“Seriously… I’m kidding” is a book that invokes the readers to spit out a phrase, “seriously… are you kidding?”  This book received numerous positive reivews and comments, receiving 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon and on Goodreads. It was written by the most adored American Talk Show host, as well as a popular comedian, Ellen DeGeneres. In contrast to the image that the title and the author of this book alludes, it is a book that’s supposed to lead people to provoke some “philosophical” thoughts, not to mention the “funny” and “amazing” comments that were on these websites. Reading and seeing such positive reviews about this book, and noting the fact that it was written by Ellen should have indicated this book to be one of the few entertaining autobiographies that appeal to young adults. However, this book wasn’t able to meet my expectations; it didn’t appeal to me at all. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend this book for those who expect Ellen to disclose her personal life and approach us personally as it is written for those who enjoy light reads.
This book is unmistakingly about Ellen; it is her own autobiography. She casually, and briefly discusses many different topics that compose her book. This book is intended to be a light read, which I wasn’t aware of. The language that she uses throughout this book is very casual and colloquial as if she is talking to us, face-to-face at her own talk show.
That said, this book was a huge disappoint to me. I'm usually not very picky of a plot or the content of the book that I read. But I bought this book to intentionally bring up a slight change to my Kindle Shelf that was full of Romance Fiction or Realistic Fictions. It’s been a misery being stuck with this book for the past three months.
To begin with, the fact that this book deals with numerous topics confused me at first. Ellen shifts from topics to topics, jumping from a chapter to chapter. For about the first five minutes of this book, I would be reading about Ellen being a Covergirl and how she felt amazing about it. For the next ten seconds, I would be reading about a random fairytale that Ellen has created for the smaller audiences. Then the book once again moves on to yet another strange topic, completely unrelated to the previous topic. This book lacks an overarching theme, which makes it hard for the readers to keep up. Jumping from one topic to another also causes an issue in organization of this book in a sense that all the chapter she opens get left open without a clear ending or a conclusion.
In addition, this book, supposedly an autobiography fails its ultimate criteria of an autobiography book. Autobiography books are meant for authors to unveil themselves from the titles that they have been gained from the achievements that they’ve made. It is to provide a chance for the readers and the authors to connect personally by getting to know each other better. However, having read this book, Ellen still remains as a popular talks how host and a comedian but no more. This book, jumping from one to another, didn’t really give us a chance to discuss anything in-depth with Ellen that it doesn’t reveal much about her than something that we already know. I would almost classify this book, “shallow” seeing that it only goes so far in terms of the plot or anything that she talks about. Indeed, Ellen does discuss about the things that she value, like, or dislike but she doesn’t go any further. As an audience, I couldn’t get a deep understanding of her as an individual.
Finally, the tone of this book is too light and causal to be considered seriously. Ellen’s initial intention of this book could have been to approach the audience as if she is talking to them. But sometimes, her casual manner interferes with the understanding of the book. Often times, Ellen is joking or making sarcastic comments about a topic that she is discussing. However, the jokes and sarcasm appear so often that they become hard to distinguish between something that Ellen actually wants to share with the audience. These jokes and sarcasm are also left open as Ellen rarely goes back to clarify what she meant to say. It is definitely hard to deliver a joke or sarcasm through written language especially without hearing the literal tone and the facial expression of the author. Lost ends of her paragraphs make the entire paragraph, or even the main idea of the chapter very ambiguous and hard to understand.
I would say that mostly, Ellen’s writing style and her casual tone make this book not recommendable to others. Ellen, as a comedian, could have wanted her book to be taken lightly, almost as a joke, but to me, this book lacked crucial components of autobiography and lacked in organization. Though, I would say that Ellen’s intention on writing this book was definitely a good one, as she wanted to share a journey about herself with the readers. I can say that I almost felt bad after reading the very last chapter of this book because Ellen mentioned how she hoped her audience to have enjoyed a journey with her on her book. It is quite unfortunate to say that I hadn’t quite enjoyed this journey unlike many other audiences of this book.