I struggled to get into this… but enjoyed the last third of it… However I feel like it could have been a really solid New Yorker essay… and didn’t need a full book to flesh out the ideas.

Tabitha Carvan’s subtitle says it all: there’s joy in loving something like your life depends on it.

As someone who has lived a full life, who has never been a people pleaser, who has never put anyone else's comfort before my own joy - this was still a revelation. Women really are screwed over all the time, especially when it comes to having fun.

This book is not not about Benedict Cumberbatch, but it's more about learning to be an independent woman and follow your passions in this patriarchal culture - something I'm still learning to do.

A book to help you lean into what you love without feeling embarrassment or shame. Hilariously written!!

This was so, so good. Benedict Cumberbatch is just ok for me, but the author really captured mid-life motherhood and the need to have something (even a pop culture obsession) just for yourself.

This book spoke so deeply to my fangirl heart. I read it straight through, laughing aloud and nodding along at how poignantly, humorously, the author detailed how I am exactly the same person as her! (Not really, and Benedict Cumberbatch, while a phenomenal actor and not-at-all displeasing to look at, is not one of my obsessions.) But the entire journey--falling into, exploring and questioning, figuring out and finally accepting of one's obsession(s) -- hobbies?! -- was exactly something I could have written about my own experiences. This book will likely not speak to everyone, or even most people -- but it sang to me.

This book was an absolute delight. It may have Benedict Cumberbatch in the title and on the cover, but it's really about the joy in loving what you love, especially if there's no purpose to it. It's an ode to joy, and I loved it.

I mean, she's right! This was not a book about Benedict Cumberbatch. There were many things that really stuck out to me in this book; if it weren't a library book, I definitely would have highlighted a lot of them. A few points made me feel a lot better about certain things in my life because as I've gotten older I feel like it is immature or childish to love something or anything (almost as if your life depends on it). If you know me, I tend to do this and dedicate large parts of my life to research it. If you knew me during my Hamilton phase.......... oops. But this made me feel very much okay with that because as she states, we NEED to love things because if we don't love things in our life, as mundane as they might be, what are we doing?

I'm not sure what it says about me that my parasocial relationship is with someone I think I'd be BFF with rather than a romantic interest but it does feel on brand.