Author: Jonathan Bender
Genre: Nonfiction, Project Memoir
Publication: Wiley, 2010
My Star Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Summary Statement: A Project Memoir Focusing Primarily on the Adult Fan of LEGO (AFOL) Community and LEGO History
Nearing his 30th birthday, three years into his marriage and dealing with infertility, freelance journalist Jonathan Bender stumbles upon a bin of LEGO from his childhood and decides to do a project memoir. Knowing little of LEGO, he researches and writes with the perspective of an adult newbie.
Bender chose to focus on the history of LEGO and on what is called AFOL, the Adult Fan of LEGO community which thrives now through internet communication, where mostly men talk LEGO and share uploaded images of their custom designs. Some AFOLs meet also in person at two different kinds of shows, similar to a convention or conference.
One reason I am disappointed with the book is that the author did not expand his research into the experiences of parents and children. Since I am one of those parents who has learned and experienced LEGO primarily by spending thousands of dollars on new LEGO and gone on many tag sale hunts for bargains, and seen LEGO through the eyes of a child, I know there is another side of the story to tell. Any research about a toy that has children absent seems just strange to me. Yet, since this is a project memoir and Bender's experience is not yet experiencing LEGO through his future child(ren) I guess my idea makes no sense.
I think the book would be both more complete and would have worked better if it were written as a straightforwad nonfiction book that either focused only on AFOL as a niche book or included some research and stories about children and teens and LEGO and was a more thorough, less niche nonfiction book. (I could share at least six chapter's worth of content that could have been included if it were not a project memoir and was a nonfiction book instead which included how children and teens use LEGO.)
The reason I rated this 3 stars, "it's okay" is the book was not rivoting and did not pull me in. The writing was a bit uneven, being draggy in some spots and not tight enough in others. Sometimes Bender goes on and on and when is just not interesting anymore. I wondered why a bit more editing was not done.
The weaving of the personal issue of infertility and using playing with LEGO as a diversion just didn't work for me. I really think the book would be better as straight nonfiction. Being a mother and sensitive to infertility, I was surprised that Bender's writing on the topic really didn't touch my heart, which is a real shame. He writing on that very personal issue came off flat and unemotional. It is difficult to write about very personal, emotional topics, so that is why a writer has a choice to either write about it, or not. If writing about an emotional topic doesn't convey that heart-wrenching emotion to the reader, then it perhaps it should have been edited out. The book could have been just about an adult man learning about the history of LEGO and the AFOL as a project memoir or change it to be nonfiction.
Bender seems like a really likable guy, and we're a LEGO loving family, so it pains me that I didn't love the book and feel that is was "okay".
If you must read anything about LEGO you'll read this book no matter what I think of it. If you want to know more about the seldom written about AFOL, this is a must-read book.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from Amazon Vine for the purpose of reviewing it on Amazon.com. I was not paid to write the review nor was I expected to blog about it. For my blog's full disclosure statement see the link near the top of my sidebar.
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