GuRu is RuPaul’s third book in the memoir genre, but this is the first of his that I’ve read. This is a fun and fast read that will leave you feeling uplifted. It is a charming collection of thoughts, quotes, and advice on life told from RuPaul’s unique perspective. There is not a lot to this book – you can easily read it in about an hour. But even with the sparse amount of text it still manages to get the job done, and left me feeling inspired.
You can read my full, in depth review of Guru by RuPaul here.
Reading Reactions
The are my raw reactions as I was reading Guru, separated by section.
everybody say love – Introduction
- I always knew that I loved RuPaul. He just has a shine and just reading this introduction lets me in on what I may have been seeing. I really appreciate when people dig deeper and get to know themselves and then want to share what they have learned.
- Highly quotable and moving from the start.
- I fucking love RuPaul.
- There are text/content differences between the audiobook and the eBook, with sometimes more in the audiobooks, such as the prayer he recites, and more in the eBook with full additional paragraphs not read in the audiobook.
GuRu – Chapter 1
- This is not really a book, but more of a collection of thoughts, musings, and quotes interspersed with beautiful photos of RuPaul in various, amazing drag looks.
- The book is filled with such a strange assortment of quotes and thoughts in a seemingly random order with gems such as “I’m in total awe of the tenacity of the human spirit and equally gobsmacked by the unrelenting audacity of the human ego.” right beside a Mean Ms. Charles quote “When your eyeliner is on point, your life is on point.”
- I like how RuPaul doesn’t celebrate holidays traditionally, to not dressing up on Halloween but dressing up every other day, and not giving gifts on Xmas, but giving them all year round. He even suggests doing weddings differently.
- I’m not sure how much I’m really getting out of this book?
- I did not know Ru was from San Diego, which is where I currently live.
- While I do find this book very “quotable” it really does seem like regurgitated quotes we’ve all heard before, such as the general concept “stay true to yourself”. That being said I still enjoyed hearing things from Ru’s perspective.
- I love the idea of the character “Starbooty”, amazing.
- That laugh, I love it (audiobook).
- I appreciate how he describes taking care of himself as a way to counteract feelings of depression or despair.
- I love the various mentions of meditation.
- How have I never seen RuPaul dance?
- I appreciate that Ru feels like a teacher and respect that he wants to lift people up.
- The last picture is my favorite.
Become Your Own GuRu – Appendix
The last section in the book is called Become Your Own Guru is a list of “musts” in film, books, and albums. Recommendations range from Funny Face, Death Becomes Her, The Exorcist, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, and Blondie to Bowie.
- I love all the recommendations and I’m happy to say that I own many of them.
This book is one long chapter that reads like a monologue of a play you might see off broadway in some gloriously small production. The monologue is sprinkled with loads of beautiful images of RuPaul in perfect drag. While RuPaul doles out life advice he also let’s you get to know him a little. He talks about how his career progressed, how his drag took on it’s current form, and even about religion, meditation, and spirituality. There’s a little bit of everything in here, all with a message of compassion and love.
