Review of "How to Celebrate Your Fandom" by Nicholas Seidler, Libby Shea, Robert Warnock, Steven Warren Hill

Score: 93+/100 (9.3+ out of 10)

How to Celebrate Your Fandom is an unexpected, surprising gem that explores a topic that—believe it or not—touches all of us in one way or another: FANDOMS!

Oh, the magic of fandoms!

Think back to your childhood and the things that defined it.

Maybe it was Pokemon.
Maybe it was Star Wars.
Maybe it was Star Trek.
Maybe it was Doctor Who, Dragon Ball Z, or Gundam.
Maybe it was a sport or a sports team.
Maybe it was a video game or video game series.
Maybe it was a person, a character, or a celebrity (like Rory Calhoun in Worldwide Crush by Kristin Nilson).

Whether we like to admit it or not, fandoms are a big part of all of our lives. In fact, besides family and friends, your fandoms likely defined the epochs and eras of your life.

There's a fine line between passion and obsession. Yet, as "Stan" by Eminem reminds us, our passions/obsessions can be part of what gets us out of bed in the morning and they can also be what distracts us or even drowns us. The key is in maintaining control and navigating our fandoms in a healthy, productive way—a way that brings us joy, fulfillment, and satisfaction instead of anxiety, disillusionment, and instead of anxiety, disillusionment, and toxicity.

And that’s exactly where How to Celebrate Your Fandom shines: it doesn’t just list 52 fun activities, it shows you how to channel your energy in ways that lift you up and connect you with others. The book reminds us that fandom isn’t about gatekeeping or proving who’s the “biggest fan”, it’s about sharing, creating, and celebrating together. In short, it’s a joyful toolkit for keeping the best parts of fandom alive while leaving the toxic parts behind.

It's easy to scoff at someone else's fandom (or the idea of fandom in general) because it seems crazy or like mania to an outsider who doesn't understand it. However, fandom can be incredibly beneficial. No, not just to the economy (because of the marketability of these fandoms). Fandoms can bring people with similar interests together. Don't believe us? Go to the nearest college football stadium on Saturdays and see the tens of thousands of fans tailgating and passionately cheering on their team. Go to a convention like Comic Con or FanX and see how tens of thousands of fans can escape from the hard realities of school and work for a few hours.

And you know what? As many of the contributors to this book remind us, fandoms can actually teach us a lot about ourselves, society, and even language. That's right. A lot of people report learning English (or another language, like Japanese) because of a specific fandom. One of us learned English from watching Friends! A lot of Americans learn Japanese because of anime and manga. Westerners learn Hindi because they fall in love with Bollywood, or South Americans learn English because they fall in love with Hollywood. So, it happens.

Fandoms can also teach us life skills beside language like how to sculpt, paint, sew, draw, or even write! Hey, a lot of us authors got our starts by writing fan fiction! Similarly, a lot of artists get their start because of making art for their fandoms.

This book even talks about how you can express your fandom by writing/creating skits or screenplays. Ok... this may or may not be something we once did with a 12 lbs. camera and some VHS tapes in the distant past.

Some people even have their first public speaking experiences because of talking about their fandoms in public. There are people who've gotten over social anxiety, shyness, and fear of public speaking this way. Some people get over stuttering and stammering by talking about something they're passionate about.

There's even a contributor who talks about their Barbie fandom and how it set the foundation for them to learn not only about collecting but also commercialism, mercantilism, economics, and business.

And how many people have learned to sing because they've sung along to Taylor Swift or Coldplay?

Fandoms can also be an inspiration for people to pursue careers in science and technology. Elon Musk was almost definitely inspired by his sci-fi, anime, and video game fandoms when he developed his technologies. He is still trying to get to Mars, all while dabbling in A.I., cybernetics, electric cars, and robotics.

Fandoms like Doctor Who and Star Trek can dare us to create technologies that can go where no man has gone before.

The idea of intercepting intercontinental missiles with a "Golden Dome" missile defense system was once called "Star Wars" for a reason.

Michio Kaku would probably tell you that a lot of his wild theoretical physics ideas are inspired by fandoms.

Fandoms can also teach life lessons. Pokemon is a great example of this. Pokemon encourages kids to be hopeful, determined, hard-working, yet compassionate. Something more obscure like Trigun can teach you about the sanctity of human life and how sometimes you have to jump through hoops and risk your own life to preserve it, which is something that law enforcement does every day.

Something like Breaking Bad can serve as a cautionary tale about how not to lose your family and your soul to hubris and ambition.

Perhaps the highlight of this book isn't the 52 ideas section but actually hearing from all of the amazing contributors.

It's so interesting to read about their fandoms! Some of them aren't fans of conventional things. For example, there's someone in here who doesn't talk about being a fan of a TV show or movie series, she's a Jesus freak—a passionate Christian.

Someone else is a passionate Kansas City Chiefs fan. There's also a Nebraska football fan in the bunch, which is actually very interesting because that's a fandom that's infamous/notorious for never giving up hope no matter how badly the team is doing. It's a lesson for all of us not to be "fairweather fans" and only like things when things are going good. You take the highs with the lows.

There are a lot of Doctor Who fans in this bunch too!

A very interesting book about how to express and celebrate your fandom in a healthy way!

Check it out on Amazon!