By C’loni Bailey, Assistant Manager at Bookmans Mesa

I’ve been a Felicia Day fan since her comedy web series The Guild debuted on YouTube in 2007, introducing the world to the trials and tribulations of Cyd Sherman and her gaming guild as they try to make sense of real life outside of video games. As a female gamer, it is refreshing to see the world of gaming represented from a female perspective. I connect with the socially awkward but well-meaning Cyd as she struggles with life, love and the pursuit of a real life connection with her eccentric online gaming friends.

Bookmans Recommends: You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day

Day has gone on to conquer the Internet with her production company Geek and Sundry, which produces web videos that cover all aspects of the geek world including sci-fi and fantasy literature on Sword and Laser, board games and tabletop gaming on TableTop hosted by Wil Wheaton, and retro gaming on Co-Optitude featuring her brother Ryan Day. She also appears in several television series, garnering a huge following for her portrayals of Penny in Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, as well as Charlie on the wildly popular Supernatural.

In her new memoir You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), Day chronicles her home-schooled and largely friendless early years that eventually led to a reliance on the Internet to forge a connection with the kinds of people she couldn’t connect with in her everyday life. She shares her adolescent Internet memories, such as meeting her first fan collective. This was a group of gamers called the Ultima Dragons who celebrate the PC game Ultima. She experiences her first awkward kiss at an Ultima Dragons meet up. Having spent much of my adolescence seeking an emotional connection with faceless people via AOL role-play chat rooms, I can relate.

After pursuing dual college degrees in math and music, then deciding to toss those aside to pursue a career in acting, Day finds herself feeling less than satisfied with her status as a commercial actor and quirky “cat secretary” roles. She turns to filling the emotional void with online gaming. Online gaming can be addictive, especially if you have nothing else that feels concrete or emotionally rewarding. Many gamers fall into this trap and it can be hard to break out of. Ironically it is Day’s gaming addiction that gives her the idea for The Guild, which forces her out of her gaming addiction to focus on writing the material she wants to be in. With the success of The Guild and numerous other creative projects she helms, Day has become a force of nature in the gaming and geek world.

You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) is a hilariously nostalgic and endearing look into the eccentricities of Day’s life that lead to her to embrace her weirdness and take pride in what makes her unique. “Embrace Your Weird” is the slogan on her T-shirts and she encourages everyone to do the same. I wish this memoir was longer, but Day has to save some material for her next book! At least, I hope there will be a next book.

You can purchase your own “Embrace Your Weird” T-shirt at https://represent.com/felicia. Proceeds go to the non-profit anti-cyberbullying charity “Stomp Out Bullying”.

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