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A review by staceyclairrr
James Acaster's Guide to Quitting Social Media by James Acaster
3.0
3.5!
‘It really is amazing how quickly one can take to being a liar.’
We all know I’m a biiiiiig James Acaster fan, so I’ve been dying to read his second book, James Acaster’s Guide to Quitting Social Media: Being the best YOU you can be and saving yourself from loneliness, Volume I. His first book, Perfect Sound Whatever, was one of my favourite reads of 2020 and quite frankly the best music journalism I’ve read in a long time, so I was going into this one with some solid expectations. And that is always a problem. Fans of his four-part Netflix special Repertoire will fucking LOVE the Guide to Quitting Social Media. It’s Acaster getting back to his trademark absurd whimsical lunacy, but if you go in expecting any kind of memoir with genuine tips to help you actually save yourself from loneliness, I’m afraid to say there is not a sincere word about his experience of living purposefully offline to be found. Maybe it’s Pat Springleaf’s though…
None of this is to say that what you get isn’t good, because there are some hysterically funny lines and scenes drawn, but you really have to be in the mood for the nonsense and in my first sitting I think my capacity for it peaked after about two hours. I found my second helping of the audiobook much more enjoyable, as I knew what I was getting into. I do wonder if reading on-page would have changed the experience, but I’m very used to listening to Acaster’s voice on podcasts and other audiobooks so I was keen to listen to his narration anyway, and it really is excellent — his energy is as frenzied as the content, which strikes the perfect tone for this.
Inclined not to think there’ll be a volume II (and doubt there’d ever been plans for one in the first place), but whatever he does next, I will welcome whatever springs from James Acaster’s bonkers mind heartily.
‘It really is amazing how quickly one can take to being a liar.’
We all know I’m a biiiiiig James Acaster fan, so I’ve been dying to read his second book, James Acaster’s Guide to Quitting Social Media: Being the best YOU you can be and saving yourself from loneliness, Volume I. His first book, Perfect Sound Whatever, was one of my favourite reads of 2020 and quite frankly the best music journalism I’ve read in a long time, so I was going into this one with some solid expectations. And that is always a problem. Fans of his four-part Netflix special Repertoire will fucking LOVE the Guide to Quitting Social Media. It’s Acaster getting back to his trademark absurd whimsical lunacy, but if you go in expecting any kind of memoir with genuine tips to help you actually save yourself from loneliness, I’m afraid to say there is not a sincere word about his experience of living purposefully offline to be found. Maybe it’s Pat Springleaf’s though…
None of this is to say that what you get isn’t good, because there are some hysterically funny lines and scenes drawn, but you really have to be in the mood for the nonsense and in my first sitting I think my capacity for it peaked after about two hours. I found my second helping of the audiobook much more enjoyable, as I knew what I was getting into. I do wonder if reading on-page would have changed the experience, but I’m very used to listening to Acaster’s voice on podcasts and other audiobooks so I was keen to listen to his narration anyway, and it really is excellent — his energy is as frenzied as the content, which strikes the perfect tone for this.
Inclined not to think there’ll be a volume II (and doubt there’d ever been plans for one in the first place), but whatever he does next, I will welcome whatever springs from James Acaster’s bonkers mind heartily.