Finally! Another book completed on my iPad, something I totally failed to do during our recent vacation to Las Vegas. Plus I’ve been slogging through Nerd for about a year. This doesn’t mean it’s a hard read, far from it. I’m just a terrible reader who is easily diverted toward other matters: comic books, writing, trivia, eating, watching serial TV shows and during my lunch hour, eating. Since Somara and I have very disparate schedules, we will barely have lunch together, damn.
Oh, this is also book number five, not four, to be completed on my iPad. I’m in the process of re-reading number four because it was hilarious and I’m more than half done with The Time Machine Did It.
Nerd do Well is more than an autobiography, each chapter is prefaced with an ongoing, fictional action movie starring Simon’s alter ego. He’s a combination of James Bond and Batman fighting alongside his robot butler Cadbury against a Dr. Doom-like villain.
As for Simon’s life story. It’s pretty straightforward. He was born in the UK, grew up in the suburbs, his parents split while he was a little kid, Star Wars changed his life, he caught the acting bug, etc, etc. There’s plenty of insight about how the English experienced the same iconic stuff I took for granted in the States during the Seventies and Eighties (Simon is my brother’s age). Then comes how his career got started, how he met Nick Frost (his frequent co-star in movies) and matters taking off with Shaun of the Dead; Simon’s American breakout hit which probably helped him land the Mr. Scott gig in Abrams’ abysmal Star Trek reboot. The bio stops mostly around the mid Aughts with some anecdotes around Hot Fuzz, Paul, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek.
Is it a good read? For nerds/geeks such as myself, sure. My drawn-out reading wasn’t caused by Pegg’s style or subject matter. I blame me and poor time-management for reading. Few authors pin my interest into obsessing over a book as well as Jame Ellroy plus I’m more compelled to write on Picayune, when I probably should read twice as much as I write. Simon Pegg fans, another affirmative vote. Everybody else? I think they’ll be bored or conclude the book was a waste of time. I’m on the fence for biography fans. I would put them in the negative-vote crowd due to this lacking any dirt about the people Pegg has met or worked with.
I’m glad I read it. I have an autographed copy but moved to the Kindle version to preserve the physical version from my clumsiness.
For everyone else, I would pay heed to the reservations I posted before dropping any money on it, even the copies I’ve spotted in the discount bin at Book People.