Author: Steve Martin
Book Name: Born Standing Up
I’m Glad it Wasn’t Called: Giggles, the Angry, Bilingual Ferret
Book Synopsis in Twitteresque 140 characters or less: Steve Martin writes of his days as a comedian. From magic acts at Disneyworld to sold out arenas, he details the how and why of his stardom.
Where I Bought It: Borders Express at the Exton Mall, from Jill.
Paid for With: Debit Card (store did not accept attempted payment with Arubin Florin)
How Long it Took Me to Read: 2 days. Which might be a new record for me. This was a combination of three things: 1- I really enjoyed it, so it was easy to breeze through it, 2 – Erica was engrossed in a book at the time, so all we both wanted to do was read, and 3 – It was over a holiday, so I had time to kill.
Who I WOULD NOT recommend this book to: My brother-in-law Michael, who has recurring violent nightmares in which he is attacked by a middle-aged man in a bunny suit. I fear the cover of this book alone would send him into shock. In fact, just in case Michael is reading this review right now, someone might want to swing by his house and check on him.
Who I WOULD recommend this book to: Anyone with an interest in comedy, showbiz, or performing arts. It’s fascinating to read Martin’s reflections on his rise to fame. I especially love the times where he footnotes a moment early in his career and foreshadows the bigger role it will play in the future. A good reminder that even the seemingly “normal” events of our lives might play a huge role in where we are headed.
What I used for a bookmark: One of the 50 extra Allain family christmas cards we have lying around.
Fascinating Tidbit From the book that is True: Early in his career, Steve worked with and fell in love with Stormie Sherk, who later became Stormie Omartian. Yes, that Stormie Omartian.
Fascinating Tidbit Not From the book that is Not True: Martin learned to play banjo on a saxophone.
What I learned from this book that I will apply to my next book: When you are famous, you can make your name appear in larger font on the cover than the book title. Applying that to my book, the font size used for the title will be 8 times that of my name.
Expectations Going In: I had read recommendations of the book from a few people, so I thought it would be a good read. Didn’t expect it to keep me engaged the whole way through, but thought it would be a nice diversion from the other books I was reading.
Cannarf Rating: I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. It was what I like to call a “time-maker”, in that when you are in the middle of it, you are always “making time” to read it. The content was very interesting and Martin’s writing voice was perfect for the material. It inspired me to be entertaining and reminded me that hard work usually pays off. +4 cannarfs. (what’s a cannarf?)
Have any of you read it? If so, what’s your cannarf rating?