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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Highly entertaining. Listening to NPH read it even more so. A wonderful balance of stuff that happened, stuff that clearly didn't, stuff that is heartwarming, stuff that is funny, stuff that is cute, stuff that is raunchy, and lots of other stuff.
I wanted to love this book. I love NPH and the premise is soooo clever. Unfortunately, I don't feel like I learned a lot about the author, which is the biggest problem for a biography. I also found some of the vulgarity off-putting... particularly when in some places it was very graphic, and yet, in other places weirdly restrained. The inconsistencies threw me. I mean, if you are going to drop the F-bomb 2 or 3 times, then why say "Effin" several other times? I continue to be a fan, but this book just wasn't for me. Sadly.
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
It grew a little drab in some moments but because it's Neil Patrick Harris, I'll give it 3 stars :)
I want to be Neil Patrick Harris' best friend. Because magic, singing, dancing, and award show hosting? Legen- wait for it- dary.
What a unique format for an autobiography! I loved how it was laid out, and the hilarious ‘deaths’ that you endure when you take the wrong path. My only problem was that sometimes I finished the book too quickly, and I had to go back and figure out what choices to make to learn about different parts of his life (I was particularly interested in Dr. Horrible). This was a fun break from the typical linear read of celebrity autobiographies. Definitely a great book, and I’m glad that I picked this one up!
OMG, I loved this book. NPH is a great guy, good writer, interesting entertainer, and this book did NOT disappoint. Clever asides, interesting footnotes, and hey, I got to choose which path to take through his life!
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
When I was young, I tried valiantly to like "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. They were usually filled with (yup) adventure and exotic locales, and that was right up my alley. There wasn't a whole lot of downtime in the writing and the action started up from the first page. As there was only a couple paragraphs to make the magic happen, as it were, and keep things moving for the prepubescent's attention span that was, invariably, the audience/reader, the pacing was good and fast. However, that's where the appeal ended for me because no matter what I did, I ended up choosing the wrong thing and dying some horrifying death in the rain forest. Or dying unexpectedly by snake bite because I decided NOT to jump off the cliff into the shallow pool. Or because I trusted the wrong person who stole my map and went on to find the treasure without me (I assume "I" ended up as an opium addict in a den somewhere). Whatever. I always died. I tried and tried again, but I still died. And finally, depressed from dying 18 unexpected deaths in a row, I would put the book down, feeling like I was destined for nothing but death. A bit of an existential nightmare for a child. (Even when I tried to "manufacture" my own adventure by hunting through the pages for successful endings and working backwards through the book, I somehow messed it up.) So I abandoned CYOA books.
Given that history, I was hesitant about the format of this book. But, as my star rating has undoubtedly given away, I had a great time with NPH's Choose Your Own Autobiography. It helped that the book/author/me was aware enough to recognize a few different tracks running through the book that different decisions would shuttle me onto, and then smart enough to play with the "choice" format of the book (sometimes you don't get a choice, right? or you just eschew the choices given you for something else [rebellion may have helped me a little bit as a child]). And I have to say, I really enjoyed getting to know NPH, his commitment to entertaining and creativity, his coming out process and search for love (I have to say, for how little I heard about David in the book, I think the parts about him were among my favourite), and his penchant for magic (who knew? [probably a lot of people]).
Part of the charm of the book is the intimate moments when NPH delivers honestly about his life (I find these quiet moments much more interesting than tales of Tony hosting or television filming, though these are expected and necessary parts of the book). These moments of self-revelation don't feel indulgent or scandalous, as I often find happens in autobios/memoirs of the rich n famous. Rather, the book is filled with moments of tenderness as well as humour, all of which delivers a deeply entertaining read.
To round off my review, a little tale of my own (and if you've made it this far in my review, then Kungaloosh!, you'll get the goods on an oddly endearing part of my childhood): When Doogie Howser, MD first came out in the late-80s, I was a young and suitably awkward 8 year old. Being that my burgeoning talent for cultural osmosis was already quite well developed, even in those early years, I knew about the show soon after it started (was it a commercial I saw? did my classmates talk about it? [It still happens, and I can't often say how I know about most movies/shows/plays/novels/etc.; it just happens. Osmosis]). Anyway, it didn't take long before people in my life started giving me funny sideways looks and saying, "Do you know, you look exactly like Doogie Howser?" Classmates started calling me Doogie. My parents' friends started asking me medical questions (very humorous, especially when an ancient woman from church asked me about a hysterectomy; nailed the 8-year-old demographic for children's humour, lady. Still my gold standard). Even strangers would sidle up to find out if Doogie had decided to visit the zoo in Winnipeg. My "celebrity" was short-lived, as I suppose inevitably happens, as Neil Patrick Harris grew out of his looking-like-Chris stage of life. However, the connection was already made in my mind and I long felt a special sort of kinship with my dear former doppelgänger. (It was momentarily odd for me when he came out, but, well, sure, of course he's gay. I'm gay too.) That's about where the similarities end though. I don't really sing, I have no confidence that I could stare down Scott Caan, and I'm damn certain that I won't be on TV, Broadway, or any awards show, well, ever. But I lived vicariously through NPH's Choose My - wait, Your - Own Autobiography (I think I ended up being the alternate ending on page 19 though; or at least some variation of what happened after the line-up at Schlotzsky's ended).
Given that history, I was hesitant about the format of this book. But, as my star rating has undoubtedly given away, I had a great time with NPH's Choose Your Own Autobiography. It helped that the book/author/me was aware enough to recognize a few different tracks running through the book that different decisions would shuttle me onto, and then smart enough to play with the "choice" format of the book (sometimes you don't get a choice, right? or you just eschew the choices given you for something else [rebellion may have helped me a little bit as a child]). And I have to say, I really enjoyed getting to know NPH, his commitment to entertaining and creativity, his coming out process and search for love (I have to say, for how little I heard about David in the book, I think the parts about him were among my favourite), and his penchant for magic (who knew? [probably a lot of people]).
Part of the charm of the book is the intimate moments when NPH delivers honestly about his life (I find these quiet moments much more interesting than tales of Tony hosting or television filming, though these are expected and necessary parts of the book). These moments of self-revelation don't feel indulgent or scandalous, as I often find happens in autobios/memoirs of the rich n famous. Rather, the book is filled with moments of tenderness as well as humour, all of which delivers a deeply entertaining read.
To round off my review, a little tale of my own (and if you've made it this far in my review, then Kungaloosh!, you'll get the goods on an oddly endearing part of my childhood): When Doogie Howser, MD first came out in the late-80s, I was a young and suitably awkward 8 year old. Being that my burgeoning talent for cultural osmosis was already quite well developed, even in those early years, I knew about the show soon after it started (was it a commercial I saw? did my classmates talk about it? [It still happens, and I can't often say how I know about most movies/shows/plays/novels/etc.; it just happens. Osmosis]). Anyway, it didn't take long before people in my life started giving me funny sideways looks and saying, "Do you know, you look exactly like Doogie Howser?" Classmates started calling me Doogie. My parents' friends started asking me medical questions (very humorous, especially when an ancient woman from church asked me about a hysterectomy; nailed the 8-year-old demographic for children's humour, lady. Still my gold standard). Even strangers would sidle up to find out if Doogie had decided to visit the zoo in Winnipeg. My "celebrity" was short-lived, as I suppose inevitably happens, as Neil Patrick Harris grew out of his looking-like-Chris stage of life. However, the connection was already made in my mind and I long felt a special sort of kinship with my dear former doppelgänger. (It was momentarily odd for me when he came out, but, well, sure, of course he's gay. I'm gay too.) That's about where the similarities end though. I don't really sing, I have no confidence that I could stare down Scott Caan, and I'm damn certain that I won't be on TV, Broadway, or any awards show, well, ever. But I lived vicariously through NPH's Choose My - wait, Your - Own Autobiography (I think I ended up being the alternate ending on page 19 though; or at least some variation of what happened after the line-up at Schlotzsky's ended).