Title: The Rosie Project
Author: Graeme Simsion
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pages: 384
Format: E-book
Source: Personal purchase
Meet Don Tillman.
Don is getting married.
He just doesn't know who to yet.
But he has designed a very detailed questionnaire to help him find the perfect woman.
One thing he already knows, though, is that it's not Rosie.
Absolutely, completely, definitely not.
Don Tillman is a socially challenged genetics professor who's decided the time has come to find a wife. His questionnaire is intended to weed out anyone who's unsuitable. The trouble is, Don has rather high standards and doesn't really do flexible so, despite lots of takers, he's not having much success in identifying The One.
When Rosie Jarman comes to his office, Don assumes it's to apply for the Wife Project - and duly discounts her on the grounds she smokes, drinks, doesn't eat meat, and is incapable of punctuality. However, Rosie has no interest in becoming Mrs Tillman and is actually there to enlist Don's assistance in a professional capacity: to help her find her biological father.
Sometimes, though, you don't find love: love finds you...
My thoughts:
My favorite things about taking journeys is what I see as I get to where I'm trying to get to, what I hear and do on the way. I enjoy wondering people asleep at airports are dreaming about, witnessing posh ladies on flights snoring like bears, going through radio channels until I find a song I like, roll the windows down and sing it out loud when I find one. I like trying to read in the little light of a bus as the highway shakes underneath, hearing the whispers of other passenger while I go back and forth between being asleep or awake...
This is how I view reading books. To me, what makes reading magical is how the story unfolds even though the ending might be obvious. While reading The Rosie Project, the journey wasn't that interesting. There weren't any surprises. And the ending was way too obvious.
Don Tillman, the main character, suffers from a situation that I can only describe as Asperger's Syndrome, even though it's not at all mentioned in the book by this name. He has a "Wife Project" going on, in which he has come up with certain criteria for the woman who shall be his wife. He evaluates every women by the answers they give to the questionnaire he's prepared. One day, his best friend sends him a woman called Rosie, saying she's a candidate for the project. After their meeting and Rosie's answers to the "test," Don is sure Rosie is definitely NOT someone he'd like to marry. However, when he finds out that Rosie is trying to find out who her real father is, he decides to help her find him, which makes him start The Rosie Project.
A professor of genetics, Don really is a corky character. If you imagine a much older and less fun version of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, you can understand what kind of character he is. He has a strict timetable. He knows way beforehand when and how long he'll sleep, what he'll do everyday, down to what's for dinner. Rosie, as you might imagine, becomes the woman who breaks Don's strict rules and timetables. Even though he doesn't realize it himself for a long time, Don falls in love with her. And he tried to change himself to her liking so Rosie will fall in love with her, since, lacking the average social skills, he's not aware that she already is. Him trying to change himself that much was the big thing that didn't sit well with me...
If you're looking for a cute, fast read for the summer, then I suggest you try out this book. But if you'd like to be surprised and swept off your feet, stay away from it.
