Dancing Barefoot / Wil Wheaton : 3 of 5

I've always thought it's amazing how Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, re-invented himself as a prolific internet celebrity. Back in the early ays of blogging, Wil was there churning out story after story, showing everyone the "real Wil" and becoming a champion for geeks everywhere. That's part of what makes him so interesting - even though he was a popular child actor, in many ways his childhood was focused around the same things as the rest of us geeks, and so his completely honest writing style makes him seem like a friend and all around nice guy. Wil writes so much on his blog and on Twitter that I can never keep up with it all, so it was nice to finally start reading his published work and take the time to really enjoy it. Dancing Barefoot is a collection of stories from his blog - four of them are super short, recalling memories of a dear aunt and happy times with his wife, and the last story is long and truly fantastic. The Saga of SpongeBob VegasPants begins with a hilarious look at the first time Wil met William Shatner (including some touching moments with Gene Roddenberry), and then covers Wil's experiences at a huge Star Trek convention in Vegas. There are tons of priceless moments here, little glimpses into the personalities of other Trek celebrities, and lots of genuine openness into Wil himself. The story finishes with Wil's recollection of the Star Trek attraction at the Vegas Hilton, which was fun to read since I remember it so well, and it's incredible how he weaves this memory into such a poignant moment. Dancing Barefoot was really fun and relaxing to read, and now I'm really looking forward to reading more of Wil's books!