Sometime around Christmas I began watching a lot of The Graham Norton Show. I had watched a little bit before this, but at that time I had crossed some threshold into constant demand for Graham Norton's show. We had friends over for New Year’s, and I even subjected them to watching this for our viewing entertainment. I hope they enjoyed it– it is riotously funny.

One of the episodes we have watched repeatedly here at home is the one with Richard Ayoade, promoting this book. (Also I recommend any episodes with: Miriam Margolyes, Judi Dench, and Olivia Colman.) The promotion of this book was so phenomenal and hilarious, and we rewatched this snippet so often, that I decided (finally) I was going to order Ayoade on Top. But my husband stopped me, reluctantly revealing one of my Christmas presents. So, after the new year, we watched the necessary, but not-then-seen View from the Top (2003). To paraphrase what Ayoade says on The Graham Norton Show, "You do not need to see the film before reading this book. If you've seen any film, you have seen this film."

Regardless, his complete forensic dissection of the movie, as critical as any arthouse film authority, is interwoven with bits and pieces of Ayoade's life — mainly his childhood in Ipswich. The self-awareness and the frank and dry humor have a strange and wonderful marriage in this book — the combination seems odd from the outside, but the delivery and the obvious stretching to tie these parallel stories into each other is strikingly witty.

Must. Read. Other. Ayoade. Books.