This was a Christmas present from friends - one that arrived too late for the holidays, and has taken this long to make its way to my hands! I've enjoyed Harris' work over the years, and when I heard that he'd done a "choose your own path" version of his memoirs I wanted to read it.

Turns out it really IS a choose-your-own-path story, with loads of entertaining digressions, amusing options, and often-touching autobiographical bits. Among the unexpected elements: Penn Jillette chimes in to explain how he's the one that turned Neil gay; some of the more dramatic "and then you die" endings, such as an attempt at a magic trick that leaves Neil in a puddle of sulfuric acid; and the "hidden page", found by those of us who can't resist paging deliberately through the whole book to make sure we didn't miss anything. I was so tickled when I found this one that I laughed out loud; Harris certainly knows his choose-your-own-path fans!

There's also a charming bit where Neil describes meeting David, now his husband - and where the pages show lots of handwritten annotations, as David was allowed to comment on this bit himself. (But not on the footnotes; "that would be too meta".)

Loved finding the actual biography in among the whimsical bits - and the real-life stuff is often pretty whimsical, as in the marvelous "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog". Very clever idea for a memoir, and extremely well executed!

[There's a TV Tropes page on Harris and his work.]

I plan to leave this book on a bench near the pond in front of the Radisson; hope the finder enjoys it! (Update: released as planned - with a lovely surprise; a great blue heron wandered out of the pond just in time for a release photo!)

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2017 Tick Tock release challenge. ***