The Happiest Days of Our Lives

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

I think I'm probably late to this party, but I recently ordered a copy of Wil Wheaton's The Happiest Days of Our Lives as a result of John Scalzi's entry over at the Whatever.

Well, it arrived yesterday, and against my better judgement, I put down the book I was reading (Darwin's Children, by Greg Bear), and decided to read "just a few" of the essays in the new book.

God, what a mistake. But in a good way.

I had a terrible time putting it down, and now I must get on Amazon to order his other two works. Which puts a complete kibosh on my book-buying moratorium.*

I was never a big fan of the Wesley Crusher character, although I loved TNG. It doesn't matter, though, because it turns out Wil can write, and his best medium appears to be the essay. His stories were touching, funny, and some of his descriptions about his relationships with his step-sons made my heart ache with sadness and joy. Every stepchild should have a stepparent as committed as Wil Wheaton. This book is utterly, completely charming, and I'm beginning to think Wil is, too.

Now if you'll excuse me, I must go order I'm Just a Geek and Dancing Barefoot. Because clearly I don't have enough to read.


*I'm supposed to be getting through my "to read" pile, which is now three shelves long, before buying any more books. Yeah, right.

16 comments:

Steve Buchheit said...

John Scalzi, increasing people's Guilt Stacks (those books you have and need to read, sometime, because they whisper to you at night) since 1999.

It's going to be a while until I check out Will's books. I'm also on a strict diet of acquisitions.

Janiece said...

Steve, you know, now that you mention it, reading Scalzi's blog has resulted in a measurable increase in my Guilt Stack. Especially since "A Month of Writers" started.

Bastard.

But I mean that in a good way.

Jim Wright said...

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. Scalzi's blog has resulted in "most favored nation status" between me and Amazon.

Wheaton. Who would have guessed? I detested the Crusher Kid (I also hated his mother) - the funny thing is - apparently so did Wheaton.

He's a hell of a writer though, funny, interesting, very human. And a fine sense of himself. He also seems to have the rare ability to laugh at himself, something I admire in a person (also one of the reason I like Bill Shatner so much in recent years - he's made a career out of poking fun at..William Shatner. That Price Line commercial where he zaps the 'daddy' with the stun gun, priceless). Wheaton sounds like a guy I'd very much like to hang out with.

Janiece said...

Jim, me too. Every time Wil writes "blah, blah, blah, get off my lawn" to indicate his advancing age (yeah, right), I just crack up. For some reason that tickles me to no end.

Denny Crane.

Jeri said...

Between Scalzi's recommendation and you and Jim's endoresement, sounds like I'll have to get his books too.

I actually read so fast I have trouble keeping myself in new books - BUT - there's also an inverse relationship between the amount of READING I do and the amount of WRITING I do. I seem to not be able to flipflop between input and output modes very well.

So, dammit, Wil and John are impacting my potential someday wannabe writing career. ;)

Janiece said...

Jeri, the more I hear about it, the happier I am that I am not an aspiring writer.

Other than dinking around here, I mean.

Cindi in CO said...

If you write, you're a writer. And you write well. Which helps.

Janiece said...

Cindi, I guess what I mean is I don't have any aspirations to ever be a published writer, other than here.

Many of my regulars have migrated from John Scalzi's website, and the common thread appears to be a desire to write for money. That makes me the oddball, and I'm okay with that.

Anne C. said...

Janiece, you are smart to bless your lucky stars that you aren't A Writer. It's a pain in the butt, particularly since most of the time, A Writer is not actually writing, but feeling guilty that he/she is not writing.

I'm squishing that guilt with the reminder that it's sometimes good to LIVE first before writing.

MWT said...

Well, I'm mostly writing for hobby purposes rather than any delusions of making a career out of it. I still call myself a writer, though.

Also, I've noticed the same thing as Jeri - lots of writing = very little reading. My reading dropped to near zero right when I first started doing online roleplaying, and although I've been trying to reverse that trend, it's been tough going. The mindsets are just completely incompatible. I remember being a voracious reader in my youth, but somehow I just don't get into books quite so much anymore. (Blogs, on the other hand... *head, desk*) Maybe I should just look more at nonfiction than fiction.

Anonymous said...

Man, I need me some published Wheaton words, stat!

Much as I love Wil's writing, I've only read Dancing Barefoot. So very wrong of me...

Nathan said...

Pardon me while I drop in to comment about today's entry over at Stonekettle Station.

Roux. There. It had to be said.

This has been an experiment in trying to tilt the internet slightly off its axis by using all blogs to talk about some other blog.

Janiece said...

Nathan, you're such a pirate, argh.

Do you write?

Becca said...

Thank you for the recommendation of the book. I just purchased all three. I am so guilty. I need a book moratorium, but that will never happen. I am looking forward to reading these.
Thank you again.

Jeri said...

Well, I'm only a guilt-motivated wannabe writer.

Because, you know, I could write the next best-seller and retire... but only if I'm WRITING. It's not gonna happen while I'm asleep or watching the tube.

I rue the day we brought up roux. ;)

Janiece said...

Becca, you're welcome. I finished it last night, and I can't wait for the other two to arrive.

Hi Carol Elaine! Nice to "see" you.

Jeri, remember: Guilt = Bad.