Still Just a Geek

I wish I could say I loved this book, but I’m not sure it’s meant to be loved. It’s definitely meant to be revealing, apologetic, and educational, but loved… not so much.

Like others, I’m skipping the star rating on this book because I think it falls into two camps.
----- Five stars: I love WW and this book taught me more about him and made me think about my own life.
----- One star: WTH? All he does is repeatedly whine about his past mistakes and how hard his life has been.

Personally, I fall into the five-star camp. I’m a fan of Wheaton, and I find his reflection on his own life engaging because it has caused me to reflect on my own life, actions, and dreams.

I have one significant wish for this book: I wish he had made one apology for the objectification of women he calls out in his annotations and one apology each for the other bad examples he set in the original, like his use of the word lame. Then, each time one of those incidents occurred, he could have simply annotated, “see apology #1.” The repetitiveness of the apologies wore on me. That said, being his age, I’ve had similar growth experiences with those types of things, but I don’t have a book, blog, or journal to look back on and feel embarrassment. I would cringe too if I remembered my own behavior as clearly as he can read his.

Reading this made me want to send him fan mail. I’m going to skip that because every time I’ve tried to engage with him online or on social media, I look back at what I wrote and think, “Wow! I’m a moron.” or “Well, those words don’t say what I thought they said.”

At one point in the book, I started to wonder if his perception of his parents was really accurate. It seems over the top. I wanted to know their side of the story, and then he got to the part about how they handled his money, and I thought, “Damn! That’s awful.” Then I got to the end and the story of the production of The Curse and changed my thinking to, “Holy shit! Their side of the story doesn’t matter.”

As a father and husband to family who suffer from anxiety and depression, his descriptions of how it feels and how it affects your behavior are meaningful. I’m lucky to not have those ailments, so I’ve always struggled to understand. I wish he’d talked a bit more about Cognitive Behavior Therapy. For me, his candidness around his depression and anxiety are incredibly valuable. Thank you, Mr. Wheaton.

Finally, if you are new to Wil Wheaton, find his fiction or his other books, like Dancing Barefoot or Dead Trees Give No Shelter. He is a great writer. I’d like him to write more.

Oh, one last note, if you read the physical or Kindle version or are just considering this book, the audio version is the definitive version. I read the Kindle version while I listened to the audio. The emotion in his narration made a huge impression and sometimes changed how I interpreted the text. Plus, he has several additional impromptu annotations that were added as he read the book for Audible.