Yes Man

An excellent read. Very inspiring.

Despite being light-hearted and humorous, it explores a tonne of thought-provoking themes and ideas.

It could be seen as a self-help book, in a way, through its overall message. But it does so better than any self-help book. It's personal. It's real. It's funny. And it teaches you a brilliantly simple moral: Say yes more.

Highly recommend to anyone.

The first thing to say is that I'm someone with a relatively hypoplastic sense of humor. Very little makes me laugh out loud, and I usually find the idea of comedy kind of intimidating, because I never know if I'm finding it as funny enough. But even for someone as humor-stunted as myself, Yes Man is quite funny. Ever wonder what would happen if you said yes to the random pan-handlers, and spam e-mailers and signature-collectors and advertisements and dozens of other offers we're bombarded by? The idea is so simple, and Wallace has a beautifully dry sense of humor.

The other promise – that I would find Yes Man insightful or thought-provoking – didn't pan out, though. As a woman trying to make my academic career work I get the opposite advice, all the time: “Learn to say no.” And Wallace did nothing to convince me that I shouldn't be working harder on not stretching myself too thin. Would it be fun to spontaneously go to Singapore? Yes. Can most people handle the major work, family and financial consequences to more spontaneity? Probably not. I had a lot of second-hand anxiety about Danny's financial straits when reading...maybe for independently wealthy mid-twenty somethings emulating this experiment is possible, but for the rest of us, taking out and using dozens of credit cards is more nightmarish than a life lesson.

Finally, the first half had an affected naivete that was neither interesting, nor convincing. We all know Nigerian princes offering millions of dollars is a scam. Say “yes” if you feel you have to, but it's tedious when you pretend to believe that there is anything real to the situation.

Overall, I found the book light and fun, but I was happy it was him and not me.

Guys... Completely ignore the film ever existed, they took the generally idea of the book and did their own stupid thing with it.

I love Yes Man and re-read it quite often, its one of those really funny uplifting books that when you finish makes you want to change your own lifestyle (doesn't mean you will but its the thought that counts right?).

Its the little day to day things that he is forced to say yes to that bring the smile to my face (not the outrageous stuff Jim Carey does in the film) and so much of it makes you go “What If?”.

Highly recommended!

Danny Wallace, after a terrible breakup with a girlfriend, gets unsolicited advice from a stranger: You need to say yes more often. Danny decides to try saying yes to everything asked of him for a year.