Kyle MacDonald was having trouble making ends meet and felt like he was continuously sponging off his girlfriend Dominique. He looks around his desk and sees one red paperclip, then decides that he's going to trade that paperclip for bigger and better things until he eventually has a house. It starts small, trading the paperclip for a pen, the pen for a doorknob. He meets many different people along the way and eventually the media starts to catch on, interviewing him and following his journey.

This definitely is not the best written book in the world (in fact I think I could have written it just as well), but the journey from each trade is captivating. It's such a simple idea and yet it amazes me how much effort was required to make some of the trades. At the end of each chapter, which is the story of moving from one trade to the next, there were "lessons" that MacDonald learned from that trade (or didn't, because some of them honestly had nothing to do with the chapter before it), which were very out of place in the book. I stopped reading them after a few chapters because it felt insulting that a guy trading from nothing to something was going to try and teach me life lessons.

This is a fun book and should be treated as such, if you're interested in how a Canadian boy traded a paperclip for a house.

Kyle MacDonald is an unemployed slacker. He realizes he is sponging off his girlfriend and decides to trade a red paper clip eventually for a house. The idea is to trade bigger and better. His first trade is a paper clip for a fish pen; his last a movie role for a house.

The writing in this book is atrocious with many repetitive sentences seemingly to fill up space. Also Kyle writes what he considers hilarious events which for this reader fell dead. Although the trades were interesting there was a lot of media attention for the latter ones which helped Kyle immensely. What I couldn't help wondering all along the way was who was paying for the flights, hotels and meals, etc. None of this was mentioned but his father accompanied him many times and assisted him, maybe he was the financial backer.


At the end of each chapter was a motivational quip which was rather insulting but sounded like Kyle need to prove to himself he was doing something worthwhile. Maybe if this book had been written just in fun and not so serious and preachy, it would have been a better read.

the book one red paperclip was first introduced to me in philip sexsmiths secondary english class at UNB quite a while back now. i havent quite gotten the chance to read the whole book but i read lots of parts and the red page quotes are really inspiring especially just kyle himself by sticking by his plans to go from a paper clip to a house in just one year. i thought it was really amazing what kyle did and he is an inspiration to lots of us that if we want, go get it dont let anything get in your way in what you want to do. you never know, work hard enough and you just might get it!

One Red Paper Clip is truly an aspirational novel, Kyle MacDonald really shows what one person is truly capable of from trading a Red paper clip for a fish pen all the way up to a house, to me this book made me feel like going out and doing some thing creative or trying the impossible and maybe i could trade up to house from something as insignificant as a Red Paper clip.