Fun, breezy, and ultimately uplifting, Felicia Day’s “You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) [A Memoir]” (ISBN: 9781476785653) is good for chuckles, guffaws, and a shipload of laughs.
I’m not a gamer. I don’t watch webisodes. I’ve never tuned in to see Supernatural, Eureka, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And up until this week I had never heard of Felicity Day. Oops, I mean Felicia Day.
I didn’t even want this book — the tome I was seeking wasn’t available. But from the first quirky anecdote about her visit to a Build-a-Bear store, I was hooked. She is charming and her writing runs the gamut from amusing to zany.
With just one notable lapse in taste (more on that later), ‘Net star Felicia Day has written a book that will delight her fans and make a bunch of new ones (count me in). She unleashes the funny at a nearly nonstop pace throughout the oddly-yclept You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) [A Memoir]. Dip into it and you are able to whoosh along with her as she launches a litany of twenty-first-century celebrity frisson and angst, but with self-deprecating humor. And some snark. Okay, quite a bit of snark.
Who is Felicia Day?
She’s famous! To some people. As for the rest of us, well, let’s allow the gal to clear that up her own self: “On average, a random person on the street won’t know my work, but there are certain places where I’m a superstar, like San Diego Comic-Con, and … other places like San Diego Comic-Con. Oh, and I have a HUGE barista recognition factor.”
There’s a lot of oddly funny stuff about her upbringing, which included homeschooling of a sort, quite often involving what some would call extracurricular activities:
Ballet, tap, jazz dance, youth orchestra, martial arts, watercolor at the local community college (me and a bunch of eighty-year-olds rockin’ the stand of maple trees!), cross-stitch, poise class (held in the back of a department store, for REAL!), my mom basically trained me to become a geisha. With dance lessons alone, I went to class at least three hours a day. Big calves, you are mine for life.
Things sometimes turn serious, often for several seconds at a time: “As I grew up, I was bothered more and more by the bigger picture of ‘Who am I?’ Science didn’t seem to have much guidance except for one section about personality disorders in my dad’s college psychology textbook. And those were a disappointment, because I didn’t seem psychotic enough to qualify for any of them.”
Life Lessons
Day distributes helpful advice in between quips: “There’s merit in having the plucky attitude, ‘No problem is insurmountable if you’re willing to be creative and bat your eyelashes a little!’ (Not sexist, guys have eyelashes, too.)”
And: “I don’t let people get away with putting themselves down anymore. There are enough negative forces in this world — don’t let the pessimistic voice that lives inside you get away with that stuff, too. That voice is NOT a good roommate.”
And: “We’re all a garbage dump of dysfunction, but if you get in there and churn the problems, they turn to mulch faster so new things can grow out of them. (I have no idea how to mulch, so I hope that analogy is accurate.)”
A Minor Lapse
Towards the end of the book there’s a funny story about the production of the original Star Wars that involves a disposable paper cup. Regrettably, Day uses the brand name of a Koch Brothers product in telling the story. Wow, talk about leaving a bad taste in your mouth.
Fortunately, the other ninety-nine percent of the book is delightful. While You’re Never Weird may not be up to the glorified level of Bill Bryson or Mary Roach, it still offers you a HUGE mirth factor.
Buy this book right now on Amazon:
You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost): A Memoir
For Further Information:
“You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) [A Memoir]” by Felicia Day; Touchstone (Simon & Schuster), Hardcover, 272 pages, ISBN: 9781476785653, $25.99, 2015.
INFO on Publisher’s Site: http://books.simonandschuster.com/Youre-Never-Weird-on-the-Internet-%28Almost%29/Felicia-Day/9781476785653
VIDEO (YouTube) — Felicia Day talks at Google:
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This original review is Copr. © 2016 by John Scott G and first published on MuseWire.com before finding its permanent home on PublishersNewswire.com – both publications of Neotrope®. All commercial and reprint rights reserved. No fee or other consideration was paid to the reviewer, this site or its publisher by any third party for this unbiased article/review. Reproduction or republication in whole or in part without express permission is prohibited except under fair use provisions of international copyright law.
TAGS: Internet, Felicia Day, John Scott G, geeks, TV, web series, Supernatural, The Guild, books, memoir, humor, nerd, Comic-Con, autobiography
