The BBook of Geek by Brian Briggs

Brian Briggs is a god amongst geeks and this book is the BBible.

I've been a fan of Briggs' website, BBspot.com, for about three years now and it's been a great source of time-wasting for me, as well as an educational venture.

I'm only moderately geeky. Most of his fans make me look like a noob.

About the author: "Brian Briggs grew up on a farm outside of the small town of Milan, Michigan--not exactly fertile land for geek creation. Brian overcame his environment by spending the money he earned on the farm on a Color Computer 2. After getting an Electrical Engineering degree (can't spell geek without EE) from the University of Michigan, he worked for a small industrial computer company for ten years. In January 2000 he started posting stories he had written on some free Web space. Quickly overrunning his bandwidth quota, he convinced his wife he needed his own domain and BBspot.com was born. In January 2003, Brian "quit his day job" and started doing BBspot full time. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his lovely wife, two wonderful children, and a life-sized, talking Darth Vader."

You may not consider yourself "geeky enough" to read this book, but do it anyway. I didn't think I was geeky enough and ended up lol-ing my way though it,  and picking out certain things to read to my also moderately geeky husband (especially the section on LEGOs).

It's definitely a well rounded book, covering topics like TV, movies, the Internet, software, hardware, science, gaming, and literature. From D&D to WoW, from Gates to Jobs, from  The Twilight Zone to Firefly, this book will keep you laughing and remind you of all those years of terrible technology. I am so very thankful I wasn't born until the 80's.

This book is a delightful mix of truth and fallacy, much like Briggs' website. See: "BBelievers". Each entry in this book contains a blurb of the topic, a list of "facts", and a hilariously funny picture featuring Briggs.

If you want to know what kind of geek Briggs is, you need only to see the props in these pics: a plush Cthulhu doll, a swiss army knife (classic!), plenty of LEGOs, a Rubik's Cube,  a transistor radio, a Dremel (srsly!), and even a aluminum foil lightning bolt for LARPing!

I need to say that this guy has a serious collection of t-shirts. I'm jealous.

I was pleasantly surprised with some of the topics, like Rube Goldberg machines, manga, and Metropolis, but was also surprised at some of the things not included.

Really? No Magic the Gathering? REALLY!?
Also, no They Might Be Giants, which I found really surprising being as Briggs is a fan.

All in all I thought this book was great. It's funny, it's sentimental, and hey, you just might learn something.

Probably not though, don't trust anything you hear from that Brian Briggs guy. Plus, he's a Red Wings fan.

Honestly though, if you have an ounce of geek in you, and we all do, check out this book. Or buy it for a geeky loved one. It's cheaper than this, and they'll still love you for it.

BBspot
The BBook of Geek
Buy now!