The Internet: If you are brave enough to admit your shortcomings and bare your emotions, it’s the most public of places. Although filled with trolls, it is also filled with lovable geeks. What better place to find yourself than among your peers?

“When I’m on stage, the only real difference between me and the people I’m talking to is that I got paid to wear the spacesuit. I’m a huge science fiction geek.”

page 43

Wil Wheaton may be Just a Geek, but you’ll want to read his story.

Why is this on our bookshelf?

Geeks may know Wil Wheaton as the guy who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek, or geeks may know Wil Wheaton from another geeky place the Internet, or perhaps geeks know him as Sheldon’s nemesis from Big Bang Theory.

Regardless, Wil Wheaton proclaims he is a geek, backs it up with proof, and is involved in plenty of geeky things. It’s likely that you’ll stumble across him in your geeky travels and you’ll definitely want to know him after reading this book.

Rating (4 stars)

Time to come clean: yes, I swear I’m a geek, but no… I never finished even a season’s worth of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes before picking up this book. I may have a mini-dress in engineering red and a few furry tribbles, but somehow, I just never got around to TNG (except for that fifth season two-parter featuring a certain Vulcan…).

Although I picked this book up because of the title, once I started reading, I just couldn’t set it down.

But that’s okay. I didn’t need to know who Wesley Crusher was to identify with Wil Wheaton’s career struggles, self-doubt and search for fulfillment. In addition, I can identify with him as a geek. These are human things and one of the reasons why I find the memoir to be a compelling literary form. Wheaton’s brutal honesty only enhances the powerful nature of a personal memoir and makes this book stand out.