You’re Never Weird on the Internet (almost)
Author: Felicia Day
Genre: Real Life Stuff
Grade: A
I may be a little weird because honestly the only thing I really know Felicia Day from is Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog years ago. The idea of on-line gaming both fascinates and terrifies me because I am not good at the games and I have a completely addictive personality and will get way to into it. Something she talks about!
This is basically the story of her life from her rather odd childhood through her hardcore college days (seriously a double-major in math and violin!) to the fact that after that she packed it all up and decided she wanted to go to Hollywood and be an actress. The internet for her was always a way to socialize and make friends. It’s a little scary but when she starts talking about and showing pictures of the old dial-up and early generations games I was like- I know that! And it wasn’t really that long ago! Was it?
This really is more about her descent into the gaming world and how she parlayed that into a bigger career doing something that she never imagined but something she loved nonetheless. I enjoyed this one a lot. She has the voice of a friend and it really helped that so much of what she was talking I felt like we had in common. Hell, I may not game but I know obsession.
It really is one of those biographies where you can say yeah, I think if we meet in real life we’d be friends! There are also really cute pictures and graphics throughout.
The only thing that I found slightly strange was Day uses the last chapter to go into “gamer-gate.” It’s important and I’m glad she talked about it. Coming at the end of the book it’s kind of terrifying what was going on and what people were doing. She obviusly didn’t let it get to her but at the end of an otherwise upbeat book it seemed weird to talk about how the “gamer” lifestyle has changed- and not for the better. I felt like oh, this is something I want to check out and then read that and thought nope, pretty much all my on-line fears not doing it.
Recommend: Yes. Even though I wasn’t overly familiar with her I found this book strangely nostalgic and a lot of fun to read. It’s always nice to read about people who have successfully forged their passions into thriving careers. I can always tell myself one day that’ll be me. One day.