Just a Geek: Unflinchingly Honest Tales of the Search for Life, Love, and Fulfillment beyond the Starship Enterprise

I rarely read memoirs or autobiographies - in fact, the last one I can remember reading, clearly, was when I was in eighth grade or so. I think this is because, for the most part, I can be amused or sympathetic with the narrator, but in the end, I just can't care about them enough for the actual details of a real life to be compelling to me (I have a different experience with fiction, for some reason). Just A Geek won't convert me to the memoir genre, but it stands out as a marvellous, honest, open and passionate book that I thoroughly enjoyed - sometimes actually laughing out loud, and sometimes feeling my eyes prickle.

Wil Wheaton talks about his struggles to understand what is important to him, in his life, and some of the mistakes he show more makes along the way. He is honest about his mistakes and failings - his own anger and hangups and all the worst parts. He discusses how difficult celebrity at a young age was for him, especially when, post Star Trek, that celebrity didn't carry on in terms of work and exposure the way he hoped it would. He is unflinching in this book, and deeply compelling. Wheaton writes about the people in his life - those he loves, like his family; those he doesn't know well, like many of his blog readers; and those who have treated him poorly, like some "fans" and directors - with empathy, compassion, and, where appropriate, gratitude - and also without hesitating to stick up for himself when he feels he's been treated badly. He clearly cares about being a good human being, a wonderful father and husband, and a creator who can be proud of his works.

Never before have I read a book where I have ended my reading thinking, man, is this guy someone I would very much like to be friends with. Never before, too, have I felt so inspired by someone who strives to be the best person he can be in the context of, at least in many respects, a very normal life. It is hard to feel like you can be a good person, sometimes, if you're not Overcoming Adversity or Saving the World, but by example (never by preaching), Wheaton lives that out, and we can all be inspired by it.

One of the most touching motifs for me is Wheaton's gratitude to his fans and supporters. He writes with an awareness that he is part of a community of people, and that we all need one another for different things - that no man is an island.

I think you will like this book if you are inspired by people growing in spite of themselves and in spite of obstacles; if you appreciate and admire gratitude and effort, and if honesty, humour and affection appeal to you. After finishing the final pages here, I went out and picked up everything else he's written. show less

Wil Weaton provides a strong glimpse into what, to me, is the awful world of professional acting: the insecurity, the indignity, the frustration. He also walks us through the complicated relationship he has had with Star Trek and his Wesley Crusher character. He also connects with his readers by revealing that he is exactly like them. He is a geek who loves gaming, Internet culture, SF novels, etc. Just one thing, Wil: find an adjective other than "cool" to describe things you like. It was definitely the most overused word in the whole of this book.

There are things to love and things to hate about this book. Some of the things to hate: (1) He makes so many references to "Dancing Barefoot," which was probably realistic at the time, but did not age well as I cannot obtain a copy; (2) if you were drawn to Wheaton from his current website or speaking, you will be sorely disappointed with the lack of skill from these early years (though he has clearly improved from the earlier years in his excerpts); (3) unless you are interested in site-building, there's not really a lot to geek out on in his book (it describes him but a more accurate title would be "just a human" but it's not as punchy) - and if you are a page-building geek, his technical ability at this stage is so woefully show more inadequate to geek out; (4) the references to ST:TNG are largely about his emotional journey, not any specific story, so the fanatic in me was not wholly entertained; (5) dude, I totally think less of you for the Hooters references.

That said, this is a true memoir. If you seek out memoirs over autobiographies, this hits the mark. This book may not go as deep as I hope for but it is truly about the emotional journey he went through (and while historically men have gotten to go through this more and certainly publish, given current biases, it is refreshing to watch a man tackle his emotions). It is interesting to watch someone go through the classic (a) you don't appreciate things at the time, and (b) our best moments have consequences well past those moments.

But it is not the most entertaining, narratively. You have to want a memoir at this moment in order to enjoy his book. show less

Let me get this out of the way: I hated Wesley Crusher. Deep and burning passion of loathing? I had it. Here was this kid, younger than I was, taking screen time away from the magnificent Captain Picard. Saving the ship. Putting the ship in danger and then saving it. Piloting the ship. There was apparently a group who were rooting for seeing him go out an airlock, and I would have joined it – and, yes, it was in some part jealousy, because I was a young and rabid Trekkie and here was this kid, younger than I was… But it was also some poor writing, of the sort that inevitably created antipathy for this kid. It had little if anything to do with Wil Wheaton's really quite adept portrayal, but there was no wonder that I was far from show more alone in hating Wesley Crusher.

Unfortunately, others in that group were more vocal than I ever was, and Wil Wheaton knew all about how much how many people loathed Wesley Crusher. And, even more unfortunately and nonsensically, him. That'll have an effect on anyone – and especially an intelligent, sensitive, earnest teenaged boy who sees his future as that-guy-who-used-to-be-on-that-show writ large in a kind of pathetic Star Trek font. It – and other factors – made him walk away from Hollywood for a few years, and from Trek for a decade.

What this book is all about, and why it kept me up till oh crap, is that the time?! and why my respect for Wil Wheaton is greater than I ever could have anticipated, is his (insert less clichéd word than "journey" here) from the bitterness and hurt and anger stemming from Being Wesley Crusher and trying (and painfully failing) to resuscitate his acting career … to a mature and rather joyful reconciliation with his past, and new and optimistic plan for the future.

The subtitle promises that the book is unflinchingly honest - and it feels like it is. Wil made an ass of himself on several occasions, and he owns to it - and owns it. He is scathing about those who have hurt him (sometimes, diplomatically, without naming names, but really how hard is it to look up the fact that Stuart Baird was the "dick" who directed Star Trek: Nemesis?), and unstinting with his affection for his family and his Trek "family" (though I can't help feeling the latter don't deserve it. At all). He's snarky, and funny, and not afraid to admit that even some of the trolls who anonymously email wilwheaton.net might not be wrong. And when they are wrong, his phaser is set to k- ... no, I can't.

The book was originally published in, I believe, 2004 (before his deeply creepy appearance on Criminal Minds), so it's especially nice to read it knowing that Wil Wheaton is not only a staple of "Big Bang Theory" but also the perpetual president of OASIS, and deservedly so. "Just a Geek"? Nah, honey. You're King of the Geeks. And it's great. show less

From the second Humble eBook Bundle.

Okay so. Before I started reading this book, which is a collection of Wil Wheaton's blog posts and some extra autobiographical commentary, my opinion of him was on the positive side of indifferent: I watch his show Table Top and he's alright in that and I liked him in Eureka, but since his characters in that show, Leverage, The Guild and The Big Bang Theory all seem to have the same personality I didn't believe him to be a particularly good actor. So I didn't understand why my boyfriend and large portions of the internet love him so much, since it's apparently not because of Star Trek.

After reading this book, my opinion of him is that he is an entitled, misogynist snob and that no matter how many show more times he tells me he's totally over the fact that quitting Star Trek to make films, no really he is, his constant bitterness every time he talks about anything to do with the show doesn't inspire me to believe him.

For the entitled snobbishness, please see this Goodreads review, which I agree with except that I also disliked the first half of the book, particularly the part where he made his aunt's funeral all about him.

Misogyny-wise, I particularly disliked the part where he compares not enjoying appearing at conventions to being a domestic abuse victim. Also, near the beginning of the book with an anecdote about the time a Hooters waitress asked him if he "used to be an actor", and he was offended but then told himself that her opinion didn't matter because she was only a Hooters waitress and also a bimbo with over-processed hair and "ample cleavage seductively long[ing] to bust out from beneath her thin cotton T-shirt" (ugh are you serious). In the epilogue, he returns to Hooters, and this time a waitress with a different name and hair colour but otherwise identically described does know who he is and also sits on his lap. How marvellous for him.

In conclusion, I now dislike Wil Wheaton much more than I did before reading this and I wish I had not read this book, because it annoyed me so much it gave me a headache. But at least it was short. show less

Wil Wheaton is best known for playing Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation during his teenage years, a fact which has caused him a lot of difficulties and mixed feelings, from bearing the brunt of fans' hatred of his character to spending most of his adult life second-guessing his decision to leave the show to pursue a film career that never materialized. These days, he has successfully reinvented himself as a writer, largely thanks to his blog, wilwheaton.net, which has gained quite a following among the geekier sections of the internet population, not all of whom are reading because they're interested in Star Trek.

This book is about that personal journey, and about his lifelong, love-hate attempts to come to terms with show more Star Trek and his with his child-actor past. It's very honest-feeling, often very funny, and sometimes surprisingly moving. A fair amount of the book does consist of material originally posted on his blog, most of which I'd seen before, but I found I didn't at all mind reading it again, and there's also a lot of new material, much of which helps put the blog posts in context.

All in all, an enjoyable read by a sympathetic and likeable guy. show less

I admit, I caught myself crying on the plane home as I was reading this book. I wouldn't have thought I'd find myself identifying so much with the stories in an actor's biography, but Wil Wheaton has an amazing gift for telling stories about life, love, geekery, and just plain growing up. These stories are taken from his popular blog, but Just a Geek strings them together and fills them out into a coherent story that transcends the blog-style snippets of life. His over-arching story about trying to prove oneself, as well as learning what "proving oneself" really meant for him is really touching.