{"id":28752,"date":"2015-12-12T23:25:28","date_gmt":"2015-12-13T03:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=28752"},"modified":"2015-12-12T23:25:28","modified_gmt":"2015-12-13T03:25:28","slug":"review-of-youre-never-weird-on-the-internet-almost-by-felicia-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=28752","title":{"rendered":"Review of You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), by Felicia Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"youre_never_weird_large\"<\/a>You\u2019re Never Weird on the Internet (almost)<\/em><\/p>\n

by Felicia Day<\/p>\n

Touchstone (Simon & Schuster), New York, 2015. 261 pages.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

Geeky girl makes good! I have to love this book \u2013 being so much of a geek myself.<\/p>\n

Felicia Day was even a math major! Of course she\u2019s cool! (What? That\u2019s not how everyone defines coolness?) Never mind that she was also a music major. And homeschooled before that. And a gamer.<\/p>\n

Oh wait! The flap says she\u2019s the eighth most followed person on Goodreads. Now I\u2019m jealous!<\/p>\n

Felicia Day is familiar to me because of seeing her star in the fabulous internet show, Dr. Horrible\u2019s Sing-Along Blog<\/em>. I was delighted to read the story of her life, because she\u2019s as quirky as I am, and she has achieved her dreams.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s open and honest and entertaining about her life. She hasn\u2019t led a traditional life, and she talks frankly about a time when her video game playing did creep into addiction. Growing up homeschooled, people she met online were her first friends. Perhaps it\u2019s fitting that her eventual success came via the internet.<\/p>\n

Joss Whedon wrote the Foreword to this book. He explains well why it is worth reading:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard being weird. No \u2013 it\u2019s hard living in a culture that makes it hard. This book deals with hard \u2013 without rancor, without the ugly flush of one-upmanship. Felicia created a persona of the bewildered waif who somehow manages to manage (and occasionally triumph). That persona is a gloss on a similar, but more painful, reality. Her odd, compelling journey was more difficult than a lot of us who knew her knew. But that\u2019s part of her gift: she makes crippling anxiety look easy.<\/p>\n

Another part of her gift is that she\u2019s damn funny. Even if she\u2019d come from the heart of normcore, her tale would be worth telling and well told. But she was raised in Crazytown, and the more foreign her territory, the more delightful \u2013 and somehow more relatable \u2013 her tale becomes. Reading this book is like spending an afternoon with Felicia, hearing breathless tales (they\u2019re always breathless \u2013 Felicia doesn\u2019t pause when she talks) of achievement, despair, and dazzling, almost transcendent nerdiness. This is the story of someone who found her place in a corner of the world that literally<\/em> didn\u2019t exist till just before she showed up. Felicia\u2019s place is always off the edge of the map, where dragons wait, and this story is more than a memoir. It\u2019s a quest. If you wanna survive, stay close to the redhead.<\/p>\n

She knows her way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This book is conversational, inspirational, and good silly fun. Felicia Day comes across as an enthusiastic little sister with good ideas. Here\u2019s a little bit of her philosophy in her summing-up chapter:<\/p>\n

That same motto \u201cI am determined to create something or express myself, no matter how hard it is, even if my mom is the only one who sees it!\u201d is the embodiment of how I view the web. For the first time, everyone has a chance to have his or her voice heard, or to create a community around something they\u2019re passionate about and connect with other people who share that passion. Best of all, it rewards people and ideas that never would have made it through the system and allows the unique and weird to flourish. . . .<\/p>\n

I was raised incredibly weird, but one day I accidentally got brave and thought I had a unique point of view about gaming. I decided to jump into web video \u2013 a world I knew very little about \u2013 to express it. Who knew there was anyone out there who wanted to listen?<\/p>\n

I believe the next Oprah Winfrey or George Lucas will not come from a local news desk or college film program. He or she will come from the world of the web. Where the bar to entry is low, and where a group of kids can dream up a story and shoot it in their backyards. Regardless of whether someone gave them permission or not.<\/p>\n

I hope all my copious oversharing encourages someone to stop, drop, and do something that\u2019s always scared them. Create something they\u2019ve always dreamt of. Connect with people they never thought they\u2019d know. Because there\u2019s no better time in history to do it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There you have it! Felicia Day\u2019s copious oversharing is delightful reading for anyone who\u2019s even slightly geeky. She\u2019s one of us, and she is achieving her dreams and learning about life along the way. What\u2019s not to like?<\/p>\n

feliciaday.com<\/a>
\nfeliciadaybook.com<\/a>
\n@feliciaday<\/a>
\nSimonandSchuster.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Nonfiction\/youre_never_weird.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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