The madness is crazy

I recently finished this book:

It’s by this guy:

Jon Ronson

I actually first came across this guy because he is a particularly funny columnist for The Guardian, and for some reason I find myself particularly fascinated with particularly funny columnists.

One of his columns made me laugh my ass off (don’t worry, figuratively, not literally).

It’s about how his 8 year old son asked him what the world’s worst swearword is, and you can read it over here. Seriously, it’s worth clicking through to, if you haven’t already read it, it’s hilarious.

After reading his column I developed a mini-sized writer crush and went looking for other stuff he’s written.

The Psychopath Test is less a novel than a series of connected pieces all related to his journey to understand what it means to be a Psychopath. It’s interesting and funny and strange, and a little scary, and quite different as far as books go. But I enjoyed it. He visits prisons and mental homes, and mental homes that are prisons, and meets some mad people. It made me look at my world and wonder if perhaps there aren’t more crazy people around than I had at first thought.

One of the stories in the book is about this guy who gets out of a prison sentence by pretending he’s a psychopath, and so he gets put in a mental hospital instead. But in the end instead of prison for five years this guy gets stuck in a looney bin for something like twelve years, all of which he spends trying to convince the authorities that he’s not actually crazy. And I guess nothing sounds more crazy than a desperate man trying to convince everyone he’s not crazy!

Jon Ronson also wrote this:

Which I haven’t read yet. But I did enjoy the movie. (It’s got Ewan McGreggor and George Clooney in it, what’s not to like?)

Seriously, read the swear word column. You won’t regret it.

What are you reading?