Title: Just A Geek
Author: Wil Wheaton
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 296

Summary
An actor from early childhood, Wil Wheaton is best known for his roles in the movie Stand By Me and his recurring appearances on Star Trek. However, faced with the prospect of Star Trek becoming his entire life and after an experience of seeing the cast of the original series on a Star Trek cruise, a teenaged Wheaton made the decision to quit the show and concentrate on his movie career.

This self described “worst decision” of his entire life set Wil on a path to self discovery and transition from a famous actor to a person who’s famous because he used to be famous to his current status as a writer.

Notes

I picked this book up after a friend linked me to one of Wil’s appearances on the TV show Big Bang Theory. I was compelled to search the internet to see what he thought of his portrayal of Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: TNG now that he’s older and stumbled onto the fact that he wrote this book.

I knew he had a website and a popular blog and all that but never really followed what he wrote there. So I picked up this book and read half of it the same day. The rest would have been done this weekend if I wasn’t so busy.

The blurb on the front of the book is 100% correct. What this book contains is a very personal, unflinchingly honest (yes I stole that from the book cover) account of what Wil went through in his struggles to distance himself from Star Trek and live his own life. It consists of about 50% blog entries from his website and the rest of it is commentary on those entries. He points out where he was full of crap and just trying to put up a front to make people think he was on the verge of success when, in reality, he was in the clutches of depression and near financial ruin.

In the end though, I think he found the right place. He’s a fantastic writer and his story is told in an extremely gripping way.

Next Book
I’m still reading The Lies of Locke Lamora. I’m about halfway through now, but I got unexpectedly interrupted by this book.

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  2. Book 36: Empire of Ivory (Temeraire #4)
  3. Book 5: Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne
  4. Book 40: Dead Beat (Dresden Files #7)
  5. Book 28: Fool Moon (Dresden Files Book 2)