Now, I’ve been a Trek fan for a good bit of my life. While I wouldn’t consider myself a Trekkie, I have seen pretty much every episode from every show and all the movies. Even though that is the case, I’ve never been to a Star Trek convention and I only own a couple Trek DVDs (Wrath of KHAAAAAN! and First Contact). After following Mr. Wheaton on Twitter for a while, my wife suggested that I should read ‘Just a Geek‘. That was several months ago and it might be closer to a year. I just finished reading it this morning.
When we were preparing for our trip to Japan, Kate and I discussed different ways of keeping my brain occupied on the plane. I’m not exactly a fan of flying and the trip to the land of the rising sun is about fourteen hours each way. So, I packed my DS, my PSP, iPhone (for the music) and a copy of ‘Just a Geek’. I was set.
I didn’t actually start reading the book until a day or so into our trip. To be honest, I started reading it because I was planning on having an extended visit with one of those Japanese magic toilets. As nifty as they are, I’m not a huge fan of having my toilet seat warmed for me. It just mentally makes me feel like someone else was just sitting there. While I could probably write an entire post on using the bathroom while in Japan, that will have to be for another time.
Anyway, I started reading Wil’s book. I was immediately familiar with the humor that it contained since I’ve read a good bit of his stuff on the internet. What I wasn’t prepared for was how much I related to many of the stories. Now, I’ve never been a teen idol. I’ve never been on a hit TV show. Like Wil Wheaton, though, I did make some choices in my ‘youth’ that I spent way too much time regretting but at the same time trying to prove to everyone that I made the right decision. ‘Just a Geek’ really hit a bit too close to home in a couple spots. I may have accepted the most of the decisions I made in the past but I have been holding myself back in a number of ways. I’ll get into a lot of details concerning that in another post. Right now I’m talk about Wil F*CKING Wheaton!
‘Just a Geek’ isn’t about Star Trek and I’m rather glad that it wasn’t. Sure, he talks a lot about certain things that happened to him in respect to Next Generation but that’s not the focus of the material. I really felt that the book was trying convey one man’s personal journey. Will Wheaton is not exactly Buddha but I think he did come to find a small bit of enlightenment. If that little bit of knowledge can find a path into my thick brain, then it must be well written. It was also pretty damn funny and that eases the pain of this rather emotional tale.
Even if you’re not a Star Trek fan, I would suggest this book to you. Despite the title, I would still recommend this book to the non-geek type person. Good book is good. I’d put it on the shelf right next to Bruce Campbell’s book, ‘If Chins Could Kill’. That’s a big compliment coming from me.
