American Nerd, by Benjamin Nugent

[fantom07]

Note: Mike is a good friend of mine from college and Minneapolis. He currently writes in his blog, A Flaming Wheel of Sliced Bread. Mike texted me out of the blue saying that I needed to pick up American Nerd so we could discuss and, if I wasn't impressed, he would "pay me back" the $20 cost of the book.

Dear Mike,

I finished American Nerd

Comments

[miesl]

Dude, I'm a happy nerd girl with a happy nerd husband she picked up on Livejournal. I think I qualify for nerd hall-of-famedom.

[airuvande]

Thank you for writing this review. I'd heard of the book, and debated picking it up and mentioning it to my gaming crew. Now I think I may skip it. As a female nerd who has done numerous high school and college presentations about nerdy/geeky topics to various classes populated by "normals*," I have little interest in the writings of a "reformed" nerd. If I want to look at the history of nerd/geek culture, I'll talk to my parents, thanks.

*normals- a term my high school friends and I used to refer to all those other people crowding the halls. Yes, we were just as mean as the popular crowd in our way. "I think her last dye job finally melted whatever brain cells were still floating around in her skull" is a good example of the things whispered between us.

One Gallon of Gas in California At The End of Summer Coming Up

[captainhandsome]

I liked of the book for a couple of points you don't mention. I loved the distinctions between the two ways people get to be nerds. I liked the history of the development of the nerd stereotype. I liked the connections between being Jewish and being a nerd and how that has morphed into being Asian and being a nerd. I liked the idea of old nerds being outpaced by the evolutions of the nerd. I kind of cried inside when the people with Asperberger's were pondering a world where there was noone like them anymore