Book details of 'Geek Chic: The Ultimate Guide to Geek Culture'

Title	Geek Chic: The Ultimate Guide to Geek Culture
Author(s)	Neil Feineman
ISBN	1584232056
Language	English
Published	August 2005
Publisher	Gingko Press

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Back to shelf Computer history/fun
Amazon.com info for Geek Chic: The Ultimate Guide to Geek Culture

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virtualbookcase.com score: 3.0   Vote for this book

The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Geek Chic: The Ultimate Guide to Geek Culture':

Reviewer Koos van den Hout wrote:
This book tries to be 'The Ultimate Guide to Geek Culture' (as the subtitle says) but for me it fails at being ultimate. I miss things in it, and it seems to have a strong bias towards America. The book documents the history of geekdom, from 335 BC to 2003. Items are categorised under 'geek food', 'geek cars', 'geek tv', 'geek sci-fi', 'geek science + technology', 'geek comics', 'geek robots', 'geek movies', 'geek fashion', 'geek pop', 'geek gadgets', 'geek computers', 'geek hackers', 'geek games', 'geek miscellaneous', 'geek internet' and 'geek cyberpunk'. Short (hey, the Nintendo generation can read this) bits about each subject try to recall interesting bits. There are also opinions on the quality of movies, books and such, which does not seem to take into account that geeks can have very strong (and very differing) opinions about subjects such as the best Star Trek series and the ideal editor. Especially 'geek tv' seems focussed on US tv, but also other categories like 'geek pop'. There is also stuff I really miss. This book acknowledges that there may have been some 'Internet' before world-wide-web, but thinks it only really started at info.cern.ch. There is not a single word in this book about the BBS phenomena, which I consider a grave omission, as a geek hobby and as a communication and community system that predates the web. A nice book to read, with lots of 'ooh, I remember that' stuff in the eighties, but not 'The Ultimate Guide'.
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Book description:

The Ultimate Guide to Geek Culture There's never been a better time to be a geek. After decades, if not centuries of persecution, ridicule and never, ever getting the girl, geeks are hot. They are scientists, programmers, artists, musicians, actors, videogamers, skateboarders and architects. They have risen above unimaginative educational systems, hostile social environments, and conventional employers to develop the most liberating, global, inventive and democratic culture on the planet. They are geeks and their time has come. Geek Chic begins by tracing the rise of Geek culture particularly in movies, television, music and media and goes on to present an extensive timeline of geek history over the millennia with short biographical sketches of O.G.’s (original geeks), such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Spike Jonze.