Biography: Neil Patrick Harris, Choose Your Own Autobiography

Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography
Neil Patrick Harris
ISBN: 9780385346993
A biography of NPH that is, actually, in Choose Your Own Adventure format.

I used up so many sticky-notes on this book.

Way back in the mists of time, I read Choose Your Own Adventure books, usually of the Indiana Jones variety, and let me tell you - Indy is a super-hero, because I read those books with the movies in mind, and every choice I could make, I chose like Indy.  I DIED ALL THE TIME.  Every time, I died, usually before the adventure even started.  What the heck kind of adventure was this if an adventurous character couldn't even get into it properly?

The only way I could make it to a "good" ending was if I literally searched out ALL the endings, found the SINGLE GOOD ENDING (compared to about a dozen or so really unfortunate ones, and about three or so iffy ones) and proceeded to work backwards by marking page-numbers.  And you know what I found?  The only way to get to a good ending was to choose the most boring and non-adventurous answer there was, every single time.  That's bullshit.  

Thankfully, this Choose Your Own Autobiography is not bullshit, because NPH has had a wonderful life, and has made some really adventurous choices, and very few of them end up in tragic unfortunate demises (although you might want to watch out for a redux of Joss Whedon, or on Sesame Street - apparently trying to re-experience a magical collaboration is a death sentence).  My only complaint is that I think I killed a small tropical tree owned by 3M keeping track of my progress in order to make sure that I read the whole thing.

If you want to read bits-and-pieces of NPH's life and family and acting and hosting and singing and magic (although not much of the magic, as he plays his tricks close to his vest) then this is a perfect little book.  I almost want to seed it through waiting rooms across the country, as a protest against three-seasons-outdated-issues of WebMD's pamphlets, recipe-optional Woman's Days, and threadbare Sports Illustrated with defaced photos of sports players.  It was great to just read a few segments at a time and then set it down to work or live life myself.

If you want to actually go through his (scuse me, "your") life chronologically, then honey, you're in for a bit of work.  It should be possible, but I limited myself to simply being thorough, and after a very Time Traveler's Wife sort of life, went back and tried to re-assemble the actual chronology in my head (most likely super-incorrectly).  That approach alone meant that it took me a whole day longer to make sure I'd hit everything.  If you read slowly, or don't have as good a memory for what you read, it might be more frustrating (there are places where it doubles back and re-uses footage, as a good Choose Your Own Adventure does) but it's still a fun adventure.

I am happy to say that through grit, persistence, genre-savvy, and rampant cheating I got through unscathed (and un-quicksanded) to the grand musical finale.  Have to say, I'm pretty thrilled with the life!