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Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

Jenny Lawson · read by Jenny Lawson

It explains. Hardcover files this book as non-fiction. A fact, not a factor: it plays no part in our call.

Either. Don't overthink it

Thin evidence · 42 ratings of this reading, short of the 250 we trust. So the call is made without the recording’s half of the case. Why we hold that line

Every book we have judged on how far the recording outruns the page: 201 of them, the page's answer at the left-hand end and the recording's at the right. Marked for scale: All the Light We Cannot See, To Kill a Mockingbird and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This one sits between the bottom 31% and the top 42% of our shelf of books for how far the recording outruns the page. −0.40, where we start backing the page; 0.40, where we start backing the recording.Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things
close call · 0.29 from tipping either way

It genuinely does not matter much: with the reading left out the case is the format alone, and the format is not fighting you either way (between the bottom 34% and the top 23% of our shelf of books for extra work in audio). Pick whichever you will actually finish. Only 42 people have rated the reading, so it is not part of this call either way, and 250 is where we start letting a judgement about a reading move a verdict.

Length does not decide this

8h 28m to listen, at 1×6h 46m to listen, at 1.25×5h 39m to listen, at 1.5×4h 50m to listen, at 1.75×4h 14m to listen, at 2×about 11 hours to readabout 8 hours to readabout 7 hours to readabout 5 hours to readabout 4 hours to read

The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 329 pages at 30 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 329 pages at 40 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 329 pages at 50 pages an hour, which is about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 329 pages at 65 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 329 pages at 80 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.

Slot → commute-safe

Harder work in audio than Slaughterhouse-Five.

All the books we hold · 222

About as much work in audio as most of the books we hold.

Non-fiction · 27

Easier to hear than 70% of the non-fiction we hold.

Middling-length books · 55

About as much work in audio as most of the middling-length books we hold.

Reading load against listening load

Every book we hold placed by how much work it asks on the page, left to right, against how much it asks in your ears, bottom to top: 222 of them. Easy both ways is the bottom left corner, hard both ways the top right; above the dashed line the ears work harder, below it the page does. Marked for scale: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Diary of a Young Girl. This one is in the middle 40% of our shelf of books for effort on the page and in the middle 40% of our shelf of books for effort in your ears.
The dashed line is where a book would be same effort either way. This one sits on that line (the format is not fighting you either way), between the bottom 34% and the top 23% of our shelf of books for extra work in audio.
On the page0.16
In your ears0.09
Audio disadvantage−0.11

Where that puts this one among the books we hold: in the middle 40% of our shelf of books on both counts (effort on the page and effort in your ears). The middle of the scale is not the middle of the shelf (most books sit below the average on both), so a book at 0.00 is already in the top 43% for effort on the page. Each of the three is measured against the whole shelf separately, so the bottom figure is not the top two subtracted. It is this book’s own distance from the middle.

What the audio disadvantage is made of. Two things and no others: how fast readers say this one moves, and how demanding the reviews we read found it. There is no third: the structural one has no data source, so it contributes nothing rather than being guessed at. Both directions are declared priors we have never fitted against a real verdict, which is the weakest-evidenced part of the whole model.

Every book we could measure both features on placed by pace, fast to slow, against how demanding the reviews we read found it, plain to demanding: 166 of them. The easiest listens are the bottom left corner and the hardest the top right, which is the shaded one. Marked for scale: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Diary of a Young Girl. This one reads at about the pace of most books we hold and about as demanding as most, and neither is pushing it far from the middle of the shelf.
This one reads at about the pace of most books we hold and about as demanding as most, and neither is pushing it far from the middle of the shelf.

How the call was made

Where a bar carries ticks, the grey one is the middle of our shelf and a coloured one is a line we publish, cool where we start backing the page, warm where we start backing the recording. The evidence squares at the foot are a different thing: how far each of our four sources went, hatched where there was nothing to measure at all.

The audio case
0.11With the reading left out, this figure is the format alone: the gap between the formats is small but falls on the audio side (between the bottom 34% and the top 23% of our shelf of books for extra work in audio). Inside the band where neither side has made its case on this number alone, so the call is settled by what else is on the page.
Narration payoff
0.00The reading took no part in this call. It scored 1.08 below the middle of our shelf of books (the second mark on the bar), but only 42 people have rated it, short of the 250 at which we let a judgement about a reading move a verdict, so it is recorded at 0.00 and the call rests on the book and the format. No line is drawn on this row, because none was applied.
What is at stake
−1.11It sits in the bottom 11% of our shelf of books for how well the print crowds think of a book: not a book the crowds are precious about, so there is less to protect and we can be relaxed about it. Blended across 179,296 Goodreads ratings and 312 on Hardcover, each scored inside its own population first, and never added together.

For the page

  • The crowds’ regard did not reach the line where we protect a first read, this reason did not apply

For the recording

  • Too few listeners have rated this reading, so we left the voice out of the call, this reason did not apply
  • Audio is neither helping nor fighting this one
  • Only 42 listeners have rated this reading, under the 250 we ask for, this reason did not apply

Neither column won it: the two came out level, which is the answer above.

A bigger dot counted for more: the voice and the ear are sized by their share of the sum above, the other two by how much stands behind them. A hatched square is a reason that did not apply here, which is not the same as one that counted for little.

Evidence
0.85How much of the picture we actually have, out of 1.00: four questions, each answered as far as the source could answer it, less anything taken off for reading fewer reviews than we aim to.The reading42 people have rated this reading: thinner than we would likeThe second sourceHardcover knows this book, with 312 readers there: as good as it getsThe matchHow sure we are that the recording we scored is this book: as good as it getsThe reviewsWe read 300 reviews to judge how demanding it is: as good as it gets

What each crowd complains about

In the reviews we read, how often readers brought it up and how often listeners did, each against what is usual for that same crowd across our whole shelf, which is the grey tick. The track stops at 4×. Listeners are only ever compared with listeners.

Neither crowd brings any of the three up more often than its own crowd usually does. Whatever this book asks of you, its listeners are not saying the format is what makes it hard.

What the two crowds said

Showing the stars as each shop prints them. The two crowds are not measured from the same place: on our shelf Audible’s listeners average 0.35 of a star above Goodreads’ readers, so a recording that is ordinary for Audible can still out-star a book that is genuinely well liked for Goodreads. Switch the toggle to take that difference off.Showing each figure as its distance from its own crowd’s middle on our shelf, in standard deviations, so 0 is a typical book for that crowd. Listeners start 0.35 of a star up, partly because anyone who finishes a twenty-five-hour recording chose it deliberately, and this takes that off. It is not a claim that audio is better, the story figure is still Audible’s own (people rating a story they heard), and none of it moves the verdict above.

42 ratings of this readingstar chartstoo few to draw beside the book’s, and 250 is where we start trusting the shape
3.92·Audible
overallAudible
overall, pooled by the shop, so we hold no ruler for it
49%5 stars: 49 per cent, 25 ratings
22%4 stars: 22 per cent, 11 ratings
12%3 stars: 12 per cent, 6 ratings
8%2 stars: 8 per cent, 4 ratings
10%1 stars: 10 per cent, 5 ratings

51 ratings · performance and story, as the shop pools them

4.12−2.17 sdAudible
the performanceAudible
the performance, against Audible’s own crowd
60%5 stars: 60 per cent, 25 ratings
19%4 stars: 19 per cent, 8 ratings
7%3 stars: 7 per cent, 3 ratings
2%2 stars: 2 per cent, 1 rating
12%1 stars: 12 per cent, 5 ratings

42 ratings

3.98−2.25 sdAudible
the story, as heardAudible
the story, as heard, against Audible’s own crowd
45%5 stars: 45 per cent, 19 ratings
29%4 stars: 29 per cent, 12 ratings
12%3 stars: 12 per cent, 5 ratings
7%2 stars: 7 per cent, 3 ratings
7%1 stars: 7 per cent, 3 ratings

42 ratings

3.89−1.30 sdGoodreads
the book itselfGoodreads
the book itself, against Goodreads’ own crowd
37%5 stars: 37 per cent, 65,524 ratings
32%4 stars: 32 per cent, 56,972 ratings
20%3 stars: 20 per cent, 35,675 ratings
8%2 stars: 8 per cent, 13,451 ratings
4%1 stars: 4 per cent, 7,674 ratings

179,296 ratings

Every reading we hold

One complete reading of this book, and it is the reading every audio figure above is measured on. If there is another, we have not found it. The shelf grows in reviewed batches, never because somebody searched for a book.

  • Jenny Lawsonthe one we measured8h 28m6h 46m5h 39m4h 50m4h 14m · One voice · Audible UK and US
    • The author reads it

    Only 42 people have rated this reading, short of our published bar of 250, so we name it and print no scores for it.

    Hear it · Audible’s clip, its length read from them on load

The recording these numbers came from

Runtime
8h 28m at 1×
Read by
Jenny Lawson
Kind
One voice
ASIN
1529080703 · Audible UK
Rated in
Audible UK and US · 38 + 4 ratings of the performance
Judged on
42 ratings of the narration
Published
Picador · 2021

Too few people have rated this reading for us to call it our pick (our published bar is 250), so these are its details rather than a recommendation, and Audible sorts a search by newest, so check before you buy. The runtime is the check: if the one in front of you says 8h 28m, that is the reading these numbers describe. “Judged on” is the crowd behind every judgement we make about this reading: the smaller of the performance and story counts, which is why it is a little under the two shop counts added. We do not link out to a shop, and we take nothing if you buy there.