Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection
    Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection
    Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection
    Audiobook10 hours

    Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection

    Written by A. J. Jacobs

    Narrated by A. J. Jacobs

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    A New York Times bestseller in hardcover, a chronicle of A.J. Jacob’s mission to radically improve every element of his body and mind—from his brain to his fingertips to his abs.

    From the bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically and The Know-It-All comes the truly hilarious story of one person’s quest to become the healthiest man in the world.

    Hospitalized with a freak case of tropical pneumonia and ashamed of a middle-aged body best described as “a python that swallowed a goat,” A.J. Jacobs felt compelled to change his ways and get healthy. To accomplish this epic task, he consulted an army of experts and subjected himself to dozens of different workouts, diets, and devices—from Finger Fitness to Strollercize sessions, veganism to extreme chewing.

    The story of his transformation is not only brilliantly entertaining, but it just may be the healthiest book ever written. It will make you laugh until your sides split and endorphins flood your bloodstream. It will move you emotionally and get you moving physically in surprising ways. It will serve you up today’s best health advice. And it will give you occasion to reflect on the body’s many mysteries and the ultimate pursuit of health: a well-lived life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateApr 10, 2012
    ISBN9780743598774
    Author

    A. J. Jacobs

    A.J. Jacobs is the author of Thanks a Thousand, It’s All Relative, Drop Dead Healthy, and the New York Times bestsellers The Know-It-All, The Year of Living Biblically, and My Life as an Experiment. He is a contributor to NPR, and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Entertainment Weekly. He lives in New York City with his wife and kids. Visit him at AJJacobs.com and follow him on Twitter @ajjacobs.

    More audiobooks from A. J. Jacobs

    Related to Drop Dead Healthy

    Related audiobooks

    Personal Memoirs For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Christopher McDougall

      Oct 25, 2019

      Christopher McDougall
      4 min read

    • Article

      Audiobooks on Apple Watch

      Dec 17, 2019

      Audiobooks on Apple Watch
      2 min read

    • Article

      Black Mirror

      Aug 1, 2021

      Black Mirror
      4 min read

    • Article

      Life

      Sep 10, 2020

      Life
      7 min read

    • Article

      Andrea McLean

      Aug 31, 2021

      I’ve always been into keeping myself healthy. From the ages of 11 to 14, I didn’t have posters of pop stars on my wall, but Sue Barker, Tracy Austin and Chris Evert Lloyd. I loved tennis and swam for a local swimming club. I’ve never been a team spor

      5 min read

    • Article

      How I F*cked Up My Gut

      Oct 20, 2019

      How I F*cked Up My Gut
      6 min read

    • Article

      Healing The Mystery

      Sep 2, 2020

      Healing The Mystery
      3 min read

    • Article

      80 Dumps A Day

      Nov 3, 2022

      80 Dumps A Day
      3 min read

    • Article

      80 Dumps A Day

      Nov 3, 2022

      80 Dumps A Day
      3 min read

    • Article

      Living With PCOS

      Dec 1, 2018

      Living With PCOS
      7 min read

    • Article

      Road To Recovery

      Jul 15, 2021

      Road To Recovery
      7 min read

    • Article

      Food For The Soul

      Apr 13, 2023

      Food For The Soul
      5 min read

    • Article

      THE YEAR I stopped EATING

      Jul 19, 2023

      THE YEAR I stopped EATING
      8 min read

    • Article

      Unstoppable At 60

      Aug 19, 2023

      Unstoppable At 60
      9 min read

    • Article

      Commentary: Barbara Ehrenreich On The Absurd Contradictions Of Trying To Age 'Successfully'

      Feb 15, 2019

      Barbara Ehrenreich, at 77, is learning to just say no – no to the kind of intensive, intrusive medical tests that may tell her absolutely nothing, no to the books and the nostrums that say that you can live forever or make your body grow younger, not

      8 min read

    • Article

      My Midlife Lessons

      Feb 5, 2024

      My Midlife Lessons
      4 min read

    • Article

      Kale Crackers and Hibiscus Tea: My Five Days on a ‘Fasting Diet’

      Jun 13, 2017

      I tried the five-day ProLon diet, an ultra-low-calorie regimen meant to trick your body into thinking you're fasting. It wasn't as bad as I'd feared.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Learning to SLEEP EASY

      May 26, 2022

      Learning to SLEEP EASY
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Drop Dead Healthy

    3.5/5

    298 ratings24 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Loved it! Big fan! Fun to listen to and very informative.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      As ever, AJ Jacobs writes a funny, self-deprecating work that sneaks in some really useful information. I found myself sitting up straighter and eating better just by reading it.
    • 3/5
      This book chronicles the experiments of A.J. Jacobs to improve his health. It was not my favorite A.J. Jacobs book. I think I felt unsatisfied because he spent so little time on each experiment and each topic and I really wanted more complete explanations. I realize the book would have to be thousands of pages to accomplish this goal, but nevertheless, it somehow felt incomplete. I wanted to know more about diet, memory and cognition, the benefits of meditation, toxins in the home, etc. This was the first book where Jacobs started to annoy me a bit, but it was still an entertaining read.
    • 5/5
      This book was a funny and informative way to learn about the latest "trends" and the science (or lack thereof) behind them.
    • 2/5
      Cute at first but I quickly got too bored to finish the book.
    • 4/5
      I have to admit, I was really hesitant to read a health book, but it turns out that this book isn't just a regular, boring book about all the stuff you have to go without to be healthy. Jacobs spends 2 years focusing on specific areas of the body and, through research and talking to various doctors and experts, he tries different diets, practices, exercises, and a myriad other things to become "the healthiest man alive". Of course, that's nearly impossible to do. But through Jacobs' stories and experiments, I learned a lot about the human body and the creative, and sometimes insane, things people do to be healthy. I was even inspired to start living my life in a more healthy way (although I won't be running around barefoot with noise-cancelling headphones).Jacobs has a humorous and self-deprecating writing style, which makes this book all the more entertaining. I want to pick up his other books (about his year of living biblically and about the time he decided to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica).
    • 5/5
      first off, I want to say I should get bonus points for "weight lifting" a hard cover, my first dead tree book in a while. I ducked into the library yesterday as much for AC as for a book, and saw A.J. Jacobs' Drop Dead Healthy which had been on my wishlist since I transitioned from Kindle to iPad and my bootlegged copy no longer worked. I had reservations about lugging around a hardcover and finishing it before it was due while I was racing to finish A Race Like No Other (no pun intended) before its due. No worrying needed, I finished this before I left the beach today. It may also be the quickest review posted since the dog-ears are physical and I can't just copy my notes/highlights into a draft post.I was curious by early reviews of this book. I've tried to read Jacobs before but failed to get through either The Know it All or The Year of Living Biblically but I heard this one was lighter and I decided to give it a go. I think its chapter length and breaking the book up into a seemingly series of articles made it easier reading.My favorite line came early: "I'm Jewish, but I'm Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is Italian. Not very." and it's symbolic of the book. Jacobs had a light style of writing that made me feel like I was on this journey with him. I was hearing this from a friend, not reading one of an unending series of weight loss and health books. By the same token, I liked that he approached the extremes (in ether direction) with a healthy dose of skepticism, it's what kept the book readable. He wasn't preaching any one of the causes even if it worked well for him, like the weight loss associated with his raw food trial."But it also had banana chips, which included refined cane sugar, coconut oil, and best of all, banana flavor. When you need to add banana flavor to bananas, there's something askew with the world of food."The amount of food, sugar an salt that we eat in the typical American diet was a theme throughout his book. I liked that he kept most elements confined to their chapter/month of focus, while others continued through. It showed how much our bodies are interconnected. When I first started the WLJ in 2010 I had to go cold turkey on candy because I didn't trust myself to handle it in moderation. Now, I trust myself and I track it, but by allowing myself it, the cravings never totally go away. I think I need to go cold turkey on the sugared candy again. I am guilty of not reading labels as much as I ought to beyond NI, and that's something this book really made me think of.I think "eccentric Aunt Marti" and Grandpa Ted affected him more than he realized, and I like how Jacobs incorporated them into the story in a natural way. I also admire his ability to incorporate Julie and his sons into this. May they enjoy cupcakes soon.My only complaint: his end of month summaries which included things like avocados eaten, flax seed oil consumed but he hadn't covered why he was doing all of those things in the chapter. While he obviously couldn't cover everything he tried in the 2+ year journey, I think he should have mentioned only what he discussed in the summaryOverall, a really good read. I can tell I've been spoiled rotten by ebooks. I wanted to adjust the font. Uh... no. On the plus side, it was easier to read in the sun.
    • 3/5
      This guy is funny, thorough and freakishly dedicated to his obsessions. In this book he never makes you feel bad for eating Doritos while gobbling up his amusing chapters. Best takeaway, noise cancelling headphones.
    • 4/5
      A.J. Jacobs spent a little over two years on a project to become as healthy as possible, concentrating on different health regimes and different parts of the body at different times, and he reports the results of both his research and his personal experiences here. He tries out a number of different health and fitness philosophies, from the well-established to the decidedly fringe, but he generally does a reasonable job of trying to maintain a healthy skepticism (um, so to speak), and to make it clear whether the scientific support for a particular health recommendation is solid, iffy, or non-existent. (Most of it, honestly, seems to come somewhere in the "iffy" category.)It's a quick, easy, breezy read, and some of the odd corners of fitness and medicine he explores are fairly interesting, but I have to say, I don't feel all that much more enlightened on health issues for having read it. Some of that is no doubt due to the fact that each chapter is pretty short, so no one topic is explored in great depth, but I think it's probably mostly because all the best, most well-established health advice is still common-sense stuff you already know, but, if you're like me, find ridiculously difficult to actually live by: eat less junk food and more vegetables, get some exercise or at least try to be less sedentary, get enough sleep, don't smoke, don't stress, have friends. All of which is worth being reminded of, but not necessarily all that exciting to read about.And with some exceptions (mostly involving visits to his elderly grandfather, who seemed like an interesting person), I also found Jacobs' personal experiences and insights in this one less compelling than I did in his The Year of Living Biblically. Which is odd, considering that I don't have a religion but do have a body. But there it is. Ultimately, I found this one perfectly readable, but also pretty forgettable.
    • 3/5
      This was an enjoyable listen during my commute to work and to the gym. I did pick up a few tips, but it's mostly stuff I've heard before. Still, I like Jacobs' style. I'm glad I finally got to finish this one, after returning it to the library last year when I didn't have time to finish by the due date.
    • 4/5
      In this book of "immersion journalism", author A.J. Jacobs works on a two-year program for getting himself healthy. He does this by focusing on one body part at a time in order to increase his personal health. I loved his "check-in" pages. Those were pages in which he gave his weight and other interesting statistics. I was checking to see if he and I were losing weight at the same rate or not (well, it varied!).One thing I especially liked about this book was that the author was not a "health nut" which meant that he could look at many ideas of "getting healthy" with curiosity as well as skepticism. During this time, his wife was a patient partner, but sometimes merely an onlooker. What touched me most about this book, though, were the descriptions of the relationships he had with his grandfather and his eccentric aunt. What do they have to do with health? Read the book, and you will find out. Drop Dead Healthy was such a fun read that I was sorry it ended. I had no idea that this book was going to be so funny. The only chapter that was not funny, oddly enough, was one about a laughing club. However, I thoroughly enjoyed all of the other laughs provided by this author and hope to pick up at least one more of his books soon.
    • 3/5
      This was fun, light, humorous and engaging. Now I want a treadmill desk, though. I liked the authorial voice enough that I will likely pick up his other books.
    • 4/5
      Having lifted his spirit in The Year of Living Biblically and sharpened his mind in The Know-It-All, AJ Jacobs had one feat left in the self-improvement trinity: to become the healthiest man in the world. He doesn't just want to lose a couple of points, or finish a triathlon, or lower his cholesterol.
    • 2/5
      God, A. J. Jacobs is irritating! I really don't know why I keep buying his books, because they all follow the same pattern - - magazine writer picks a topic, then tries to milk the hell out of it, in bite sized snippets. Never developing any theme to any depth, his writing is like a hummingbird flitting from flower to flower. This latest book is narcissistic in the extreme, chronicling Jacobs' attempts to become "the world's healthiest man". By halfway through the book I was hoping for a medical emergency. Clearly, I am no longer empathizing with Jacobs the author.
    • 4/5
      AJ Jacobs is known for his books about "The Know it All" and "The Year of Living Biblically" where he tried to become the worlds smartest man by reading the entire set of encyclopedias and a spent a year living exactly how the Bible says. Now in this book Jacobs tries to become the worlds healthiest man. I found this book both entertaining and informal. Jacobs make becoming healthy a serious request and enlists numerous experts to help him in every aspect of health. Jacobs has great self deprecating humor and the story of his grandfather is touching. The book is funny and helpful at the same time. If you have an interest in health, exercise and diet you will find it very interesting.
    • 5/5
      Jacobs, who wtote The Year of Living Biblically, which I did not read but which received great reviews, has penned another winner. In this work, he undertakes the task of becoming the healthiest man in the world. While he does not necessarily succeed, in the course of 25 months he focused on improving his health while imparting all sorts of useful tidbits to his readers on what might work and what likely would not. He also introduces us to his wife, their three young sons and numerous members of his extended family. The glimpse into the life of a New York City apartment dweller was interesting for someone from a more rural part of the country. This is nonfictiion at its best.
    • 4/5
      I’m a huge fan of A.J. Jacob’s particular brand of humorous, participative journalism. Whether he is trying to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica (The Know-It-All) or attempting to follow all the rules of the Bible (The Year of Living Biblically), Jacob’s has made a living out of treating his life like a bizarro experiment. In this book, he attempts to live healthier … even if it kills him. As readable and fun as always, the book will give you some food for thought and a few laughs. It was also surprisingly sad at times when Jacobs deals with a few deaths in the family. Although this wasn’t his best effort, it is still worth reading and I’ll continue to follow him wherever he wants to go.
    • 4/5
      A.J.Jacobs certainly has a way with words! The book is hilarious, informative, fun and easy to read, and has some substantial food for thought into the bargain.
    • 3/5
      One of the tenets of creative non-fiction is to make your vegetables taste good, that is, to impart factual information in an entertaining way. Jacobs has a unique approach to this by involving himself personally in the story as an experimental subject. For my taste, while this book is easy to swallow, every time things got interesting he would move on, so it seemed that style triumphed over substance. Broad and shallow pop culture but great infotainment.
    • 3/5
      I didn't enjoy this book as much as The Know-It-All or The Year of Living Biblically and I'm trying to figure out why. I think at least part of it is because this book didn't have a natural "journey" to it. In The Know-It-All, Jacobs was trying to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. In The Year of Living Biblically, Jacobs was working through the Bible. This project didn't have a clear end goal or way of measuring progress or (indeed, he arbitrarily extended the project by a few months).I did learn a few interesting things, though.
    • 4/5
      While not as funny as some of Mr. Jacob's other books, this one still manages to be interesting, particularly as he explores a wide range of ideas about healthy habits. One of the charms of Mr. Jacob's book is the randomness of the topics he covers and the funny pictures of himself that are included. In the end he lists some of the habits he has incorporated in his quest to become healthier.
    • 4/5
      I like to rate books the way I rate food; books and food can be (1) delicious and (2) nutritious. Some books, like chick lit and mysteries, are mostly just delicious. Some books, like history books, are mostly just nutritious. A. J. Jacobs’ books are a little of both. Yummy and good-for-you. Especially this book. Drop Dead Healthy, like all of Jacobs’ books, is the story of Jacobs attempting to challenge himself to do something very difficult. This time Jacobs takes on the challenge of becoming very healthy. Very, very healthy. And, like all of his books, Jacobs loves to push himself to extremes. (Who can forget the chapter in Year of Living Biblically when Jacobs tells how he went to the park in NYC and began to follow the Biblical edict to stone adulterers?) Jacobs, in his quest to become very, very healthy, attempts to eat right, exercise properly, experience quiet, lower his stress, de-toxify his home, breathe better, have a perfect night’s sleep, stand up straight, see better….Whew! It is exhausting to just read the list of all the things he attempts to do in order to try to be the world’s healthiest person. Yes, exhausting but also hilarious. Jacobs doesn’t do anything halfway. He is torn, at one point in the book, between trying to decide whether to wear earphones (to mute the noise of city life) or a helmet (to protect his skull). (His poor wife. I always think about his poor wife when I read his books. Did she have any idea what she was in for when she married him?!) You can’t help but take in a little of the knowledge about good health that Jacobs shares in bits and pieces all through the book.
    • 4/5
      A.J. Jacobs always entertains, and it is certainly true of this book. This is a result of slightly over 2 years of Jacobs taking on the concept of health, with a not completely tongue in cheek goal of being the healthiest human alive. Meets up with all sorts of health gurus, checking out, and often trying out, all sorts of health suggestions. Each month he focuses on a part of his body (stomach, heart, ears, but, immune system, etc.), and talks about what he's learned, what seemed to work, what didn't work, and what his "take-away" about it all was. He pokes a lot of fun of himself, but he also disseminates quite a bit of information throughout the book. You learn while you are laughing, and that is really all I have to say about it, isn't it?
    • 5/5
      The Good Stuff I think this is my favorite non-fiction books this year Author is self deprecating and you know I adore that in a writer Truly fascinating, unique and positively hilarious Touched by his obvious love for his wife and children and the appreciation he has for them putting up with all his shenanigans I need to read all the rest of his books now Has a "Super Size Me" feel to it He is a master at transitioning from one topic to the next - very impressive! Classy and tactful I have never laughed this hard while reading a non-fiction book before & I have read ALOT of hilarious non-fiction Enjoyed the comments from his wife about some of the things he did -- she sounds like a fabulous woman Best idea ever for motivating someone to stop doing something - don't want to spoil it for you but page 231 in my ARC The bit about Coco Chanel will make you laugh Inspired me to make some changes in my life The Not So Good Stuff If he was my husband I would have killed him by now with all the crazy stuff he does When I read about the Dr who actually performs surgery to change the sounds of your farts - I laughed so hard the cat jumped off my lap and left nasty scratch marks on me -- A.J. you owe me some polysporin Now have sudden urge for dried mango'sFavorite Quotes/Passages"I want to be around to teach the importance of having compassion and why the original Willy Wonka is superior to the remake.""If done properly, with enough protein and B12 supplements, it's certainly better than the Standard American Diet. (Then again, eating nothing but asbestos sandwiches is probably better than the Standard American Diet.)"His quotes are both hilarious and inspiring: "Fifteen minutes to warm up? Does a lion warm up when he's hungry? 'Uh-oh, here comes an antelope. Better warm up.' No! He just goes out there and eats the sucker." I printed that out and put it on my wall next to the passage about Carl Sagan.""Though in the case of my children, the rate is much higher. It's amazing how a strip of sticky plastic will make my kids' pain vanish. Lucas will be howling about a stepped-on finger, but as soon as the SpongeBob Band-Aid touches his pinkie, he is all smiles. My sons are so convinced of the magical healing powers of Band-Aids, they think they can solve almost any problem. A couple of years ago, when our Sony TV blew a fuse, Jasper stuck a Band-Aid on the screen hoping to revive it."What I learned About who created the graham cracker and why he created it (No I am not telling you - go buy the book - or go to your local library and pick up a copy - and while you are there tell the Library workers how wonderful they are -- and maybe bring them some chocolate) Tons of other fascinating facts about health and diet that sorta scared me at times About Blueberries - trust me that was interesting Who Should/Shouldn't Buy Yup this one is a highly recommended read for everyone This will be a Christmas purchase for the brother in laws -- all FOUR of them 5 Dewey'sI received book from Simon and Schuster in Exchange for an honest review