Gamers With Jobs reviews Happiest Days

Julian "Rabbit" Murdoch reviewed The Happiest Days of Our Lives today at Gamers With Jobs:

Wheaton will forever get lumped into a bucket with "geek cred"
painted on the side. Yes, he’s "one of us." You need look no further
than his blow-the-doors-off keynote speech he gave at PAX this year.
Sure, it was funny. I mean hell, he opened with "My name is Wil
Wheaton, and Jack Thompson can suck my balls." But it was also well
written, well delivered, and something of an anthem for us over-30
geekdads. But we should pause for a moment and acknowledge the craft:
the guy knows how to tell a compelling story.

That pause is difficult. It’s hard to separate the work – the book – from the fact that he does
seem so much like everyone I grew up with and to be blunt, so much like
me. His stories of agonizing over Star Wars figures in K-Mart, of
escaping into the safety of Dungeons and Dragons at the age of 12 –
these are my stories. They are the stories of everyone I knew growing up who didn’t think I was a spaz. They are our stories.

Here we sit in the crucible of the internet, invented, maintained,
loved and obsessed over by geeks. Yet why is it we still look for our
muse? I’m not sure I have the answer. I don’t think Wheaton does
either. But I do know that there is an intersection between the
geek-as-consumer and the geek-as-creator that lies like a giant exposed
central nerve, at least in organism in which I live. Sure, there are
plenty of people writing about tech, and many of them write very well.
There are scads of bloggers and pundits and comics and storytellers.
And many of them (myself included, I hope) do a decent job of torturing
words onto the page now and then.

Wheaton’s different, not in an "oh my god he’s so dreamy" way, but
in the sense that blue and green are different. It would be easy to
think that Wheaton has somehow parlayed a child-star gig into a kind of
ambassadorship to planet Nerd. It would also be wrong. Wheaton’s
strength is not his provenance, it’s that he is slowly mastering the
craft of echoing the lives of a certain generation with simplicity,
un-feigned humility and striking clarity.

It was really cool to read a review from someone who took the time to put Happiest Days into context with my other books and online writing. I think I’ve grown a lot as a writer since I sat down and started putting together Just A Geek (and then Dancing Barefoot) and it’s pretty awesome to have that recognized by someone who isn’t married to me.

This is the second review that’s mentioned the length, though, so maybe I need to make it more clear in my marketing materials: this is supposed to be a short book that you can enjoy in little bursts, or read in one sitting. I could have padded it, but Andrew and I made a decision to eliminate stories that had different settings, but ultimately told the same thing (this resulted in cutting about 15000 additional words before we even got to the final rough draft of stories that made the cut.) I’d rather be accused of being short than stuffing the book with filler for the sake of making it longer. I know your time is valuable (hey, I’m writing this week’s GiR about exactly that subject) and I didn’t want to overstay my welcome.

Remember that you can submit your own reviews at Monolith Press, if you’re so inclined.

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31 thoughts on “Gamers With Jobs reviews Happiest Days”

  1. A lovely review–that guy can write too! Kudos Wil, other smart people who are also good writers like your book. What’s better than that?

  3. Congrats on the continuance of good reviews. Especially from someone who is in the position, as a fellow geek/nerd/gamer, to (possibly) be critical of the subject material.
    Very well written to boot. He managed to express how I and likely many others feel about the connection that you seem to share with your readers.

  5. What a remarkable review! It was so expertly written I don’t think I could say anything that hasn’t been said. If I didn’t have THDOOL already that review would inspire me to buy it.
    As for the length: Yes, it was short. I finished it in about an hour and I was disappointed when it was over. But that was because I wanted more. And it’s best to leave an audience wanting more than to be tired of filler. Personally, I would have loved to see it longer but I’m happier that you and Andrew cut material that didn’t fit. (One thing: poker story at the end – fits how? It was expertly written but I couldn’t find the link between that and the rest of the “I was a geek kid”/”I’m a geek dad.” stories.)
    You’ve definitely grown as a writer and person (from what I can tell online) since the days of JAG. It’s been an interesting time watching the style and tone of the blog and other writings change over the past few years.
    I agree wholeheartedly with the last paragraph but I do have to say… you can still be “dreamy” if you want to. I watched TNG Season 4 over the weekend and thought, “Boy, he sure used to be dreamy!” LOL.
    Well done, you!

  7. Nope. Geek was written first, Barefoot was material cut out of Geek, and published first.
    I rewrote Geek after Barefoot had been published, but in the chronology of the thing, Geek came first.

  9. Oh and just out of curiosity and not to threadjack … but what happened to that TNG review you had worked up for TV Squad? You said you went in a different direction and I was looking forward to reading it.

  10. It’s still in the works. I got about 60% done, and just ran out of gas on it. Good reminder, though. I need to finish it for next week.

  11. OK, last thing I promise … I would love to see a blog entry about your thoughts on the WGA strike. As a writer (I know … not a TV writer, but a writer nonetheless) and actor, you might have a perspective that I (and I’m sure others) would be interested in.
    Thanks.

  12. I loved Happiest Days, as I loved Geek and Barefoot. I passed the books along to my son, with the proviso that if I don’t get the book back, he loses his liver.
    Oh man, I just listened to your Pax keynote. Awesome! One question, though – what the heck is a brown shirt? Can’t be the WWII reference.

  13. angie k: Wil and I discussed “lying in odessa” at some length. Ultimately, I thought it was important to have some poker content in the book, since it’s formed such a big part of his life — especially recently — but we didn’t think any of the WSOP posts stood alone very well. We decided to give “odessa” a more permanent home because it’s some of the best poker writing Wil has done*, and we put it at the very end so that readers who don’t care about the poker can skip it easily.
    * Some of the best writing, period, in fact.

  18. Thanks for replying, Andrew! I thought it was a great piece and enjoyed it but didn’t know what it was in there. Thanks for the explanation! 🙂

  19. Excellent review. And thank you for posting it here. I have been looking for a working link to your keynote address ever since I found and started reading your blog (which was only a few weeks ago I’m ashamed to say).

  20. On one hand when I finished THDOOL I wanted more. An indication of a well written book that I could relate to as a reader (and geek).
    On the other hand it’s short enough that I can confidently loan it to friends to give them an excellent sample of your work knowing they’ll finish it and possibly become a fan.

  22. I guess if complaints on length are made, I’d think this is better than hearing you put half of America to sleep by the third draft for just going on endlessly. 🙂
    Course, I say that and I’m generally described as one who uses more words than needed to just convey a simple thought to a friend. (Uh, this comment is kind of becoming ironic, no?)

  23. Kudos on another great review the book has gotten you. I, myself, would like to read your views on the writers strike as well. Speaking of, was just on CBS’s media site for work purposes and saw the first stills released of your guest stint on Numb3rs. It looks like it’s going to be an amazing episode!

  25. Hey, Wil. Just curious as to why you haven’t mentioned the strike in your blog. As a fellow television writer, I was sorta expecting some support.

  26. The length of THDOOL helps it flow better, for me at least. The stories read as if I am reminiscing with a friend at a party. “One beer” stories.
    It gives the book a light, conversational feel and keeps it from being just one long collection of anecdotes.

  27. This review sums up exactly how I feel about your writing, and your latest book.
    I’m so glad that others see it this way as well.

  28. I haven’t read THDOOL yet because i just don’t have money to fork out of a ditch – ah the woes of college life – but i work in a bookstore and not all of the best books are long ones so don’t let length discourage you (in every aspect of life teehee). Timeless novel “Richard Bach’s Illusions” is maybe 150 pages. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has several novels that aren’t busting at the seams of their coats. Gene Wilder put out a novel that was pretty successful but short. Just to name a few offhand.
    Looking forward to getting yours in my store. I had JAG for a while and upsold it to a few people a while back…i enjoyed it.

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