WIL WHEATON dot NET: 1.5

embrace thy inner dork/geek

I really think ST:TNG, season 1 should at least be on the list.

TMBG is definitely the right place to start for geek music.

I would add books by Ray Bradbury, Stephen Baxter, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke to the geek list of must reads.

Although I may be delving into the "nerd" category here. What I don't get is that according to the list's creator, Geeks watch "Star Wars" but "nerds" watch "Star Trek". I don't really get that. I mean, I did go to an engineering school, so I clearly learned the pecking order between geeks, nerds, and techno-geeks. I just don't see this person's distinction. Is he suggesting that "geeks" (who, by his definition, enjoy all the benefits nerds provide the world) are somehow "cooler" than "nerds" (who, according to his rules, are those who enjoy math, science, and watching "Trek")?

I suppose that puts me in the "nerd" category. After all, my friends and I always laugh out loud when we hear Geordi say, "We don't know how gravity works in two dimensions."

Why use a word that everybody knows, when you could use one that gets NON Geeks scurrying for their Dictionaries

For books, I would add: Dragonlance Chronicles, Douglas Adams, any fantasy series that has more than 3 books of more than 500 pages each, i.e. Wheel of Time and A Song Of Ice And Fire (soon[?] to be more than 3).

Movies / TV / DVDs: No mention of Star Trek? Come on! How are you going to get into raging DS9 is so much cooler than TOS debates? X-Files. Upright Citizens Brigade.

Games: Steve Jackson's Illuminati, Axis and Allies

Music: Pixies.

And someone forgot the ninjas. *So* much sweeter than pirates.

While Apollo 18 is good and all, it might have made more sense to have a line from Flood as the subject instead... perhaps "Two by two they enter the jungle" or "Everbody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful" since the latter is off the self titled album, which is also on the list... maybe something from The Spine...

In any event, who am I to tell you how to run your blog?

ninjas..... they come after me....

Oh. My. God.

I AM a geek. At this very moment... FLOOD is in the cd player in my car... I've had "Your Racist Friend" stuck in my head all morning.

I was just on amazon abotu to buy the book when I noticed a note: "Based on customer purchases, this is the #42 Early Adopter Product in Science Fiction & Fantasy."
I just had to giggle, so appropriate after this post to be number 42 in the SciFi list that I had to share.

What, no Dune series???? Those books were my first step on the road to girl geekdom.

I agree that the omission of both Star Trek and The X-Files are so glaringly obvious even the author must be slapping himself in the forehead, exclaiming "What the hell was I thinking, leaving those things off?!"

As for other geeky things, why are there no Tarantino films on that list? Isn't that geeky, too?

Last, but certainly not least, I think the "Just a Geek" needs to be on there too. Just because.

As far as movies we can't overlook Tron. The humble beginnings of being a geek at the arcade.

Then there's Kraftwerk to listen to. What better music for geeks than a band comprised of four geeks on their laptops making electronic music?

The "ninja" comments (above) remind me that we should add The Tick, but NOT either of the TV series (although the cartoon on FOX was great), but the original comic books from the 80's and 90's. They were great.

The "ninja" comments (above) remind me that we should add The Tick, but NOT either of the TV series (although the cartoon on FOX was very good)-- I mean the original comic books from the 80's and 90's. They were great.

Oops! Sorry about the double post. Browser stopped responding at one point there.

One other suggestion, though. What about Dr. Who?

Here's my contribution:

I have Mr. Peabody and Sherman beanie babies.

Does that qualify as geeky enough to make the WWdN list?

I also have:
A rather sizable collection of various liquor bottles
Both Dancing Barefoot and Just A Geek (sure shots)
A TV that only shows Cartoon Network
Out of all my DVDs, only three are regular movies (LotR:FotR and TTT, as well as Shrek). The rest are Anime.
A hamster named Mary Jane (no comment)
James Bond movie posters all over the walls
5 gutted PC mini-towers, a bin rack full of motherboards, sound cards, and other misc. parts
And, of course, my girlfriend's bra hanging from my dresser mirror.

Geeky enough?

I'd have thought Neuromancer and Dune (as said above) would have been on there for sure. They're staples of my life. Some Futurama and X-Files boxed sets wouldn't hurt either.

Where to begin?

Music:
Barenaked Ladies
They Might Be Giants
Moxy Fruvous (+20 points if you've heard of them)
The Arrogant Worms (+50 points if you know them. +100 points if you don't live in Canada.)

Books:
Hitchhikers Guide Trillogy
Just a Geek (duh (I just ordered my copy a few days ago))
Dancing Barefoot (Ok, i'll stop sucking up now...)

Movies:
Young Frankenstein
Dr. Strangelove
Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Uh...think that is about all I know... :-D

-cory

haha yes, Video Bargainville is an awesome cd.

"we can take a trip down to the corner, corner, corner. it's not too far."

Crap.

I forgot the Lord of the Rings Trillogy. Ah yea...

TV:
Family Guy
Simpsons
Jeopardy (is Ken ever going to loose?!?)
Other Game Shows...

Yeah, now i'm dry.

-cory

For sure one of the best lists I've ever seen. Does he get any money for you linking to him and driving his sales through the wall?

I LOVE THE DRACONOMICON!!! I also love Book of Vile Darkness (Dungeons and Dragons)! I'm an elven archer. I can do Monty Python and the Holy Grail every line, from start to finish. That's how I make guy friends (a rousing chorus of "Knights of the Round Table' or just the whole of 'the Swallow conversation'...heehee Two swallows could carry it together). God love a pirate, especially Captain Jack Sparrow! I'm first mate Kitty aboard our ship, that I made up in my story...wow, I love being a geek. I love They Might Be Giants, especially "Experimental Film".

Things to add: must watch either Star Trek or Star Wars, must be considered the 'geek' in circle of friends, must know the entire Trog Dor bit from homestarrunner.net (it's dot com!)

I think authors such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells should be on the list.

Web sites/comics such as User Friendly, maybe Dilbert (definitely Dilbert books (my geek code includes a Dilbert rating of the 2nd highest order)).

D&D is crap that shouldn't be on the list.

Music should include synthesizer greats such as Jean Michel Jarre and Mike Oldfield.

And of course, the ultimate geek OS: Linux.

>Moxy Fruvous (+20 points if you've heard of them)

Woo, another Fruhead! :)

Moxy Fruvous is essential geek music, anyband who has a song about entropy has to be.

Also, there should be some Joss Whedon stuff on that list, if nothing from the Buffy-verse, at least Firefly. Can't think of a show that has a bigger geek following given so few episodes. Gorram Fox...

--Hob

Pshaw. Any geek worth his weight in books would be playing AD&D 1st or 2nd edition. And if he were an awesome geek, he'd be playing Hackmaster 4th ed.

Java Servlet & JSP Cookbook
Perl CD Bookshelf, Version 4.0
Java Cookbook, Second Edition
Apache Cookbook
Linux Toys: 13 Cool Projects for Home, Office and Entertainment
Perl Cookbook, Second Edition
C++ Network Programming, Vol. 1: Mastering Complexity with ACE and Patterns
Programming in Prolog
SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide

Armor 3600 (Manufacturer: Otter Products LLC, Fort Collins, Colo. Price: $100)

io Digital Pen
Manufacturer: Logitech Inc., Fremont, Calif.
Price: $199

The Duct-Tape Wallet
Manufacturer: Ducti, Monument, Colo.
Price: $10-$30

USB Watches
Manufacturers: Laks Watch Co., Vienna; Peripheral Enhancements Corp., Ada, Okla., and others
Price: Start at $80

DigitalMovie, Digital Vinyl CD-R
Manufacturer: Verbatim Corp., Charlotte, N.C.
Price: $4 for DVD blanks, $13 for 10-pack of CD-R

Radio YourWay
Manufacturer: PoGo Products Inc., Brea, Calif.
Price: $150 or $200, depending on memory capacity

The Internet Refrigerator
Manufacturer: LG Electronics Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Price: $8,000

Binary Clock
Provider: ThinkGeek.com, Fairfax, Va.
Price: $20

here's some relatively obscure
books that I have read with that geeky
je-ne-c'est-quoi.
alan mendelsohn, the boy from mars   daniel pinkwater
archy & mehitabel   don marquis
autobiography of red   anne carson
the collected short stories of roald dahl   roald dahl
creation   gore vidal
crime & punishment   fyodor dostoevsky
the dictionary of the khazars   milorad pavic
first love, last rites   ian mcewan
the flying sorcerers   larry niven and david gerrold
geek love   kathleen dunn
the giver   lois lowry
the glass bead game hermann hesse
golden gate   vikram seth
haroun and the sea of stories   salman rushdie
in the suicide mountains   john gardner
invisible cities   italo calvino
labyrinths   jorge luis borges
native tongue   suzette haden elgin
a perfect vacuum   stanislaw lem
the pollinators of eden   john boyd
the secret diary of adrian mole, aged 13 3/4   sue townsend
shrinklits   maurice sagoff
shroud of the gnome   james tate
utopia   thomas more
the wasp factory   iain banks
war with the newts   karel capek

from my "nerds, geeks & dorks" website

http://annmariabell.com/nerds/nerds.html

Cryptonomicon
Family Guy/Futurama
System Shock 2/Deus Ex
--- games that mess with your head :)
Hitchhiker's Guide
--- any list without this is blasphemous
The Silmarillion
--- LOTR isn't really geeky anymore, with the popular movies. Perhaps the Silmarillion can be a safe haven for Tolkien geeks? I know it is for me.

sorry, this is going to be a threadjack.
woohoo fruheads! i loves other fruheads! if you haven't already, please stop by here. (please, wil, don't banninate me for whatever reason!) btw, Cory, i live in Pittsburgh, PA & *heart* the worms. i want my 120 points! ;-)
/threadjack
other cool geeky things:
"House of Leaves" by Mark Danielewski
anything Neil Gaiman
Foamy the Squirrel - especially the A-Kon special
fark (of course)
Kevin Smith movies (also obvious)

there's also this one blog written by some guy who "used to be an actor." he was on star trek or something. he's written a couple books too... keeps going on about how he used to be famous. j/k, wil. i love your site & the books. i have to admit that i'm highly envious of your talent & only wish i could write as well as you do. *waits patiently for the next book, perhaps fiction this time?*

Books:

I have to say that everything by Neal Stephenson should be on this list
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

For movies:

The Princess Bride is a MUST
BladeRunner... anyone, anyone?
Any of the old Liquid Television 'toons that used to be on MTV (but mainly Aeon Flux, The Head and The Maxx)

Music:

I see no Dr. Demento compilations anywhere on this list. That MUST be remedied.
Spin Doctors - Pocket Full of Kryptonite

There's so much more I could add, but there's plenty in the comments here to work with. These are just the things I believe that any Official Geek List should include.

*wonders where dork would fall in*
I think Im some kinda oddball combo. Some stuff fits me, some doesnt. *shrugs*

I agree with most of the additions listed, particularly the LOTR trilogy and Silmarillion. However I would like to include Babylon 5 as Geek fodder, and would like to make one clarification. While Star Wars is definately geeky, only the pre-special edition counts, as Greedo didn't fire first, because he didn't fire at all.

Oh, and I also have the entire series of Monty Pythons Flying Circus on dvd :)

The most personally important book --by far -- of all time:

ENDER'S GAME, by Orson Scott Card
http://hatrack.com/

I, and all of my geek friends, slowly discovered that each and every one of us had loved this book immensely on our own before we even met each other.

And, while I'm mentioning Ender's Game (soon to be directed by Wolfgang Petersen in the Warner's adaptation via Fresco Pictures), I will mention another Petersen geek byproduct: THE NEVERENDING STORY.

Yeah. Rock on Wil, say hi to the lovely Anne (and the boys and Kris) for us.

Adam in Studio City (formerly Burbank)

For the Writer Geek, I recommend Strunk & White's classic Elements of Style is an essential. Never before or since has so much essential information on the craft of writing been found in such a short book.

I was inoculated into geekdom early, by my dad. he used to read me stories before bedtime, including:

Dune
The Hobbit (two or three times.)
The Lord of the Rings (the whole thing, at least twice.)
various Heinlein (Space Cadet, Tunnel in the Sky, etc.)
the flying sorcerors (subtle comedy)
foundation (hard for a six/seven year old to follow)

we listened to (and taped!) the original Hitchhiker's Guide radio serial together (before the books, before the tv show)

we listened to (and taped!) the star wars radio serial together (featuring brock peters as vader, ann sachs as leia, perry king as solo, and mark hamill as luke.)

we discovered doctor who together (saturday mornings at ten!)

he introduced me to asimov, ellison, leguin, heinlein, van vogt, etc.

i later returned the favor by introducing him to gibson, sterling, stephenson, etc.

(jeeze, i'm getting sick of myself now, i'd better stop.)

I call foul on any geek list that doesn't include at least one selection from Rush. Moving Pictures for the lightweight geeks and either 2112 or Hemispheres for your more serious cases.

Oh, there are so many good suggestions in this thread...

Some more additions (and a few that I've just commented on):

Snow Crash [Neal Stephenson] -- I'd put this above the Cryptonomicon or any of his other books, geek-wise. I think this is where I learned the term "meme" before it popped up in blogs.

Stranger in a Strange Land [Robert A. Heinlein] -- because every geek should know where the term "grok" came from. Just don't get the extended author's edition, because apparently Heinlein benefitted quite a bit from editing. You do have to realise that it was written in a different time, so it's not exactly bias-free by our standards, but it's influential enough that I feel it's worth the time.

Microserfs [Douglas Coupland] -- As a female geek, I loved this book because it's one of few I read as a teen where the girls were just as cool and adept coding-wise as their male counterparts. But it's just all round cool even if you're not me. :)

Neuromancer or Idoru [William Gibson] -- I'm not sure which would be best.

Sluggy Freelance -- There's lots of good geek comics on the web, so it'd be easy to make a huge list, but this one's a classic.

No one else has suggested Weird Al for music -- why not? I used to watch this kids show called Square One and Weird Al's patterns song stuck with me for ages.

The Monkey Island games are a must-see, I think. I'm sad that I haven't found many of that type of adventure game in recent years, although I found a pretty entertaining one called "A Case of the Crabs" online. (It's more fun than the name, promise!)

The perl camel book. Every geek who's interested in programming or doing more impressive stuff than simple shell scripts should give perl a try. You might hate it, but at least you'd know. I find with a good teacher, perl can be a handy way to do a lot of quick tasks.

Hm. I could go on a while, but my work isn't going to do itself. :/

Ok, this is just off the top of my head.

Books:

Jack Vance 'Dying Earth' series.
Douglas Adams 'Hitchhikers Guide' series (mentioned many times previously)
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

Music:

Radiohead (or have they become too popular to be considered 'geek'?)

Comics:

Watchmen
Frank Miller's Daredevil stuff
Any of the Dork Tower collections

Gaming

Gurps
Paranoia

I'm sure there are others, but it's a start.

Safe travels!

Anyone mention Ursula K. LeGuin yet?

The Chonicles of Earthsea
The Disposessed
The Left Hand of Darkness

all spring to mind.

Book:

A Brief History of Time -- Stephen Hawking

Game:

Mentioned in one of Wil's blogs... RISK

i didn't see it listed already, but i think devo and kids in the hall should be on the list.

My dad and I run an automated Amazon rank checking service. Email me, and I'll get you set up with an account. We authors should all obsessively track our Amazon ranks. Or, check out Junglescan.com, which is a competing but free service of the same order.

Mammal, mammal. now that song is stuck in my head.

books:
A Man on the Moon (Chaikin)
Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon (Reynolds)
Nature's Building Blocks (Emsley)
A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bryson)
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Feynman)
Woe Is I (O'Conner)
Contact (Sagan)
Rocket Boys (Hickam)
The Universe Next Door (Chown)
Hyperspace (Kaku)

movies:
Apollo 13
The Right Stuff
2001: A Space Odyssey
Contact
A Beautiful Mind
Spirted Away
Princess Mononoke
Tron
Titan A.E.
From the Earth to the Moon (box set)
Seven Years in Tibet
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack

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