A Journey of Self-Discovery: How I Learned Failure is an Essential Part of Life in My Attempted Memoir

D.A. Cairns: Based on the contents of his book, I'm assuming the author will be flattered by a two star rating. I loved the cover and the title of this book which is why I bought it. Curiousity drove me, and curiousity got me through to the end. I also finished the book, because I paid for it and I am stubborn.
The basic idea of failure being an option is a sound one. Failure is an option for many reasons, but I wasn't convinced by the author's reasoning nor the strength of his examples.
I admire his honesty and was entertained by some of the anecdotes, but had to skip many sections which I found too crass and puerile.
I'm sure it's meant to be funny book, but it didn't make me laugh. I confess to a few smiles here and there though.
As far as memoirs go, I would have given it at least 3 stars for originality, but the truth is I didn't like it very much.

Australia on Jun 13, 2023

Stefan Mapp: For any fan of Archer and Bob’s burgers. Humour galore, in the classic self deprecating manner that we all love H Jon for!

United Kingdom on May 18, 2023

John C: *Really a 4.5*

I’ve only seen a handful of Bob’s Burgers episodes and didn’t care for the season of Archer I watched. So I approached this book not as a fan, but as a reader. I’m leaving this book as a big fan.

H. Jon Benjamin’s stories are hilarious. Many times I had to pause the audiobook to get my laughs out.

The Audible narration is truly the way to go with this book.

I highly recommend it!

United States on Jun 21, 2022

KWCosmonaut: I mean, it delivers. It's an option and one presented with amusing anecdotes and straightforward humility. You don't necessarily come away feeling better but not worse. 10/10 if you just want something to enjoy and not have to work too hard at it.

Canada on Apr 30, 2021

Matthew Morelli: Like H. Jon Benjamin himself, I’m by nature quite lazy, but for his sake I’ve managed to stir my stumps and give this book five whole Amazon stars because it is highly amusing and deserves praise. I have no idea whether you too will find it so, but it’s worth a pop, particularly if Benjamin’s oblique take on the world is the sort of thing that usually makes you chuckle.

United Kingdom on Sep 27, 2020

JoeInOttawa: Okay, it doesn't really set up for a sequel, but it is good, light, fluffy reading. Perfect for vacations by the pool.

Canada on May 09, 2019

Nowhere Tribune: Call me a prude, but I’ve never thought diarrhea jokes were funny. Never is a strong word; I’m sure there was a time, but I can’t remember it.

H. Jon Benjamin, though, thinks they are. But I shouldn’t be overly critical; being an adult, I probably was not part of the intended audience for his book, Failure is an Option: An attempted memoir. To be fair, early in the book Benjamin says,

“Many will be confounded by what they read; many or all will be disappointed.”

True. It’s taken me so long to get through the book that I’ve forgotten what I paid for it, but whatever it was, I wish I’d kept it.

Again, I share in the blame. I was expecting something different; something a tad helpful—maybe some tiny bit of wisdom. The story of a person who learned from failure, or at least a person who failed while trying to do something.

But that’s not this book. Benjamin writes as if he revels in failure for failure’s sake, straining for not-so-subtle humor in every line, with never a lesson learned.

In one of the early chapters, Benjamin tells of the time a man hired him to build a set of shelves. He didn’t know how to build...

United States on Jul 11, 2018

Elyse: Man - If I had to recommend any "self-help" book, it would be this one. I feel like I'm commiserating with an old friend when reading about his "failures", which happen to be a litany of mishaps and misunderstandings, with a few actual failures along the way. It was comforting reading about how someone with such success was never always that successful and that he suffered through some of the same uncomfortable and crappy situations like the rest of us (although, without reading this book, H. Jon Benjamin has always struck me as that type of person - definitely not a bad thing; makes him more relatable). I smiled through the whole book, and found it to be a very enjoyable read.

United States on Jul 05, 2018

Jeff Ferguson: I was over the moon when I discovered that Jon Benjamin had a van. But now he has... a book? Stop the presses. Wait, no, keep the presses going, because they're an integral part of the process through which more copies of this book can be published. Anyway, it's taken me five days from the book's release to read it and write a review because the news of this man having published a memoir sent me into a semi-lucid state of euphoria that lasted for the first four of those days.

What's fantastic about this book is that you don't have to be a hardcore Jon Benjamin fan to appreciate it --- it wasn't written as an esoteric love letter to those who spout Coach McGuirk quotes to each other or who can tell you how many times he guest-starred on Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Rather, it's completely accessible to anyone who gets a kick out of the self-deprecating cringe-comedy that he helped pioneer (even if he'll vehemently insist that he's too much of a failure to have done so). It's hilarious, it's intelligently-written, and it's a smooth read that'll keep you turning its pages as you celebrate story after story of his laziness and awful decision-making.

Don't buy that other book...

United States on May 07, 2018

Will Gordon: I’m not going to lie. I haven’t read the book yet. This is really more a of a pre-review. I can tell you that the book will look pretty decent stacked between two other books. So if you are more of a book-shower than a book-reader, 4 stars. The alnowledgements were nice and short and made me chuckle; I kept picturing baby pranks. The dedication gets like three stars because I didn’t know who any of the people were.
The table of contents was appropriately organized and there are some naked people cartoons I discovered scanning through the book. Really looking to figure out what that’s all about. Plan to update the review once i’ve read enough chapters to say I read the whole thing. Pretty confident it will be between four and five stars though.

United States on May 02, 2018