Join Me - Danny Wallace

Join Me - Danny Wallace

Author: 

Danny Wallace

Publish Date: 

2003

Blurb on the Back:

They didn't know what they were joining...

They didn't know why they were joining...

But joining they were.

Danny Wallace was bored. Just to see what would happen, he placed a whimsical small ad in a local London paper. It said, simply ‘Join Me’. Within a month, he was receiving letters and e-mails from intrigued strangers all over the country, eager to sign up.

Teachers, mechanics, sales reps, vicars, schoolchildren, pensioners – all pledged allegiance to his cause. None knew what that cause was.

Soon he was proclaimed Leader. Increasingly obsessed and possibly power crazed, he risked losing his sanity and his loyal girlfriend. But who could deny the attraction of a global following of thousands of devoted joinees?

A modern day Pied Piper, he traveled the world.

From Inverness to Amsterdam, Swindon, Paris, Zurich,Crete and Oslo. He became a minor celebrity in Belgium. He had a brush with a criminal mastermind in Devon. He made hundreds of old men all over the world very happy.

A book about dreams, ambitions and the responsibility that comes with power, JOIN ME is the true story of a man who created a cult by accident, and is proof that whilst some men were born to lead, others really haven't got a clue...

Review:

(Note this is a repost from the 11 April 2013)

So you may have noticed in my last blog I mentioned a chap by the name of Danny Wallace (Not the Footballer). In Join Me, Danny largely by accident starts a cult (or as he prefers it to be known a "collective") by entering a small advert into a local London paper. the ad simply said "JOIN ME" and asked any one wanting to join to send a passport sized photo of themselves to Danny. He never gave any explanation of what they where joining, mainly because he didn't have the faintest idea what the purpose was.

As people respond and the members start to grow Danny struggles to keep things secret from his long suffering girlfriend, Hanne, who has had enough of his "stupid boy projects" after his exploits with Dave Gorman in a previous book ("Are you Dave Gorman" still to be reviewed by me.)

More importantly however he finally isn't able to avoid what the purpose of his cult/collective is for and as a result he is finally backed into a corner and forced to invent a reason. Instead of using his ever growing power for evil however, he decides that its purpose should be to do random good deeds on a Friday which eventually lead to them adopting the moniker of "The Karma Army"

Join Me is a nicely paced and humorous book and Danny tells the story in a straight forward but entertaining style. He is also very openly critical of where he went wrong. The Karma Army is still going strong which is testament to the good work that Danny wanted to promote. I would say however that like America Unchained, once read it doesn't have much re-read value but still a very uplifting book to read.

9 out 10

Now just a short wee note. Posts from me will be a bit sporadic I work a condensed week so your more likely to see me active on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday than the rest of the week also any comments you have would be most appreciated.

For now this book is about to be replaced. Not sure by what yet but the Changing Mat looks the odds on favorite.

Hope you have fun

Deejay