Review: Hyperbole and a Half -- THE BOOK

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As others have mentioned, this book is a great mix of our favorite Hyperbole and a Half stories (like "God of Cake") and completely new material ("Letter to My Future Self"). If you're already a fan of her writing, you don't need me to talk about the text. What I want to talk about, what I really, really love about this book, though, is its construction. The physical book itself is quite impressive.

[If it's not already obvious, attempting to read this on an e-Reader will not do you any good as a big piece of Brosh's charm are her illustrations.]

The paper is thick and glossy. The book itself has heft; it could be used as a weapon should one need to defend herself while out and about (and reading). The pages for each story or "section" are different colored, all bright and Crayola-looking, leaving no doubt that this book is the Hyperbole and a Half we all know and love. The pages only change color when a new story is introduced, making it very easy to thumb through the book and read each story as one sees fit. We don't need no stinkin' linear reading!

All in all, my feeling is the book was expensive to produce. Prices range from $9 (Amazon Prime paperback) to $20 (hardcover). I think I paid around $14 for my copy. No matter how you slice it, the price (any of them) is a "heckuva deal!" (to quote my step-dad).

Do yourself a favor and buy this in hard copy; laugh and cry with Allie's humor and "unfortunate situations"; enjoy the glossiness of the page; and keep it with you should you need to give someone a concussion.

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Leonard Has a Revelation

Being condemned to wearing my glasses for the next week, I'm already planning on not going out and being social.  I really don't like wearing  my glasses in public.  It's not a fashion thing (although I'm sure that's part of it); I don't see as well with my glasses (versus my contacts).  In fact, no one does because of the distance between the lens and your eye.  But I digress.

Refusing to be social got me thinking -- I'm not really that social in my "free" time anyway.  I don't go to knit nights, I rarely go to movie nights, and I can hear people asking "Why?   You do many things in front of people all of the time.  That doesn't make any sense."

And it's true.  All of my jobs -- teacher, actor, interpreter -- are very social, performative acts.  I "perform" in some capacity on a daily basis.  And then it hit me.  That's why I don't really socialize in my off time.  Because I'm already doing it the other 75-90% of the time.  Sometimes I just want to sit at home and knit and brood while wearing my glasses and no bra. 





So there ya go.  Despite the fact that I'm very outgoing when you might see me, the rest of the time I curl up in a ball at home.  It's hard being this fabulous all of the time; sometimes I need to take a nap.