While I’m definitely nerdy, I don’t know that I classify as a *true* nerd. I’m not even a noob (newb? nüb? Please advise). I’m more like a nerd tourist. And I definitely don’t game. So random chance alone brought me into contact with the self-titled Queen of the Nerds, Felicia Day. In summer of 2010, I was checking my Facebook feed, when one of my friends posted a music video entitled, “Game On.”
I was delighted. I had no idea that you could put together Bollywood and video games, but somehow, it worked. When I exclaimed in delight, my friend told me I needed to watch The Guild, Day’s show that the video was promoting. Did I have to like video games? I wondered. Nope. Not a bit. And throughout the last five years, I have delighted in Day’s internet persona and production of The Guild. So I was eager to read her memoir.
Day’s has been a random and interesting life, filled with doing things she loved and nerded out over. Day had a sporadic homeschooled education, but she parlayed her love of learning into college education in math and music. Then she decided to become an actress. So she moved to LA and worked on random commercials to make bank. And then she built the courage to create The Guild. And then she became famous.
I’m really glad that so much of The Guild was featured in this memoir, because that was my entry into Day’s world. I also found her doxxing episode to be horrifying, and I felt Day deftly tackled issues of sexism in gaming, internet culture, and Hollywood. She comes across as delightfully awkward and real. When I went to a Patrick Rothfuss book signing in 2012, I asked him what it was like to hang out with Felicia Day. His immediate response was a gushy, “It was so awesome.” Apparently, she swears like a sailor while playing board games. She’s my kind of people.
