I’ve been wanting to read some comedy books, so when my library had Yearbook by Seth Rogen available on Libby, I had to check it out. I listened to this one as an audiobook and I’m glad I did. Being able to hear Seth describe his life in his voice was great and quite hilarious. It was also a surprise to hear different people from the story chime in to add their voice to the story or have an impersonator do their voice. A few times, I couldn’t tell that it wasn’t the original person’s voice, but I thought, “that can’t be him….or can it?”
I learned a lot about his life and past that I hadn’t known before. For one, I didn’t know he was from Vancouver. I did, however, know he smoked a lot, but I didn’t realize how much. Lol, when you read his book you find out. I was impressed to learn that he started performing stand up as a teenager. It was even funnier to learn that he was later paid for writing jokes for a mohel.
It sounds like Seth’s grandparents were great and had a fantastic sense of humor. He was writing his first jokes about them. Then someone gave him a tip to write about things that affected him and were personal, particularly how he got dumped after 1 day. *insert oof gif* I guess I’m a fan of self-deprecating humor at this point. I’m reflecting on Issa Rae’s Book, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl and how much I enjoyed it as well. (You can check out my review of that book here). I also appreciate how much Seth loves and values his family and sprinkles that throughout the book.
The other thing he really loves is weed. Like really really loves. He described his dabbling into different substances, but the one that is discussed the most, by far, is weed. He has some fun stories to share about times when he experimented with other drugs and had some bad trips or when he almost got robbed when trying to buy some drugs.
Overall, this book was a roller coaster of a lot of different things, but took us on a journey through the life of 1 man and his varying friends and family members. I really enjoyed Yearbook and the ending, in particular was funny, yet sad. This seems to be a common thread throughout the book. The campers getting lost in the woods near the beginning of a long, multi day hike is terrible, but also hilarious. If they had made it farther in, they may not have been rescued. It’s interesting to see Seth’s perspective on the incident as compared to his camp counselor’s when he revisits the incident with him many years down the road. Seth mentioned he wasn’t too bent out of shape about it and the counselor was horrified and mentioned how scared they had been. Hahah. Whoops 😅 . Perspective is everything and my perspective is that this book is a great, comedic listen.
Did you read it? What was your favorite story?
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