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Lost At Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries

3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 · rating details · 2,467 ratings · 345 reviews

Jon Ronson is fascinated by madness, extraordinary behaviour and the human mind. He has spent his life investigating crazy events, following fascinating people and unearthing unusual stories. Collected here from various sources (including the "Guardian" and "GQ America") are the best of his adventures. Always intrigued by our ability to believe the unbelievable, Jon meets...more

Paperback, 439 pages

Published October 2012 by Picador (first published January 1st 2012)

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Oct 15, 2012 Sam Quixote rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In nearly every article of the book, journalist Jon Ronson is able to pick an extraordinary subject to write about in an interesting and engaging way. I loved reading about real life “superhero” Phoenix Jones as he patrols the streets of Chicago, trying to make drunk drivers eat tacos before getting behind the wheel, or discovering that the rap duo Insane Clown Posse have been covert Christians their entire careers, believing they were making converts of their listeners subliminally for 20 years...more In nearly every article of the book, journalist Jon Ronson is able to pick an extraordinary subject to write about in an interesting and engaging way. I loved reading about real life “superhero” Phoenix Jones as he patrols the streets of Chicago, trying to make drunk drivers eat tacos before getting behind the wheel, or discovering that the rap duo Insane Clown Posse have been covert Christians their entire careers, believing they were making converts of their listeners subliminally for 20 years. Other subjects are equally fascinating such as finding out pop star Robbie Williams is a UFO enthusiast and that Stanley Kubrick was a hoarder of everything related to his film career.

There are some really funny pieces included such as Ronson’s recreation of James Bond’s car journey from Ian Fleming’s “Goldfinger”, eating and drinking everything Bond did on the journey and making himself very sick (Bond, it turns out, was a glutton alcoholic chain smoker who rarely exercised). Ronson also goes on a cruise to meet psychic Sylvia Browne, a woman who goes on TV to tell parents of missing children (often incorrectly) their kids are dead, and finds out, surprise surprise, she’s not just a fake but an unpleasant old bag as well.

Religion and pseudo-religious beliefs play a big part in the articles where Ronson meets the Jesus Christians, a fringe Christian group with a membership of 24 people worldwide, most of whom have decided that as well as giving away most of their possessions that they will give away a kidney as well! He meets the UK’s biggest atheist-converter Nicky Gumbel, meets TV hypnotist Paul McKenna and his colleague Richard Bandler who admits to being a sociopath and has a sketchy past involving murder but who now makes millions teaching people something called neurolinguistic programming (NLP) which promises to make you a better salesperson.

The other side of the book take a sobering look at the dark side of humanity. They include a couple of murder/suicide cases, the economic class issues in America, and the sad story of Richard Cullen who committed suicide after becoming hopelessly in debt. Richard Cullen took out numerous credit cards which gave him money with crippling interest rates and was approved for various loans different banks approved, leaving Richard with a six figure debt and no way out. From this one man, Ronson follows the trail back to the banks and exposes the fiasco that was the sub-prime market. This article came out 2 years before the sub-prime crash of 2007.

My favourite piece in the book, “Santa’s Little Conspirators”, is the story of a group of 13 year old high-school students in the town of North Pole, Alaska, accused of conspiring to commit a Columbine-style massacre at their school (they were stopped before anyone was hurt). North Pole is unique as a town where it is Christmas 365 days of the year and everything in the town is Christmas themed. The would-be killers, like all students in North Pole high school, answered letters from children all over the world addressed to “Santa, North Pole” under elfish pseudonyms. Some of the letters written by small children and given to them to answer are heart breaking like “please make mummy and daddy stop fighting” and “I would like to wear more clothes this year”.

While parts of “Lost at Sea” have been published in Ronson’s other books - more than half have been printed in “Out of the Ordinary” and all but one have been printed in “What I Do” – and numerous other articles have appeared in GQ magazine and the Guardian newspaper, for those who’ve not read Jon Ronson extensively, this is an excellent collection of his journalism in one handy volume. Like most of Ronson’s journalism, the articles feel too strange to be real, this mixture of strangeness and truth adding to the readability of the articles and lending them an air of surreal-ness. “Lost at Sea” is a fascinating collection of oddball human stories that offers hours of riveting reading pleasure and is a must-read for all readers looking for extraordinary and entertaining non-fiction stories written in an accessible and compelling style. (less)

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Jan 22, 2013 Anna Janelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

SIX STARS, I say. SIX STARS for Jon Ronson!

I'm always amazed by Jon Ronson's style. He is witty, self-depreciating and observant. This collection of non-fiction stories takes a look at both those on the fringe of society (other-worldly Indigo children, psychics, robot-enthusiasts, and Jesus Christian cults) as well as issues that affect more ordinary people (like the economic collapse, unequal taxation as well as crime and punishment). I've been told that the many of the short stories in this co...more

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May 30, 2013 Philip Same rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jon Stewart hit nearer the mark when assigning the title of "investigative satire" to Ronson's brand of gonzoesque journalism. Though, we must consider the authors own deviation from what he admitted to be an apt title, in his deployment of "investigative humorism" as a label.

I do not think that Ronson is particularly funny. He does not play with words. But, one would be a goddamned fool to not admire the stories which this man pursues. I recall standing before the shelf labeled "Sociology"...a...more

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Jun 06, 2013 Kkraemer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If I were smarter and a better writer, I would have written the first essay in this collection. It's titled "Have You Ever Stood Next to an Elephant, My Friend?" and it's about the Insane Clown Posse. The Posse is astonishing, its followers unbelievable, and the interview jaw dropping, but none of that is the reason I would have written it.

It's the writing. Ronson is simply an amazing writer. He talks with people throughout this collection, providing just enough background that you know who the...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Leslie Langtry rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As reviewed at Bookendbabes.com:

Lost At Sea, by Jon Ronson, reviewed by Leslie Langtry

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Leslie Langtry

I want to be Jon Ronson, Intrepid British Reporter. I want to ironically interview the Insane Clown Posse, question a creepy lifelike robot (without throwing up – something I would certainly do), or drive from England to Switzerland doing and eating and drinking exactly what James Bond did on the same trip without dying from many, many things.

But I would suck at it. W...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Ben Hallman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In Lost At Sea, Ronson writes quite the subversive work. It can easily be passed off as a series of unconnected essays about random interviews with odd people, until you realize the underlying theme that makes up the soul of Ronson's encounters. This book is about searching, about longing, about looking for answers or respect or freedom. Lost At Sea touches on the ultimate prize--happiness--and how elusive and fleeting it is for all of us.

It also discusses insane clowns that have formed a posse...more In Lost At Sea, Ronson writes quite the subversive work. It can easily be passed off as a series of unconnected essays about random interviews with odd people, until you realize the underlying theme that makes up the soul of Ronson's encounters. This book is about searching, about longing, about looking for answers or respect or freedom. Lost At Sea touches on the ultimate prize--happiness--and how elusive and fleeting it is for all of us.

It also discusses insane clowns that have formed a posse, which entertains to no end. Yeah, there's a lot of great journalistic pieces that make up the book, but leading them off with an interview with ICP is a shrewd move. I laughed my ass off at the video to "Miracles" back in its meme heyday, and then Ronson goes and adds an extra layer of depth and humanity and idiocy to its creators. The passage where Violent J says elephants "have been here for hundreds of years" is hilarious. But the way Ronson then makes us aware of the sad humanity beneath these idiots' face-painted exterior borders on brilliance: "It is a terrible twist of fate for Insane Clown Posse that theirs is a form of creative expression that millions of people find ridiculous."

It's not all fun and games, though, as Ronson delves into very dark, very disturbing territory with several of his pieces. Murder, suicide, rape, and pedophilia all come up, and Ronson covers each example-- victim and perpetrator-- without succumbing to holier-than-thou excoriations or feigned histrionics. He reports and offers some commentary, but never uses his subjects as a platform for his own beliefs or ideals. And, when he does grow subjective, he admits as much and provides reasons as to why he does so.

The most striking essay is one of the most ingenious-- Ronson journeys through the various rungs of the American financial ladder, starting with a Haitian dish washer in Miami and finishing with a man who made billions by creating the rental storage unit. His discoveries about what binds money to happiness and what frees them from one another are somehow depressing and uplifting all at once.

The occasional section falters-- I’m still not sure of the point of his James Bond trip, and the book closes with a rather ambiguous, unfocused report on cruise line deaths. But, for the most part, Lost At Sea is fascinating and often profound, the work of a reporter who knows how to search for truth without didactically shoving what he finds down our throat.
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Jan 31, 2013 El_kiablo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jon Ronson almost always pulls off a tone I like - sympathetic and humanistic towards people who are honestly a bit riciulous or crazy - but sometimes his material feels underwhelming because he's interested in stories that seem a bit trivial. This collection of articles and essays is very much a piece with his other works, then, because of it's tone and the type of stories that it tells. (Although it should be pointed out that some of the economic stories are more serious than any of his other...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Ana Mardoll rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lost At Sea / 9781594631375

I read this book because it was selected for our book club, and I am terribly disappointed with it. I don't recommend this book at any price, for I found it to be very poorly researched and (more importantly) to put forth some really contemptible ideas about marginalized people and victims of abuse.

I initially thought this book to be a collection of journalistic articles on various interesting and zany topics, but I found the "journalism" part to be very lacking. In a...more

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Malia well put. I agree with you entirely and desperately wish I'd read your review before I read the book. in fact, I enjoyed your review more than the boo...more
Mar 25, 2013 11:05pm

Turner Public Service Announcement: the above review is as biased as it claims the book is.

Jon Ronson is a journalist. He is not building a body of evidence...more
Apr 01, 2013 09:32pm

Turner Also this thoughtful one-star review is from the same person who gave FIVE stars to "The Umbrella Conspiracy (Resident Evil, #1)", and "Beyond Heaving...more
Apr 01, 2013 09:38pm

Dec 28, 2012 Steve Johnson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

When I saw that this book opens with Ronson's Insane Clown Posse interview (which is one of my favorite things ever), I was afraid it would be downhill from there. To some extent, that turned out to be true--the ICP interview is still probably my favorite piece--but for the most part it's a pretty gentle descent. Some articles are better than others, but they're all good and a few are very good. Unlike Ronson's previous books of (if I remember Jon Stewart's phrase correctly) "satirical investiga...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Anaala rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: anthologies, non-fiction

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Dec 04, 2012 Eris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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Nov 27, 2012 Jason Edwards rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jon Ronson writes for the Guardian UK, and this is a collection of articles from his works. It’s his third collection of such articles, and while the first two are more about himself, this one picks up the thread in his earlier work Them: Adventures with Extremists. He also wrote The Men Who Stare at Goats, and The Psychopath Test.

I read The Psychopath Test based solely on Ronson’s interview on The Daily Show, and picked up Lost at Sea for the same reason. I saw the film version of The Men Who S...more

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Nov 23, 2012 Mac rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ronson has a good eye for bizarre nonfiction investigation. He writes about assisted suicide practitioners, people preparing for alien visits, robots with artificial intelligence, a high school mass murder plot in North Pole, Alaska, a Christmas themed town, and a person's mysterious disappearance from a Disney cruise ship. Each chapter is a captivating subject, and together they paint a picture of the strange world we live in. So I read with interest.

That said, I found many chapters to be thin...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Megan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

The topics that Jon Ronson chooses for his pieces are always fascinating,and the people he profiles represent very interesting human stories that one does not encounter regularly. His writing style is tinged with humor, despite the fact that what he's writing about is often strange or sad, which does the job of keeping it from getting too depressing without being disrespectful (well, at least from the point of view of most readers--some of his subjects might disagree).

At times, though, some of t...more

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Mar 07, 2013 P D rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Firstly, I have to say that the reason I docked a star is because of the organization, not the content itself. As someone who isn't a well-established reporter, the chances of me getting around to all the places Ronson visits is somewhere between Never Going to Happen and In Your Dreams. So as far as the content goes, it's interesting material and if you like nonfiction about interesting microfactions of people, this book is totally worth your time.

Unfortunately, the presentation is a mishmash....more Firstly, I have to say that the reason I docked a star is because of the organization, not the content itself. As someone who isn't a well-established reporter, the chances of me getting around to all the places Ronson visits is somewhere between Never Going to Happen and In Your Dreams. So as far as the content goes, it's interesting material and if you like nonfiction about interesting microfactions of people, this book is totally worth your time.

Unfortunately, the presentation is a mishmash. There are vague thematic connections within the parts—connections that at times I had to seek out in the text—but this book really seems like a collection of interesting stories that didn't quite have enough oomph to justify a whole book. For instance, a book on Alpha (the 'courses' in Christianity for interested nonbelievers) would probably drag. It's fairly recent and there isn't that much material on it.

I think if the book had been presented as separate essays—a nonfiction collection of short stories and vignettes, basically—it would have worked better than trying to form these thematic bridges between completely disparate topics. Sure, there is a connection, but the amount of work you put in looking for it detracts from the quality of the narrative.

And the narrative itself is frequently cut off. It's unclear why a lot of the earlier stories leave the reader asking 'and then what?' while some of the last ones (particularly the ones with most emotive effect, such as the celebrity pedophile case of Jonathan King) are fleshed out in more detail, but I think this wasn't a good decision. Right as Ronson builds interest in a particular subculture—for instance, the Indigo Children—he cuts off and moves on. It's like driving by the Grand Canyon but not getting down to look (yes, this really happened to me), and it's ultimately frustrating. I was expecting Ronson to return to these narratives later, as there is a sense that he has more to say on the matter. The fact that he doesn't is a huge bummer. (It's possible some of these are covered in articles, although if that is the case then footnotes directing the reader to sources would've been nice. I assume this is one of those decisions the publisher makes, and personally it was not a good one.)

That all aside, Ronson is good at his job. He can be witty in one paragraph and completely sensitive in the next. While it's hard not to get a sense of his sociopolitical leanings from the text, a close reading of his interviews suggests he doesn't treat his subjects with a lack of dignity. For instance, he opens with the Insane Clown Posse. Anyone with a background in science would stare incredulously and then laugh hysterically at the bit where they insist that no one knows how magnets work, but if you come at Ronson's quotes with a very unbiased approach, it's hard to pinpoint actual disrespect. Of course, he has opinions and is a thinking human being, but he's a journalist who knows how to get a story and he does this by staying relatively polite when he doesn't have any kind of open conflict with the subject (I have to add this caveat because of the bit about the Jesus Christians).(less)

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Jan 08, 2013 Jennie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ronson is that rare journalist who transcends his usual medium (The Guardian) to become something greater: a fantastic narrative non-fiction writer. In this book, he departs from his usual format of longer investigative pieces to present a collection of his best satirical and self-deprecating works. Each of his subjects may live crazy lives, but Ronson is a master at finding the humanity in every uncanny circumstance. Highlights include an interview of the rap duo known as the Insane Clown Posse...more

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Oct 21, 2012 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In this collection, mostly consisting of articles he wrote for The Guardian, journalist Jon Ronson investigates many things a lot of us have wondered about, as well as some things we never even thought to wonder about. A short list includes celebrity psychics, credit card offers, Juggalos, Stanley Kubrick's house, Indigo children, AI robotics, NLP, and people who go missing from cruise ships.
The chapters are brief, just long enough to skim the surface of the topic at hand, but Ronson asks his i...more

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Jun 07, 2013 Gem rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: had-me-in-stitches, how-bizarre, a-real-page-turner

Reviewed on my iPhone.

I had barely reached page 30 and had already been taken behind the scenes of Deal or No Deal and met the worlds most advanced humanoid robots!

This is a book of articles packed with so many interesting people, and Ronson's dry wit and sarcasm that had me thoroughly entertained. I love Ronson's writing style, and I am currently seeking out more of his books for my upcoming holiday.

There have been other less favourable reviews about Ronson not doing research and just showing...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Ryon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a collection of Jon Ronson articles from the Guardian. If you've never seen or read his stuff think Louis Theroux without the impeccable social skills. Ronson interviews strange people or gets involved in odd situations then recounts the experience as long-form anecdotes; not exactly journalism but more of an insight into the individuals that comprise subcultures and marginalized groups.

Being as this is a collection of shorter pieces, there's not really a larger picture to comment on her...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Alyssa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jon Ronson truly has a gift for captivating an audience. He takes us into worlds where our first intuition is to ask, "What is wrong with these people? How can they talk themselves into this?" But he sensitively and compassionately explains the situations.

Yes, there's some snark (which I enjoy). But Ronson truly is a journalist. He doesn't gawk; he describes a facet of humanity which connects us all. At the beginning of each situation we're outsiders looking at the fringe of society, but they gr...more

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Jun 09, 2013 Megan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, male-author, non-fiction, essays, repetitive, british, money, celebrity, crime, humor, pedophilia, sex, odd, interesting, beliefs, random, journalism, cults, religion, funny, fascinating, hit-and-miss, aliens, technology, science, crazy, violence, murder, culture, psychology, unique

I had to get my hands on another book of Jon Ronson's after recently reading The Psychopath Test, which I still cannot stop thinking about and rated five stars.

This book covers equally odd and fascinating topics, although overall the writing and even some of the topics are a little hit and miss. But, that is to be expected. There are 20+ essays here, and all relatively interesting, but not every single one can be an A+, home run.

A few thoughts:

-Some of the celebrity stories and profiles are actu...more

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May 22, 2013 Tom rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a great, entertaining and amazing collection of Ronson explorations into fringe groups. Apparently, this is largely collectied from published articles. I recall only reading one before: the fascinating look into the flotsam of Kubrick's obsessive reclusion.

Jon Ronson writes about the obsessive, extreme and hard to understand sides of humanity with clarity, understanding, and humor. Like unblinking Error Morris documentaries this audiobook, ably read by Ronson himself, covers a Pygmalion...more

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May 09, 2013 Beth Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

interesting because this is so not my normal type of book to read, but i found it extremely amusing, interesting, well written and fantastic.

i listened to this on audiobook, and Jon Ronson read it himself...which was fantastic. his dry manner of narrating even the most humorous portions of this book made it all the better to listen to.

while i enjoyed this entire book, there are some standout gems of stories that i listened to two times, just because the were so great. Ronson recreating Bond's t...more

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Nov 25, 2012 James Schneider rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jon Ronson is a miracle of modern journalism & essay authorship. He combines a pop-cultural sensibility, extreme empathy, self-awareness, psychology, sociology, and so many unrelated and semi-related skills and with a complete mastery of his own voice in a way that makes the world more fascinating in every little way when viewed through his eyes. He has an ability to arrive at the perfect truth of a situation without the experiential maximalism that David Forster Wallace used to similar, if...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Alex Templeton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3.5 stars. This is a collection of Jon Ronson's, author of "The Psychopath Test" journalism, often published in the British Guardian. I found that the pieces were often hit-or-miss for me, not really because of the quality of the writing, necessarily, but because I wasn't as interested in some of the subjects as I was others. I must say that I am grateful to Ronson for doing a fabulous job exploring and humanizing some of the odder pieces of our society. I particularly enjoyed his essays on subj...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Bryce rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A collection of articles by Jon Ronson, mostly works that have already appeared in The Guardian. But since I don't read The Guardian, it was all new to me.

For me, the appeal of Jon Ronson is that he is so credulous. As you read, you can feel him try to step into his subjects' shoes, trying hard to understand their (often strange) points of view. There always seems to be at least one moment where he does believe fully. Ronson also seems to genuinely like his subjects, at least at first.

Some gems...more

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Dec 03, 2012 PAPER/PLATES rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Growing up, my dad taught me many important lessons. They included things like vitamin-popping, punctuality, and the lesson he reiterated the most: “Katie, people aren’t rational. Remember that.” Bestselling author Jon Ronson and my father are of the same mind. In Lost at Sea, Ronson takes us on a journey through the weirdness, superstition, and delusions that consume “ordinary” people. The book traverses the outer reaches of normality in outer reaches of the globe: North Pole, Alaska, chateaus...more Growing up, my dad taught me many important lessons. They included things like vitamin-popping, punctuality, and the lesson he reiterated the most: “Katie, people aren’t rational. Remember that.” Bestselling author Jon Ronson and my father are of the same mind. In Lost at Sea, Ronson takes us on a journey through the weirdness, superstition, and delusions that consume “ordinary” people. The book traverses the outer reaches of normality in outer reaches of the globe: North Pole, Alaska, chateaus in northern France, with various pit stops in between. Ronson hunts down interesting people like Guy Fieri hunts down diners, and the results are just as meaty.

Ronson splits his work into five parts, categorized as “The Strange Things We’re Willing to Believe,” “High-Flying Lives,” “Everyday Difficulty,” “Stepping Over the Line,” and “Justice.” There are multiple tales within each section, but I hesitate to call them short stories, as it is only when taken together that the work could really sing.

From a reclusive billionaire renaissance woman commissioning a robotic replicas of her one true love to Stanley Kubrick to a down-on-his-luck-Englishman-gone-murderer, the characters in Lost at Sea sound larger than life. But Ronson’s gift is his union of irony and matter of factness. Surely his characters do not seem normal, but he debunks the notion that “normal” really exists for any of us. His profiles of the most ludicrous scenarios never involve judgement or patronization.

Above all, Jon Ronson is fair. Before discounting a radical religious movement, he does his darndest to speak in tongues. Before believing that everyone in North Pole loves Christmas, he seeks out the one girl who doesn’t. Many of the most powerful moments in the book are simple reported speech. It is impossible not to admire the clever, empathetic journalist who could elicit such complex statements of human existence. Try this: “What we’re doing…compels us to think about all the things we should be thinking about. What is life? What is intelligence?…And if nothing else, it is a great deal of fun.”

That, readers, was in reference to making contact with aliens.

While my old man’s warning of irrationality may have kept me cautious at 4-way stop signs, Jon Ronson has taught me that illogic is more pervasive than we ever could have imagined. That television evangelist, Paul McKenna? He’ll teach you to manipulate people by touching their elbows. That cute 8-year-old on the bus? She thinks she’s an Indigo child who can telepathically communicate with other Indigo children. And you? Well, you won’t be able to stop turning pages(less)

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Nov 05, 2012 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I got this book as an ARC (an advance copy from the publisher).

This book is a collection of Jon Ronson's articles for the Guardian, and I'm really glad they put this compilation out. It's very funny and at times also very poignant. I definitely recommend it, as each article is fascinating- whether he's dealing with a minister who helps people kill themselves to a religious group who donates their kidneys to strangers. I couldn't put the book down, and kept pulling it out (even at family functio...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Benjamin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ronson is a witty writer whose articles in this book seem to fall into two camps: those where he plays a journalist watching from the background, present in the narrative only as much as necessary to explain how he knows what he relates, and those where his thoughts and reactions are an integral part of the story. The latter tend to get a little too self-aware and cutesy for my taste, but there are some gems among the former camp. In particular, Blood Sacrifice, "I Make It Look Like They Died in...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Alex Sarll added it · review of another edition

Much of this journalism collection I read when the pieces were originally published, some more in my mum's copy of the collection at Christmas, and I've just polished off the rest in a library copy. Except that some pieces I read on two (or in one case three) of those occasions, because Ronson at his best is that good. Yes, gonzo journalism is now mainstream, but when Ronson situates himself in the story, he does so not as some gung-ho parody of Hunter, not as a faux-everyman, but as *himself*,...more

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About Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson is a writer and documentary film maker. His books, Them: Adventures With Extremists and The Men Who Stare At Goats were international bestsellers. The Men Who Stare At Goats was adapted into a major motion picture starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges.

He's written the popular "Human Zoo" and "Out of the Ordinary" columns for The Guardian, where he still c...more

More about Jon Ronson...

Books by Jon Ronson

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

Out of the Ordinary: True Tales from Everyday Craziness

The Amazing Adventures of Phoenix Jones: And the Less Amazing Adventures of Some Other Real-Life Superheroes

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Quotes from Lost At Sea: The Jon R...

“It is slightly chilling to realize there are rational, functional people up there employed to spot, nurture, and exploit those down here among us who are irrational and can barely cope. If you want to know how stupid you’re perceived to be by the people up there, count the unsolicited junk mail you receive. If you get a lot, you’re perceived to be alluringly stupid.” — 3 people liked it

“A strange thing happens when you interview a robot. You feel an urge to be profound: to ask profound questions. I suppose it’s an inter-species thing. Although if it is I wonder why I never try and be profound around my dog.
‘What does electricity taste like?’ I ask.
‘Like a planet around a star,’ Bina48 replies.
Which is either extraordinary or meaningless - I’m not sure which” — 2 people liked it

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