Once upon a time, Wil Wheaton was best known for having been an actor. You know, the one who played that kid in Stand By Me or that kid Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In his autobiography Just a Geek: Unflinchingly honest tales of the search for life, love, and fulfillment beyond the Starship Enterprise, he shows us how he found what he was looking for in the subtitle.
Just a Geek came to me as part of the second Humble eBook Bundle, which is a pretty good way to pick up some books I probably wouldn’t have read otherwise. Not being too much of a Star Trek geek, or familiar with Wheaton’s work beyond that, I’d probably would never have picked it up otherwise. And that would have been a shame.
You see, I loved Just a Geek. It can be seen as a condensed and annotated version of his web log, and it’s a damn compelling read. I couldn’t help but root for the guy as he tried to shake the monkey called Prove To Everyone That Quitting Star Trek Wasn’t A Mistake off his back. He quit Star Trek because it interfered with his potentially awesome movie career. When that didn’t exactly take off, he had major difficulties to appreciate his time in Star Trek for what it actually was. But through the redemptive powers of Writing Stuff On The Internet, he overcame these woes and turned out pretty allright. Not too shabby, for just a geek.
- Book read
- Wil Wheaton — Just a Geek: Unflinchingly honest tales of the search for life, love, and fulfillment beyond the Starship Enterprise
- First line
- IN JULY OF 2003, I was invited to Portland, Oregon, by my friend and fellow O’Reilly Author, Randal Schwartz, to attend the release party for his newest book, Learning Perl Objects, References & Modules.