No Magic...just great delivery

Other than a few great card tricks (and some drink recipes that sound intoxicatingly good) NPH doesn't have much up his sleeve these days since coming out of the closet in '06. Anyone with a TV is familiar with the former child actor Dr. Doogie and has seen his successful transitions to adult actor, Broadway star, multi-talented host and entertainer, and committed partner and parent (absolutely darling twins, you should look up their yearly Halloween photos!). It's clear that in a relatively un-tumultuous life (by Hollywood showbiz standards) the guy has had a pretty smooth trip chasing his destiny toward the big bright lights. He's kept his cute little boyish nose clean, side stepped a few bad reviews to keep plugging away, and stayed pretty steady.

So, keeping it all humble... what could possibly carry the autobiography of an actor that has only lived 40 something years...without a drug addiction, reality show, or other scandal or dark deed featured on a magazine cover in the checkout line at the grocery store? Wait for it...showmanship, gratitude, and pizzazz in spades. Harris is even entertaining in print; funny enough to laugh hard at himself, down to earth enough to talk about the humility of being able to be a parent, and real enough to express the love he has realized by having his own family.

Sure it's largely gimmicky owing to the format--but this is personal revelation and show biz at it's most fun. The magic tricks alone sound worth the practice to awe your family and friends; the drinks good enough to make a few trips to the liquor store; and the instructions and recipes are PDF included!! (And I howled out loud with laughter when David disappeared off the edge of the mountain while they were...read and find out--this is very funny stuff, I'm laughing again right now!) Like a Broadway show itself; fun entertaining book--and don't miss the PDF download. Sometimes it's nice to hear from a person that could have anything, that family and friends matter most.

52 people found this helpful

Choose this adventurous audiobook!

Neil Patrick Harris tells all in a unique and humorous Choose Your Own Adventure style memoir! Choose Your Own Autobiography uses second-person pov just like the CYOA books and puts the reader in Neil Patrick Harris’ (NPH) shoes. “You” are in the driver’s seat and get to jump to “your” career and personal highlights as you go.

I am a fan of humorous memoirs and of NPH the personality, so I had a feeling this book would be lots of fun. I know NPH from awards shows and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog but haven’t seen an episode of Doogie Howser or HIMYM. This book is great for casual fans that want to learn more about the actor, and longtime fans will get a kick hearing behind the scenes anecdotes.

This is one of the more entertaining memoirs I’ve read/listened to. The CYOA format is nostalgic and clever and helps keep the story flowing in an interesting way, and I didn’t mind the second-person perspective at all.

I like this kind of celebrity memoir that includes behind the scenes info from the entertainment world as well as personal glimpses. NPH dishes about his evolving career including his performances on TV, stage (I wish I got to see Hedwig!) and film, even mentioning his recent turn in Gone Girl. We also get to hear his coming out story, and about meeting husband David Burtka and how they became parents. NPH also discusses his love of magic, Disney, an epic 40th birthday scavenger hunt, and lavish vacations with Elton John.

Special guest testimonials from Sarah Silverman, Nathan Fillion, Whoopi Goldberg, Seth MacFarlane, and more also appear in the book. (The actors’ voices do not appear on the audiobook though) These provide humorous interludes and it’s nice to hear from the actor’s NPH has worked with over the years.

In addition to NPH’s life story, the book is sprinkled with magic card tricks (have a deck of cards handy), cocktail recipes (like Dr. Pourable’s Drink-Along Grog) and David Burtka’s recipe for Bolognese Sauce. Audiobook listeners will be able to access the food and drink recipes (and a cryptic crossword!) in a PDF that comes with the book.

The audiobook is a very entertaining and fast listen. NPH is an engaging reader who obviously brings a lot of personality to the table. You can’t skip around in audio format the way you are meant to do with the CYOA print version, so the audio edition tweaks the formula a bit. With NPH saying “If you want to do this keep listening, or wait a while longer/be patient.” In the audiobook, you also get to hear a bonus audio of young NPH performing a speech. Listening to NPH give his all in this audiobook and hearing about his experiences as an award show host makes me think he will be an awesome host for next year’s Oscars.

If you are a fan of NPH or humorous memoirs I think you will love this very creative autobiography!

47 people found this helpful

Not great for Audio

Would you try another book from Neil Patrick Harris and/or Neil Patrick Harris?

Yes, NPH is fantastic, but the format of this book is not fit for Audio

What was most disappointing about Neil Patrick Harris’s story?

Impossible to follow, as it goes through each option of the choose your own ending format without prompting what it is doing each time, so it all runs together and is very confusing.

Any additional comments?

NPH is great, and I bet the book is great in print, but it is not fit for listening without a lot of confusion.

8 people found this helpful

An Autobiography Written Twenty Years to Soon

I'm not the biggest Neil Patrick Harris fan. I've enjoyed his work at award shows and in How I Met Your Mother. But to say that I'm NPH's biggest fan would be a big overstatement. So why buy his autobiography? I genuinely was curious how he would write his "Choose Your Own Autobiography" like the old school choose your own adventure games.

The results of this so called choose your own adventure were pretty good. NPH brings the enthusiasm and attitude that you would expect. Its a fast moving often entertaining read. He has some interesting stories from his youth all the way up to present day. He's had an interesting career both on screen and on stage. I really enjoyed the parts which he talked about his love for magic. Those section overflowed with pure child like joy which was fun.

For me though it just felt like he didn't have enough yet to write an autobiography. It feels like he is just hitting his stride with his career. That the best stories and adventures for NPH are still to come. And yet I enjoyed my time with this weird often quirk autobiography of NPH. He's an amazing figurehead (even if he doesn't want to be) for the gay right movement not only in the US but around the world. When he writes about the great lengths he and his partner took to have their surrogate children I couldn't help but just be happy for the guy. All in all its a pretty run of the mill autobiography that might have been written ten to twenty years to early.

7 people found this helpful

Dr Doogie is all grown up!

Where does Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

In my top 20. Took a while to get into but after the first couple of chapters I was riveted.

What did you like best about this story?

NPH seemed most candid with his heartfelt story. He was honest about his 'likes' yet brutal about his 'dislikes'. My heart went out to him when he talked about his sexuality and how it had been kept a secret.

What about Neil Patrick Harris’s performance did you like?

So animated and fun. I felt as if I was witness to a 'one man Broadway' show. Loved it.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. I listen so long last night that I could barely keep my eyes open however I kept laughing out loud!

Any additional comments?

Not really for the kiddos and any one who gets easily offended. Love this book and will read it again and again. Hopefully NPH will write more in the future.

31 people found this helpful

Interesting and funny but...

Neil Patrick Harris has had an interesting life and has a great story to tell. He tells it well in this book, but all that is overshadowed at times by the "choose your own autobiography" plot device. I don't really care what the irrelevant and ridiculous alternate scenario is- Neil's story is enough to keep me interested on it's own. The "you" pronoun and silly alternates are distracting. Neil is a great reader and obviously knows his own story well enough to perform it well. If you overlook the plot interruptions and focus on the real story, this book is worth a listen.

17 people found this helpful

Kinda Less Interesting Than Expected

I'd say that the best parts of this book are his stories about show business and celebrity gossip. It's surprising how often he names names considering how "nice" the rest of the book is.

Things that wear thin after a while are the fictional choose-your-own-adventure bits and the fact that all the pointless bits written by other people are read by some guy with a British accent doing a Masterpiece Theater sort of shtick.

It's great the NPH seems to love his life, but for me I guess he came across as a bit glib and unreflecting. I'm sure there is a tension when you're writing something like this because you still want to keep some private things private, so hard's hard to know if NPH is a glib and happy-go-lucky as he seems or if he's presenting that sort of image on purpose. Either way, it became a little boring for me sometimes.

I've never read a biography before where nothing particularly bad ever happens to anyone. I mean, he's got to be in his early 40s; someone close to him has to have died or experienced something terrible that affected him in some kind of way.

When I think of the celebrity autobiographies I have particularly enjoyed (Katharine Hepburn, Tina Fey, Mia Farrow, Kathy Griffin...) the common thread, aside from excellent writing, is that they all give you a sense of them being very interesting people outside their careers. In these other books, it was moving to hear about how they all met the tragedies that life gave them.

Here, the writing is fine, if unremarkable, and you seldom learn anything that makes you see NPH as anything more than a decent, in-the-moment, "aw-shucks" sort of boy next door.

The book is funny sometimes, but by the end of it, it felt monotonous and overlong. He's reading of it is often dynamic, but I found his pacing too slow and ultimately changed the speed in my played to 1.25x.

14 people found this helpful

Just Plain Fun

This came highly recommended by a fellow celebrity-memoir-loving colleague, and was just a lot of fun. From Doogie to Barney and everything in between, NPH expertly delivers a really interesting life story. He comes across as humble, grounded, and the kind of person you'd want want to be friends with (even if the 'choose your own adventure' schtick gets a little old after a while).

2 people found this helpful

Outstanding!

Great writing with an outstanding performance by the author. Funny and tender. Comments by guests would have been better in their own voices.

2 people found this helpful

Holy Kaleedoe!! This man does Everything!!!

NEIL Patrick Harris is incredible!!!
He Writes, he reads, he acts!!! And he does it with enthusiasm!!!

If U like wit and wit on Wit, then this book is for You!!!!

If U like an adventure read with enthusiasm, then this book is for You!!!!

I am exhausted after listening to this book!!

I can't say enough about the way he read his autobiography!!

It was thrilling, heartwarming, exciting. What could I say, I Luved everything his book!!

2 people found this helpful