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I Am A Hologram From 2046
A series of comedic vignettes by singer/songwriter Naomi Elizabeth.
- GenresPhilosophy
130 pages, Paperback
First published August 11, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 18, 2023
loved this book so much. undercooked in parts, but there are some sections that are so incisive and satisfying that it doesn’t matter. naomi elizabeth is a modern day prophet and a true artist. she has constructed a persona that filters her own observations of a culture she both despises and relishes in, so that she can come down to earth and back in time to rock us.
some quotes that I really enjoyed (I wrote down entire sections).
on foucault: “a detailed account of things sucky, and exactly why they suck, and every possible angle on how precisely they suck is just old news to me. isn’t that just the type of thinking that a liberal person would arrive at given any amount of introspection?”
on horrible women: “one day I hope to be as grotesque as they are - I strive to observe dames in their natural habitat so I can learn their foul secrets. I can’t tell whether I’m doing a job or not, but a few people have called me a vapid cunt at various times so I must be on the right track.”
on vitamins and sun protection: “it’s weird being addicted to vitamins - I always have millions of vitamins in my bag. I get worried that in an emergency I would get separated from my vitamins. I’m also addicted to sun protection, specifically sunscreen and hats. I feel like everyone should have a lot of hats on them, available at all times.”
on interpersonal conflict: “of course I would love to be the person who no one was annoyed by, but no matter how much I try and conduct myself like an adult, the obnoxiousness will seep out of me and fester on someone’s nerves until the end of time.”
some quotes that I really enjoyed (I wrote down entire sections).
on foucault: “a detailed account of things sucky, and exactly why they suck, and every possible angle on how precisely they suck is just old news to me. isn’t that just the type of thinking that a liberal person would arrive at given any amount of introspection?”
on horrible women: “one day I hope to be as grotesque as they are - I strive to observe dames in their natural habitat so I can learn their foul secrets. I can’t tell whether I’m doing a job or not, but a few people have called me a vapid cunt at various times so I must be on the right track.”
on vitamins and sun protection: “it’s weird being addicted to vitamins - I always have millions of vitamins in my bag. I get worried that in an emergency I would get separated from my vitamins. I’m also addicted to sun protection, specifically sunscreen and hats. I feel like everyone should have a lot of hats on them, available at all times.”
on interpersonal conflict: “of course I would love to be the person who no one was annoyed by, but no matter how much I try and conduct myself like an adult, the obnoxiousness will seep out of me and fester on someone’s nerves until the end of time.”
April 7, 2020
Oh my god. Oh my god? This book was incredible. I mean really incredible. This book was so much more impactful than it had any right to be.
I got this book because I like Naomi's music and peculiar tastes. I figured it would be a good book, like, good-entertaining, maybe kinda funny, probably weird, and had high expectations but high on a very normal scale. Like "yeah this will probably be a pretty good book."
Instead it completely blew me away. It was real, raw, open, honest, funny, insightful, everything. I felt "seen." I felt like it connected with me in a way that most books and most things in general do not.
It started out light and funny and a little sexy and alluring and then all of a sudden you're halfway in and it's like you're having a deep late night conversation with a trusted friend about what art is and what life means and how useless identities are and why you keep going anyway.
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
"Art is a boundary that you draw around a small subset of life."
"I have forced myself to make the most mortifying music and perform it with a straight face in front of actual persons a million times. When I hear lyrics of the songs I wrote, I wince at regular intervals. Yet I keep on acting in the same way, as if I have no shame."
"I feel entirely justified, even if it seems like I have the worst taste imaginable."
"Your mind should be like a private exclusive club that no one can get into, except maybe your cat."
"...writing isn't so strange, at the end of the day it's a lot like thinking, except your hands get tired after a while."
I'm really genuinely excited to read her other books now and to eventually come back to this one and read it again. Shockingly, truly a great book and one of my new favorites.
I got this book because I like Naomi's music and peculiar tastes. I figured it would be a good book, like, good-entertaining, maybe kinda funny, probably weird, and had high expectations but high on a very normal scale. Like "yeah this will probably be a pretty good book."
Instead it completely blew me away. It was real, raw, open, honest, funny, insightful, everything. I felt "seen." I felt like it connected with me in a way that most books and most things in general do not.
It started out light and funny and a little sexy and alluring and then all of a sudden you're halfway in and it's like you're having a deep late night conversation with a trusted friend about what art is and what life means and how useless identities are and why you keep going anyway.
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
"Art is a boundary that you draw around a small subset of life."
"I have forced myself to make the most mortifying music and perform it with a straight face in front of actual persons a million times. When I hear lyrics of the songs I wrote, I wince at regular intervals. Yet I keep on acting in the same way, as if I have no shame."
"I feel entirely justified, even if it seems like I have the worst taste imaginable."
"Your mind should be like a private exclusive club that no one can get into, except maybe your cat."
"...writing isn't so strange, at the end of the day it's a lot like thinking, except your hands get tired after a while."
I'm really genuinely excited to read her other books now and to eventually come back to this one and read it again. Shockingly, truly a great book and one of my new favorites.
November 15, 2022
naomi is surprisingly down to earth and very funny. would love to read a similar version of this every few years. the beggining isn't my cuppa, but it picks up from part 4 until the end when she's talking about bras and panties, karlheinz stockhausen, depression, music, photography, food habits, liking stupid things and more. it has a different character from what you might see in any of her different artistic outputs.
i listened to it on spotify, but you should buy the actual book if you can, as there are a lot of visual texts that can't be translated into the audio version and she deserves much more dough than the little she gets when people only listen to it there.
https://naomielizabeth.com/books-i-ha...
i listened to it on spotify, but you should buy the actual book if you can, as there are a lot of visual texts that can't be translated into the audio version and she deserves much more dough than the little she gets when people only listen to it there.
https://naomielizabeth.com/books-i-ha...
October 8, 2022
Lol
“you, yourself, are on some level necessarily causing fury in others. out there right now, i know for a fact, are many who consider me an abject moron … the thought of Me makes them cringe in horror. unfortunately, even though i am aware of this problem, there’s very little i can do about it. of course i would love to be the person who no one was annoyed by, but no matter how much i try to conduct myself like an adult, the obnoxiousness will seep out of me and fester on someone’s nerves until the end of time. can i even really truly apologize for that?”
sooooo me
“you, yourself, are on some level necessarily causing fury in others. out there right now, i know for a fact, are many who consider me an abject moron … the thought of Me makes them cringe in horror. unfortunately, even though i am aware of this problem, there’s very little i can do about it. of course i would love to be the person who no one was annoyed by, but no matter how much i try to conduct myself like an adult, the obnoxiousness will seep out of me and fester on someone’s nerves until the end of time. can i even really truly apologize for that?”
sooooo me
January 10, 2026
this was upmostest human. everything culminates in(&to) this. maybe we can delay robo-caust a sec or two after all...
May 13, 2024
Nobody in my life understands the genius of Naomi Elizabeth, and to an extent I can't blame them (particularly the instagram posts... and the music... and the everything.) There are so many brilliant excerpts in this book, and so many topics where she managed to put into words exactly how I feel without ever knowing quite how to express it.
Going into this book, I wasn't sure what I would be in for, I just knew it would be an experience and goddamn were expectations exceeded.
I did not expect this to be so relatable, and I definitely didn't expect the section talking about Power Electronics. What a ride. This book will be re-read many times.
Going into this book, I wasn't sure what I would be in for, I just knew it would be an experience and goddamn were expectations exceeded.
I did not expect this to be so relatable, and I definitely didn't expect the section talking about Power Electronics. What a ride. This book will be re-read many times.
July 1, 2023
A cutting treatise on contemporary society crafted with violent, unpretentious clarity. Naomi knows something we don’t.
Be sure to buy the book (print or digital) to support her wonderful work. I listened to the audio book twice, and now bought the print edition.
Be sure to buy the book (print or digital) to support her wonderful work. I listened to the audio book twice, and now bought the print edition.
May 15, 2026
this was, in fact, tea. absurdist af in the best way
January 21, 2025
Naomi Elizabeth is an adventurous, intelligent, and at times, outrageous writer. Her writing is borderline surrealist, and sometimes also funny, which is a quality that is difficult and rare to effectively achieve on purpose. She does it naturally.
Her guise is apparently the vernacular of a modern day California girl, but she uses it, admittedly, as a vehicle to navigate the world, rather than being "lonely and isolated" by the fairly common inclination to seek integrity, or at least escape from banality that many artists have. I hope she reads this and appreciates my run-on sentences.
Instead, in her first book, she seems to operate with a somewhat optimistic view, at once casually mocking cynics and trolls several times along the way. This is probably what Elizabeth does best; She has such a dizzying commentary on what she doesn't care for that it doesn't sound like bitter judgment or criticism, but just another one of her convivial rants, which are usually some literary form of compassionate, reckless abandon.
Although the author stated that her childhood was often "pukey", she never recedes into somber confessionals or dirty laundry. What comes in its place seems like unfiltered enthusiasm. She can be found laughing about her own work, her sexual nature, the reasons behind it all, and the absurdity of life in general, in a way that is clever, but unpretentious.
I would call "I Am A Hologram From 2046" a piece of "light reading", but I cannot overstate how unlikely it would have been that I would like the book based on reviews. Some people might be offended by it, as it was written at a time prior to the internet's series of reckonings, but I think it also functions to call into question whether men would read this book if they didn't know she was physically attractive.
Other aspects of feminism are addressed in roundabout ways that I found somewhat refreshing, from a sex positive person in general. Certainly, in the audiobook version, Naomi's voice is undeniably cutesy, which comes off a little like pillow talk. It's up to the reader to decide if that is deliberate or not. Regardless, this book is a charming little tome.
Her guise is apparently the vernacular of a modern day California girl, but she uses it, admittedly, as a vehicle to navigate the world, rather than being "lonely and isolated" by the fairly common inclination to seek integrity, or at least escape from banality that many artists have. I hope she reads this and appreciates my run-on sentences.
Instead, in her first book, she seems to operate with a somewhat optimistic view, at once casually mocking cynics and trolls several times along the way. This is probably what Elizabeth does best; She has such a dizzying commentary on what she doesn't care for that it doesn't sound like bitter judgment or criticism, but just another one of her convivial rants, which are usually some literary form of compassionate, reckless abandon.
Although the author stated that her childhood was often "pukey", she never recedes into somber confessionals or dirty laundry. What comes in its place seems like unfiltered enthusiasm. She can be found laughing about her own work, her sexual nature, the reasons behind it all, and the absurdity of life in general, in a way that is clever, but unpretentious.
I would call "I Am A Hologram From 2046" a piece of "light reading", but I cannot overstate how unlikely it would have been that I would like the book based on reviews. Some people might be offended by it, as it was written at a time prior to the internet's series of reckonings, but I think it also functions to call into question whether men would read this book if they didn't know she was physically attractive.
Other aspects of feminism are addressed in roundabout ways that I found somewhat refreshing, from a sex positive person in general. Certainly, in the audiobook version, Naomi's voice is undeniably cutesy, which comes off a little like pillow talk. It's up to the reader to decide if that is deliberate or not. Regardless, this book is a charming little tome.
December 27, 2022
unironically invented literature
May 23, 2023
It's important to have respect for new life, you know?
June 16, 2023
Women can be smart.
December 5, 2023
what the fuck.
June 27, 2024
i wanna adopt naomi elizabeth as one of my brains commentator voices... maybe she's already kinda out there... i feel like she gets me 😫😫😫 i masturbated so hard while reading this book 😙 (/s)
July 19, 2025
i listen to this audiobook every time i do a roadtrip, it's kind of like that one movie where that girl unlocks 100% of her brain or whatever
June 18, 2026
“The world is replete with incredible snacks.”
Excerpt From
I Am a Hologram from 2046
Naomi Elizabeth
Excerpt From
I Am a Hologram from 2046
Naomi Elizabeth
Read
August 23, 2026Ahead of her time
April 17, 2026
I recommend audiobook version
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews