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    The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help
    Unavailable
    The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help
    Unavailable
    The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help

    Published by Hachette Audio

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Rock star, crowdfunding pioneer, and TED speaker Amanda Palmer knows all about asking. Performing as a living statue in a wedding dress, she wordlessly asked thousands of passersby for their dollars. When she became a singer, songwriter, and musician, she was not afraid to ask her audience to support her as she surfed the crowd (and slept on their couches while touring). And when she left her record label to strike out on her own, she asked her fans to support her in making an album, leading to the world's most successful music Kickstarter.

    Even while Amanda is both celebrated and attacked for her fearlessness in asking for help, she finds that there are important things she cannot ask for-as a musician, as a friend, and as a wife. She learns that she isn't alone in this, that so many people are afraid to ask for help, and it paralyzes their lives and relationships. In this groundbreaking book, she explores these barriers in her own life and in the lives of those around her, and discovers the emotional, philosophical, and practical aspects of THE ART OF ASKING.

    Part manifesto, part revelation, this is the story of an artist struggling with the new rules of exchange in the twenty-first century, both on and off the Internet. THE ART OF ASKING will inspire readers to rethink their own ideas about asking, giving, art, and love.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateNov 11, 2014
    ISBN9781478927402
    Unavailable
    The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help

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    Reviews for The Art of Asking

    4.5/5

    445 ratings52 reviews

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    • 4/5
      "Amazing read & inspiring in surprising ways. Now I've got to go listen to Dresden Dolls asI want to experience more of this intriguing person's art."
    • 5/5
      This book has helped me a lot. At this time, I am in fact asking for help from professionals and friends to get through a rough patch. I was feeling sham and like I had no right to be asking for help. I was thinking “Who the hell am I?” I felt like I should figure things out on my own. When I could not take another step in my life and finally asked, I still felt horrible about it. Amanda has convinced me that it is ok to ask for help. Those around me have helped me and I feel so loved and can’t wait to help them when the time comes with whatever they might need. Thank you!
    • 5/5
      Inspired, authentic, powerful, vulnerable, deeply insightful, and well worth your time.
    • 5/5
      Glad I stumbled upon this book! Hoping to stumble upon the author one day!!! Wonderful human I’d love to keep listening and reading about!!!!!
    • 4/5
      This was a really interesting read/listen, full of exciting stories and touching recollections.
    • 5/5
      I listened to your book on my way back-and-forth to the Berkshires from New Jersey. I’m a very active 68 year old. Your message transcends the generations. You got me back in touch with my soul. Thank you!
    • 5/5
      Beautiful dissection of a fundamental human need, recieving. In full view.
    • 5/5
      Stunning. Everyone should read this book. Amanda is a fantastic narrator, as well.
    • 5/5
      I don't know if I believe that Amanda Palmer is real. But I believe that I am real when I listen to her. Which is more than enough belief for a brand new relationship.
    • 5/5
      Great stuff. Really enjoyed learning about the art of asking and why I should be doing more of it. Read this book!
    • 5/5
      Absolutely love everything about this. How can you not love it.
    • 5/5
      Amazing amazing amazing. Incredibly human and vulnerable. Humans should read this book.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyed her book. Honest and full.of great tips on how to really be real n connect w people.
    • 5/5
      Love her. She’s amazing. Thank you Amanda Fucking Palmer.
    • 4/5
      She thinks her plan is social media connection but really it’s gratitude. It comes through in her book. Connect with people and be grateful. That’s the message but she has amazing stories and “Realness” so it’s worth a read!
    • 5/5
      Probably the most honest book I've ever read. Ask receive
    • 5/5
      A great look at the music industry, crowd funding, and a touching autobiography as well.
    • 5/5
      Changed the way I saw myself as an artist.
    • 5/5
      I think I teared up or cried no less than a dozen times. This book has sat in my "to-read" list on Goodreads for about two years, and I'm glad I finally got to it. I'm also glad that I opted for the Audiobook version, and can't imagine "just" reading it after hearing Amanda narrate it herself, along with all the wonderful songs and impersonations. What a wonderful book, and full of so much wisdom.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful and real, it brought tears to my eyes at least half a dozen times.
    • 5/5
      Amanda truly speaks from the heart and understands life as it is.
    • 4/5
      like her or hate her, she's a Master at creating a community and polarizing the population.

      Interesting listen and expertly narrated. Well worth the time.
    • 5/5
      I loved this audiobook very much. I highly recommend it!
    • 4/5
      Someone recommended this to me about five years ago. When I started listening to the audiobook recently, I still had NO idea who Amanda Palmer is. And now I love her.

      I really recommend the audio version, which she reads herself like she's just telling you a story.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I loved this book. So open it left me feeling raw.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      A beautiful look at an artist's life, learning how to share, to trust, and striving for art. Also a bit about indulgence and connection to people. It's very difficult to express certain things, art is both amazing, and worthless, depending on who experiences it, and when in their lives. Ultimately, Ms. Palmer shows us that art is about the connection with others, and that can be worth everything.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A great book about creativity, community, sharing, and caring beyond the art of asking.
    • 5/5
      This was one of the most beautiful books I think I've ever read. I didn't know anything about Amanda Palmer before reading this besides that she was married to Neil Gaiman and she made music. I'd heard one or two of her songs in passing, but never more than that. I picked this up on some internet recommendations and because I was simply intrigued. It was so worth it.It was heartfelt, and honest. I got an insight into strangers, but I really felt connected to them and to her. I can't wait to reread this and find what I missed on the first pass, and I'm looking forward to continuing to follow her, see where she goes and what happens.I would really recommend this one for artists of any type, for people who work with people and for people. Really I'd recommend this one for just about anyone interested in it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      The Art of Asking I was not prepared for what I got in this book. I knew it was a memoir, but it really does focus on asking and all ways we ask people for things and all the things we don't ask for until it hurts too much. It's a beautiful book and made me realize that I really need to work on asking more.
      I absolutely loved this book. I'll be honest, I hadn't actually heard of Amanda Palmer before seeing this book. I'm not as big into music as I am books and I've rarely gone to Kickstarter, so it's not much of a surprise either. I listened to her TED talk (and I do love TED!), which covers many of the same bases as her book. I'd consider it a really condensed version. Here it is:
      [ted id=1682]
      The art of asking is really rather genius, though it's not exactly foreign to my life. There's a connection between what Palmer refers to as the art of asking and my husband's work in the church. Churches don't make people pay for their services, they ask. But churches are dying off and Kickstarters are getting more money every day. They seem to have lost the art to it. I have recommended the book to him and I hope he reads/listens to it.
      I listened to it, which was definitely the way to go. Palmer narrates the book and she even sings a song between chapters occasionally. For me, it did just as promised in the blurb. It made me rethink some things, specifically what it means to ask instead of demand and to share the process of creating art with those around us.
      I hate Twitter but I understand her love of it. I've never been good at starting conversations with people in front of me. I've never been good at being seen or letting others know that I see them. With these in mind, the book has created a degree of fear that I will never get to where I want to be. But then it always comes back in a haunting sort of way. I can get there, but I have to grow first and I have to do the things that need to be done.
      Plus, I want connection when I get there, not adoration or whatever. It made me pay a bit more attention to the Twitter feeds of the artists I do admire. It makes me want to connect with them on some small level. I'm working up to it. I followed a few more since reading this, mostly comic creators that I love. Reaching out for connection is a little terrifying. But I think about standing on that box, trying to give someone a flower. I want to try something like that one day.
      I loved that the book began with a introduction by Brene Brown. Some of you may recall my love for her and her work. Their messages share that connection can only happen after the risk of vulnerability. It only happens when we've reached out to someone who can reject us, but doesn't. If they are forced, it's not connection.
      There were plenty of adorable anecdotes, but the meat of the book rests on just what the title implies. There is an art to asking. The book also dives pretty deeply into the art that can be present in giving. Some give, and some do so artfully. There is a difference. My mother has been one of those who give artfully. She has a way of not making the recipient feel shame, which is also important to connection. Palmer sums it up in "take the donut" or "take the flower". I love food, so I prefer "take the donut". I will also have to work on taking to donut in the future. I tend to be the bashful sort that prefers people keep their donut but totally appreciates the offer.
      Has anyone else read this book? Did it make you take another look at asking, giving, receiving, connection, vulnerability.....?

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5

      I liked this book.

      It was more of a biography and less of an extension of her TED speech than I had anticipated, but in the end this made me enjoy the book more. Amanda Palmer is a pretty amazing woman and the peek into her life was read with pretty big eyes. I am glad there are people like her in the world. It is a richer and better place for it.

      1 person found this helpful