This is one of those collections of personal essays that are personal but impersonal. I respect it! Boundaries are good but there are places where I would have appreciated more personal insight or getting to know about the man behind the humor. What I’m saying is that there isn’t an essay about pottery and I would have loved to read about how he got into throwing clay. As an aside, I would also love to read an essay or book from him on screenwriting and storytelling.

There are a lot of interesting observations about fame, drugs, coming of age, and the like. The authorial voice is the strongest part of this book. Rogen knows he is a good storyteller and it shows, throughout.

I didn’t really start spending a lot of time alone with my grandparents until I was ten and my sister was thirteen and getting ready for her Bat Mitzvah. She had to attend services every Friday, and I did not want to do that, so my parents would drop me off at my grandparents’ apartment to hang out for a few hours while they went to synagogue with my sister so she could pretend to pray. Yearbookis a collection of true stories that I desperately hope are just funny at worst, and life-changingly amazing at best. (I understand that it’s likely the former, which is a fancy “book” way of saying “the first one.”) Yearbook is a collection of true stories that I desperately hope are just funny at worst, and life-changingly amazing at best. (I understand that it's likely the former, which is a fancy 'book' way of saying 'the first one'.) My grandparents were hard to impersonate, so I thought I’d just go with a generic “old Jewish person” voice. It was a safe but ultimately good call. My grandparents would make me a turkey sandwich on challah bread and pour me a glass of chocolate milk, and then sit with me as they tried their hardest to follow what the f*** was happening on these shows.

The night came, and my turn to take the stage was fast approaching. I honestly don’t remember being that nervous, probably because I was twelve f***ing years old and wasn’t even mature enough to be nervous. I’ve definitely gotten more in my head as I’ve gotten older and marvel at how I used to just barrel into these situations without much fear or anxiety. Kids can do that. It’s like those very young Chinese acrobats you see, flinging their little bodies in the air, being thrown around, completely unaware of the stakes. If those kids knew what a torn ACL was, they wouldn’t be letting those motherf***ers toss their little asses around like that. And if I had known the pain and shame that goes along with putting yourself out there creatively and being rejected, I probably wouldn’t have been so excited. But I didn’t, so I was. Here’s another example of how cool he is. When I tweeted that one of my only problems with the book was the grammatically incorrect use of “Me and X did…” throughout, he replied that he told his editor “not to correct my grammar unless it was confusing,” since he wanted the book to sound “as conversational as possible.” In need of oddball anecdotes and lots of F bombs? Seth Rogen has you covered. . . . Yearbook features a hilarious collection of real-life stories and personal essays that delve into his adolescence and career.” —USA Today That it does. As with many books by actor/comics, I alternated between reading a physical copy of the book and listening to the audiobook. And in both cases, it sounds like he’s just sat down with a beer (actually not a beer, since he no longer drinks) or a joint and started telling you some really funny anecdotes. When I was younger, Bubby and Zaidy just didn’t seem that into me. I got the impression they liked my older sister, Danya, more than me, mostly because their words and actions made it wildly clear that they did. They were just nicer to her, which didn’t really bug me that much, because I didn’t love spending time with them.It’s a real treat when a memoir by a comedian is actually as funny and vital as the work that got them into memoir-writing territory, but Yearbook is just that delightful. . . . Amusing and insightful.” —Vulture To preface, I usually go into autobiographical books knowing I am going to have to talk myself into finishing them over a long period of time. I was expecting to do the same thing with this, even though I am a huge fan of Seth Rogen. What’s your feeling on Seth Rogen? Do you think he’s funny? Are you a fan of him and his movies? I think he’s talented and I’ve enjoyed some of his stuff, but my general feelings toward him definitely depend on my mood. (Then again, I feel that way about everyone, lol.) Early on, there are tales about his family, growing up and trying to date, getting into stand-up comedy at the tender age of 13, learning karate, and many, many, many stories about getting high. (Surprisingly, there’s not a single plug for his weed company – classy.)

My grandfather worked in the engine room of a battleship in the Royal Navy during World War II, and as a result, was more or less deaf. He loved being in the Navy. He talked about it like most guys talked about their fraternity years. They would hang out, smoke cigars, talk shit, all while floating in thousands of tons of metal around the war-torn Horn of Africa. He arrived at Normandy on D-Day Plus One, but his favorite story was about figuring out that if you broke your rationed rum bottle after drinking it, you could say you broke it before and get a double ration. Anyway, he was deaf. The collection ends with a very vivid story about Jewish summer camp, complete with the idea that people might not remember things in the same way. Beloved and prolific multi-hyphenate Seth Rogen leads a full cast of more than 80 narrators for the audiobook of his debut collection of hilarious and insightful personal essays, YEARBOOK, from Random House Audio, an imprint of the Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group (published in hardcover and eBook formats by Crown). The 83 total voices that can be heard on YEARBOOK puts this production in the company of PRH Audio’s Beastie Boys Book (44 voices), Four Hundred Souls (87 voices) and Lincoln in the Bardo (166 voices).There was a lot of name dropping. A lot of, I hung out with this famous person, and that famous person, and this famous person did this weird thing, and we got high, (insert high story # 1-1000 here) but hey I can’t complain about that, because if I had to have guessed what I should expect from a book titled “Yearbook” by Seth Rogen it probably would’ve been exactly that, & what do we go to Seth for if not stoner humor? And stoner humor he delivered. There are a few unforgettable examples of not being able to control bodily functions – I may never look at a Snapple bottle in the same way again. And there are some great stories about meeting famous people, from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to Nicolas Cage, Tom Cruise and Kanye West. I liked getting a glimpse into Seth's younger years and some of the behind the scenes stuff from The Interview. I'd have liked to see some more detail and depth to the stories, though. A lot of them just felt like short little anecdotes that you'd see an actor discuss on a talk show or that they'd tell at a party. Most of the stories were told in a pretty emotionally detached way, with the first about his grandparents being the exception. That was really the only one that I felt like we were getting a clear picture of Seth as a person.

One answer popped into my head. At that point in my life, there was really only one answer: my grandparents. It speaks to Rogen’s storytelling prowess and eventful adolescence that by the time he gets to his Hollywood experience, one almost forgets that this is, in fact, a celebrity story. At the risk of alienating many a megastar, Rogen promptly gets blunt. A loopy conversation with George Lucas, when the Star Wars mastermind seemed to be sincerely preparing for the apocalypse in 2012, is eye opening. The saga of The Green Hornet’s troubled pre-production features a disastrous dinner with Nicolas Cage, who was up for the villain role but purportedly pitched the character as a white Bahamian, then years later asked if James Franco snatched the idea for Spring Breakers. Dealings with Tom Cruise, Kanye West and Steve Wozniak feel similarly on the nose – so much so that they almost play like too-good-to-be-true satire.A collection of funny personal essays from one of the writers of Superbad and Pineapple Express and one of the producers of The Disaster Artist, Neighbors, and The Boys. (All of these words have been added to help this book show up in people’s searches using the wonders of algorithmic technology. Thanks for bearing with us!) I talk about my grandparents, doing stand-up comedy as a teenager, bar mitzvahs, and Jewish summer camp, and tell way more stories about doing drugs than my mother would like. I also talk about some of my adventures in Los Angeles, and surely say things about other famous people that will create a wildly awkward conversation for me at a party one day. A couple of classic anecdotes stand out, including two in which he tries to buy weed – one on a nude beach in British Columbia, the other from three menacing older dudes – and one in which he and a friend have a classic Amsterdam experience. The latter is especially funny because it involves wearing a money belt while travelling, which my own parents insisted I wear when I was a teenager travelling somewhere. This was fine. If I didn’t enjoy Seth Rogen’s movies and his overall presence, demeanor & humor, this may have proven to be less palatable, but being that I adore him, it was quite easy to get thru. I just imagined it being read in his very distinct voice and accompanied by his even more distinct laugh & that got me through the 1001 stories about being high.