Now Reading: The Nerdist Way

Remember Chris Hardwick from MTV's Singled Out?  Well, he's a famous nerd now, and wrote a book.  The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life) is a self-help book by someone who has no professional training in self-helpery, so really more of a sage-advice book.

After Chris Hardwick fell off the face of the earth in the late 90's he apparently became a chubby alcoholic.  He brushes though his experiences of getting through his 20's by using nerd references, exampling games like World of Warcraft and Dungeon and Dragons. 

Mr. Hardwick aims to provide the reader (an assumed nerd) with a goal-setting plan by setting up a character, as you would in a video game, with attributes and all that goodness.  Each chapter ends with goal-setting tasks for your character (you) and giving yourself points for the achievements.  As a gamer, I can get with the idea he was going for, but as a person, I am just to lazy to get out a sheet of paper and do all this.  Plus, as unartistic as I am, a stick person character just didn't seem that appealing to me.

Even though I didn't partake in the activities he provided, I did read the book through, and enjoyed it.  As someone who suffers from social anxiety and awkwardness, I could definitely relate to a lot of his experiences and provided solutions. 

There were some items that were SUPER on the simple side, like the exercise section, I though could have been skipped.  I'll admit that I've never had issues in the weigh area or physical activity, so perhaps this section just didn't interest me.

Not a bad read for someone with no professional training on the subject.  Although, in some cases going through the experience is better than having someone who just learn about it tell you what to do.