to achieve his dreams with the help of a computer, a cell phone, and a simple red paperclip. A must-read! I've been telling all my friends about it. Go ahead, buy it! You won't be disappointed.

The idea behind this is fascinating: a person is able to "trade up" a red paperclip to a house. Unfortunately, the execution leaves a bit to be desired. First off, this book is longer than it needs to be. It is great that the author documented this effort so well, including photographs of each trade and trading partner. Including a lot of the trade requests that he got also was interesting, although it got a bit excessive as the book wore on. However, there are tips or life lessons listed at the end of each chapter (each of which nearly covers a full trade) that really were not necessary, especially when I think that most readers are interested in the story itself rather than looking to get explicit self-help out of it. It feels even more ironic given the author's reduced or lack of employment, the fact that his mom still cuts his hair, etc.

What really ruins this is the author's grating writing style. It tries to be conversational in its approach and largely consists of fragments rather than structured sentences. There's a lot of filler here, too, with incredibly bad writing. For example, the author is given cookies and writes how they taste good, just like cookies should. This type of commentary expands the book unnecessarily. Also, as time progresses, the trades become more set-ups rather than genuine trades. He gains notoriety about halfway through the process which is fine but it basically changes the nature of the effort. I decided to stick with this through to the end but I skipped the self-help pages at the end of each chapter right off and then as the book progressed I found myself skipping all the emails and blog postings he put in there and just skimmed to get the gist of each trade.

Very entertaining book! Every time I finished a chapter, I couldn't wait to see what would come next. Cool to show off around the office.

I thought about duplicating what he did. I bought something to trade on eBay. Have not finished the book yet.