Ayoade on Top

By: Richard Ayoade

Narrated by: Richard Ayoade

Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

At last, the definitive audiobook about perhaps the best cabin crew dramedy ever filmed: View from the Top starring Gwyneth Paltrow.

In Ayoade on Top, Richard Ayoade, perhaps one of the most 'insubstantial' people of our age, takes us on a journey from Peckham to Paris by way of Nevada and other places we don't care about. It's a journey deep within, in a way that's respectful and non-invasive; a journey for which we will all pay a heavy price, even if you've waited for the smaller paperback edition.

Ayoade argues for the canonisation of this brutal masterpiece, a film that celebrates capitalism in all its victimless glory; one we might imagine Donald Trump himself half-watching on his private jet's gold-plated flat screen while his other puffy eye scans the cabin for fresh, young prey.

©2019 Richard Ayoade (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

Smart and Hilarious

I love this book. I love the premise and the execution of this book. Who knew this kind of "read" was what was missing from literature? I've never experienced anything like it. I laughed from beginning to end. Ayoade's thorough examination was witty and necessary. Ayoade is a genius!

Laughed the whole time!

The perfect way to listen to this wonderful book is by watching snatches of the film, “A View from the Top” at the same time.

So funny! So droll!

You will love Richard Ayoade and want him to be your new best friend.

A must listen for Ayode fans

Hilarious for the right audience. Creative and daring. 90% Piss-taking 10% autobiography and 100% humorous.

Strange yet incredibly charming

I can almost guarantee you’ve never read a book like this one. I read it not long after release in 2019, but decided to listen to the Audible version of it once I saw Richard Ayoade narrated it himself. His narration style took an already good book and made it excellent.

The fact that Ayoade can take a commercially/critically disappointing film from 17 years past and use it as a premise for a genuinely engaging book is impressive, & a real indication of his talent.

5/5 all around!

Odd but interesting

I've been a fan of Ayoade since The IT Crowd. Travel Man, Apple & Onion, I follow him. His humor is so very dry. And quick. I had to relisten to a few passages. I enjoyed the biographical information more than the extended movie review. But hey, it kept me interested until the very end.

Interesting but Probably Works Better as a Book

I liked this book and there some genuinely laugh out loud moments in it and it is fantastic to hear the sarcasm dripping from Ayoade himself in a lot of cases versus a text version. The material is novel, interesting and funny as it splices between the life of Ayoade himself, the history of air travel and his hilarious analysis of View from the Top, which I plan on watching now that I have finished this audiobook.

Ayoade suggests that this functions best as a bathroom book in the introduction and takes several asides talking about how this is an audiobook and some of the subtlety is missing, which is actually pretty great because that is relatively uncommon in these sorts of things. I think Ayoade would know his own work the best because I think each part would have been more fun and digestible in small bits rather than a few long-ish car rides.

Still, I do recommend this book. It is funny and one of a kind.

Weird and genius. Grows on you like the author who I am now permanently in love with.

Didn’t need the innuendo in the book title, but now that Richard and I are in true love I forgive him.

Ayoade on Top

Very funny. Sometimes quiet laughs and sometimes laugh out loud funny. Always clever. Thumbs up.

Great book about a wretched film

Watch the movie then read this book. Or the other way around. TVFTT is the Plan 9 From Outer space of the 90s.

Tied for my favorite audiobook

I love this book as much as I love Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. Both are amazing.