LEGO A Love Story

 

  • LEGO A Love Story

    Posted by Huw, 19 Aug 2010 06:00. Filed under Book review.

    This book has been out for a few months and I've been meaning to review it since reading it on holiday in July. However I didn't get round to it so here's a mini-review written by Brickset member duq:

    Like many of us Jonathan Bender played with Lego as a child and dreamt of working as a Master Builder in Legoland. Like many of us the Lego and the dream were forgotten when he went to college. Just before his 30th birthday his mother asks him to clear out his old room. Jonathan finds a big box of Lego which brings back a lot of memories and gets him to buy Lego again.

    Unlike most of us Jonathan is a writer and he has turned the story of his rediscovery of Lego into a book. His journey is a condensed version of what a lot of AFOLs have been through. Starting with a rainbow camel built from childhood bricks, buying sets, ordering from Bricklink and building the first MOC worthy of public display. Being a writer helps open doors and so he meets lots of well-known people from the AFOL community like Joe Meno and Lino Martins as well as people inside the company like Jamie Berard and Steve Witt. He even gets the full inside tour in Billund. There's a second story in the book and that's about Jonathan and his wife Kate. The Lego room was supposed to be the baby room and now the toys have arrived before the baby. That raises questions in his head that he and Kate need to answer.

    The book is an easy read. For most AFOLs the joy will be in recognising people and situations more than discovering new facts about Lego. For friends and family of AFOLs the book may help to explain why you ended up with the hobby you did.

    LEGO A Love Story can be ordered from Amazon in the USA ($16), Canada ($19), UK (£10), Germany (€18) and France (€19)


    6 comments, latest one posted 34 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by Lego Minifig Man in Canada, 19 Aug 2010 09:08

Sounds like a good read!

Posted by bigmike2k3 in United States, 19 Aug 2010 11:21

I picked this book up a few months ago and read it in just a few days. I found it to be very interesting look into the life of an AFOL. Jonathan sees our "world" at first from the outside looking in and by the end of the book, he is a full-fledged part of it. The theme of starting a family that is ever-preset in this book, hit especially close to home for me as I read it just before getting married. I really agree with duq's comment about it being a good book for friends/family to read to better understand our hobby. I made my wife promise to read it as soon as she has some time...

Posted by kenhew in Malaysia, 19 Aug 2010 12:57

I don't usually read, but only coming out of my dark ages this year, this book helps me understand better my recently emerged love for Lego, and find it reassuring when I read accounts of other AFOLs mentioned there, often smiling to myself when the author touched on something that really hits home with being a AFOL. I also had a good chuckle every now and then with the author's witty style of writing. All in all, a fun and enjoyable read, especially if you're a new Adult Fan Of Lego!

Posted by absolutelylez in United Kingdom, 19 Aug 2010 13:43

These reviews are great, but is the news thread really the place for them? Within time they'll go all the way down the list and be forgotten about. Why not make a separate section for them on the site?

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 19 Aug 2010 17:29

What, like this one: http://www.brickset.com/news/?Review

Posted by absolutelylez in United Kingdom, 20 Aug 2010 16:52

Yes, but I wonder how many times people will search the news specifically for reviews? A review isn't going to come to mind to a newcomer for example as a news item.

I've noticed these books are being added to your database quite often, and there's already a review system for those. Adding all such books to the database would allow not only admin to post their reviews but of course the users.

If each book had its own database entry, you could add additional pictures as you have done, and have them accessible on this website, instead of for example having to link to flickr, which I find far less comfortable to navigate that your site.

What would you think?

Commenting has ended on this article.