Actor Wil Wheaton is known best -- for better or worse -- as the guy who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation.  If you're one of the people lucky enough to have come across his blog, you also know that he's a husband who's crazy about his wife, a dad who's just as crazy about his kids, an actor when the right chance comes along, and mostly these days, a writer.  Wheaton had his own domain at WilWheaton.Net until bad things happened to the server, but he's been actively blogging for years, not just on his own sites, but also at TVSquad, Suicide Girls, and the Onion's AV Club.  And again, if you've wandered by his little corner of the Net, you already know this.

If you don't, go pick up a copy of The Happiest Days of Our Lives.  The book, Wheaton's third, is a short compilation of online posts he's made (much like his writing technique on Just a Geek and Dancing Barefoot).  Because of the blog aspect, the stories in the book have an immediacy not usually found in print prose.  Like most blogging, there's a lot of reflection here, a lot of navel lint examined, and a lot of self-truths gained.  Wheaton is from my generation (called "Gen X" by the people outside it, called "children of the 80s" by one another) so every picture he draws from his childhood rings true with my own experiences in life: the impossible choice of Star Wars figures at K-Mart, the Dungeons & Dragons scare that took lonely kids away from their one social activity, even the unfairness of parent-teacher night.  Of course, Wheaton was also for a while an extremely well-known actor, so his stories also include trying to deal with celebrity and what comes after, and while very few of us can say that, most of us who are now looking back at thirty longingly can remember when the future looked a bit brighter than it turned out to be.

Wheaton's book addresses the last issue best of all.  The nostalgic photos on the cover and the title might lead someone to think he's calling his childhood the happiest days, but if anything, his book serves to show that the happiest days of his life are right now.  As I said earlier, he's madly in love with his wife and adores his kids.  He's discovered a love of writing and an enjoyment of poker.  He's run to raise money for breast cancer, he's put the spirit of Wesley Crusher to rest, and he's found a purpose in life.  (Okay, he also listens to "Mr. Roboto" in his car.  Nobody's perfect.)

This is a great book for anyone who was a kid in the 80s.  Trek fans might get a kick out of the backstage looks at the Next Gen cast.  Me, I like it for the reminder that things really have gotten better since I was a kid, and it's just a matter of knowing where to find the sunshine.