Live Like a Vulcan, Love Like a Wookiee, Laugh Like a Hobbit: Life Lessons from Pop Culture is exactly what it sounds like: a delightful look at the life lessons we can all learn from pop culture. (And here my mom always thought I was waisting time on mindless nonsense.) Using the story of a loner at a comic con who runs into a group of cosplayers at restaurant/bar as his vehicle, Robb Pearlman does an absolutely fantastic job of using movies, books, tv shows, and even video games to explore the life lessons imparted from pop culture, referencing everything from Star Trek/Star Wars to the Avengers to Harry Potter to The Princess Bride to Dune, even going old school with Flash Gordon and the 80s cult classic Krull.
This is a short book that can easily be read in only a couple of hours but it’s enjoyable and well worth the time. And frankly as an admittedly massive geek the shear number of references, number of fandoms that Pearlman touches on is quite impressive. This also happened to be the first book from Pearlman that I’d read but I will definitely be checking out more of his work.
I’d like to thank BenBella Books, Smart Pop, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of Live Like a Vulcan, Love Like a Wookiee, Laugh Like a Hobbit: Life Lessons from Pop Culture.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/live-like-a-vulcan-love-like-a-wookiee-laugh-like-a-hobbit-robb-pearlman/1138968685?ean=9781953295828&bvnotificationId=af4a2d04-29eb-11ec-afbe-0a9b5965424d&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/188607045

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Live Like a Vulcan, Love Like a Wookiee, Laugh Like a Hobbit is a fast paced entertaining book about life lessons seen through pop culture..
The book is setup as an ongoing conversation at a restaurant near a comic con between four friends, cosplaying as a Vulcan, Wookiee, Hobbit, and an elder, who befriend a lone attendee and together they discuss what pop culture can teach us about life. The speed round chapters give quick fire answers showing a life lesson each fandom in rapid succession the other chapters go into more detail.
Overall I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys any fandom be it movies, video games or books.

A good book for fans of Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and other franchises. I think they'll enjoy it a lot more than I did.

This title focuses on a conversation between several men after a day at Comic Con. You'll find out answers to questions like: Why would three friends be hanging out dressed like characters from three completely different franchises? What does it mean to have a mantra to " love like a wookiee?" What is the moral of Scooby-Doo? Live Like a Vulcan, Love Like a Wookiee, Laugh Like a Hobbit is it short read that is simultaneously funny, delicate, diverse, thought-provoking, relevant and insightful. You don't have to be a fan of any particular franchise or be someone that attends Comic-Con to enjoy the interesting back-and-forth style take on how modern pop culture could help shape who we are.

"Live Like a Vulcan, Love Like a Wookiee, Laugh Like a Hobbit" by Robb Pearlman had so much potential. The premise is great. It promises to offer pop culture wisdom through the lens of fantasy, mostly movie fantasy, in a Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" style, but it falls short. Instead of a wise, talking gorilla, this book offers its perspectives via a quartet of cosplaying convention attendees to a man who happens upon them in a bar. They talk about philosophy, self-help, and how to change the world with stories and quotes from popular fantasy movies. Their dialogue could have been whimsical and hilarious, deep and challenging, but instead it came across as forced and wooden leaving the reader wishing for more and dreaming of what could have been.

A Vulcan, a Wookie and a Hobbit walk into a bar. Sounds like the start of a really esoterica joke, right? It was the title of the book that originally drew my attention. Moderated by the one they call Elder, three cos-playing friends attending a science fiction convention finish their day in the hotel bar and enter into a conversation about life. Along the way, the adopt a young loner, also an attendee, who had only stopped for dinner. And so the reader embarks on a discussion of pop culture and the life lessons it can teach us. Sound corny? I thought so too until the first time I had to stop and take a minute to think about just what was being said. I found myself bookmarking pages, taking notes and annotating.

One of the things I really liked about the book is that the chapters are short. Each one tackles a different aspect of our everyday life and the things we can learn through a shared love of pop culture. And it's not limited to science fiction references. With references to everything from Jaws and Scooby Doo to The Lego Movie and Disney, there's something to which everyone can relate. There wasn't a single chapter of this book that didn't make me stop and think. I plan for this book to hold a prominent place on my keeper shelf.

Quick and fun read. Short chapters alternating between the Vulcan. The Wookie and the Hobbit. I was laughing out loud in places. Really enjoyed this one. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I liked the result of this book more than I expected, as at first, I expected something more like a handbook like "The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy", but the teachings of pop culture are very well applied and there are some references that are so recent, like the Wandavision one!!!!

The book starts as the MC walks into a vulcan, a wookie, a hobbit and an elder in a bar, and they start talking. The topics they discuss are interesting, and if you're invested in a fandom (or more than one), you'll probably find conversations that you had with other fans : the impact our favorite characters have on our life, how books, series, movies, etc, belong both to authors and to fans...
The writing style of the discussions didn't always make them very natural (personally, I wouldn't discuss how a movie changed how I see death with a stranger I just met in a bar), but the topics discussed are interesting and there are some good points that are made.

I agree with many points made in the books, about the positive impacts that fiction can have on our life, and that embrassing being a nerd can be an amazing thing, but I would have liked more discussion about certain sadder points in fandoms : the harassment that authors, actors/actresses, and sometimes even fans, can endure, because they decided on a specific ending, or that the character they play is queer, or they pointed out that a part of a beloved story is racist. I love being part of many fandoms and made great friends through that, but we shouldn't forget that fandoms (and the universe they're based on) are places where sexism, racism, queerphobia and other oppressions still exist.

Thank you netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

As someone who has attended several comic conventions during the last few years, I felt as if this book was a pretty good description of the environment one lives while attending one. Of course there are the panels, the celebrity photo-ops and autographs, the exhibitors stands to get your attention but the experience of meeting other fellow geek fans is truly important.

I enjoyed reading this book and how the author exceeded at portraying accurately how this experience is for most of us, but at the same time, using knowledge and the learning given by a plethora of pop culture properties we are familiar with. It felt truly organic having four different characters, a Vulcan, a Wookiee, a Hobbit and an Elder - or four different individuals dressed as - interacting with the author from a first-person narrative and providing their wisdom and knowledge.

When attending a con, it's common to act as the character you're dressed with. You're no longer John, an accountant from Kansas or Laura, a teacher from Illinois, you're embodied by your cosplay and that's a really nice experience. To have these four people engaging in such enriching conversation covering different topics with the author felt as if one as the reader was sitting aside them, listening to them.

And regardless the discourse that might exist in all types of fandom, I appreciated that the author acknowledge the different point of views from fans without focusing too much on it. Generally speaking, the perspective of this book is focusing on the positives rather than the negative side of the fandom. On how a person attending on its own can find themselves as part of a larger community and find kindred spirits to hang out with. And this book meets its purpose: on bringing a nice perspective on attending a con and enjoying the experience, not only the activities per se, but the people you get to meet when you go to one. And especially during these pandemic times, though con activity has restarted at a certain extent, but it's not back to pre-pandemic levels, it is quite helpful to remember and value that person-to-person experience as something worth having.

I requested this book because popular culture (particularly when it references Star Trek, Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings) is very dear to my heart.
This was a pleasant and entertaining read. It had a bit of philosophizing, a lot of pop culture love, an easy way of bringing the bigger picture and metaphor of pop culture into personal relevance, and affirming reasoning.
It was short and a quick read but definitely enjoyable and engaging.

my thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

Live Like a Vulcan, Love Like a Wookie, Laugh Like a Hobbit is a quick, entertaining read that would be a perfect gift for a middle school/high school or college age fans of popular culture, especially those who are into Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR/Hobbit or super hero comics/movies. The book describes an evening spent in a tavern with cosplayers after a day at a comic-con, as they muse about the life lessons one can learn from heroes and villains and how they could be applied to ordinary, normal lives of everyone. The book has a few nuggets of depth (how quicksand in movies is imaginary, just as the internal negativity we use to block our progress), but most is a fun reminiscing of favorite stories from books, movies, TV, and comics. The "speed round" chapters are especially light on content, as they speed through naming various titles or characters and then a sentence describing a lesson we all can take away from it. I personally thought it would be more in-depth , so this book wasn't for me. It was light and humorous (not laugh out loud funny, but sweet), so again might be a great read to inspire a young person who is very into pop culture.

While it was a quick read, it was so enjoyable. Positive lessons to take away from popular culture. With how toxic some fandoms can be, this book is a great reminder of the messages & warnings found in popular culture.

I selected this book on the presumption that it would feel like a comforting, familiar, and philosophical read. It was definitely all 3 of these, plus fulfilled the nerdy joy in my heart!

Pearlman describes a scene of being a weary traveller during a period of a convention (comic con?) with “a Hobbit, a Wookiee, a Vulcan and an Elder in a bar…” (in this case, a tavern) and proceeds to elaborate on his conversation about the lessons learned from our favourite sci-fi, fantasy, and superhero genres.

What I liked about this book was the little snippets of all my favourites series. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, the Avengers were all discussed. Pearlman showed the value that fiction can bring and the lessons imparted on us from the characters and quests we hold dear to me too us.

It was quite brief and I would have loved more in-depth discussions of the themes and values from all these texts. But a solid read for fans of any pop culture book, tv show, movie, and comic book!

I found the concept of this book highly interesting. This is a self-help book on life but at the same time a highly entertaining novel.

The whole book revolves around 5 convention going "geeks". The main character walks into a bar where he meets an Elder, a Wookiee, a Hobbit and a Vulcan.
They discuss all the life lessons that can be learnt from our favourite tv shows, movies and books.

While some I already figured out when watching/reading them, Others were a revelation, albeit, nothing revolutionary. Sometimes, the discussion felt a little forced. As if the author couldn't quite figure out how to go from one subject to another.

Where the speed rounds necessary? I dont know, but I did enjoy them.

Some chapter I found more relevant than other. Some spoke straight to me, and the analogies used are very cleaved and very relatable.

The style is easy to read and the book is rather short, but not too short. I didn't find myself wanting more. The author seems to have pinpointed the exact amount of pop culture life lessons one can digest in one book.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a cute book that's around 3.5 stars for me.

I like the concept. Our main character meets some cosplayers at a convention and they talk about what each of their favorite franchises taught them about life. It's fairly high-level and easy to read. There are a lot of quotes from movies. That being said, the order things are written in are a bit confusing and there's some jumping around. There's also "speed rounds" where the characters sum up the moral of each story which are even shorter than the already short chapters and didn't really add a lot to me.

It's goofy, it's kind of sweet, and it talks about philosophy with a pop culture spin.

Fast paced, short and fun read. I really enjoyed this book it was nice to understand the references and to see that every geek has learned something from these stories.

I love this book with all of my nerd heart. I felt like it was completely connectable with my brain and the way I think. The way the nerds united and connected and related. I wanted to be friends with these people. The lessons were so simple, such common sense but broke down from pop culture and it made me tear up because it was just so uplifting.


CW for mentions of HP and Hogwarts in the second half.

I thought that I was prepared to read this book, by virtue of the "All I need to know about life, I learned from Star Trek" poster hanging in our 'Geek Study'. After all, between me, my hubby, and our adult sons, our family fandom covers most genres, from movies to video games to books.
I was wrong. This book, it turns out, is everything I imagine could happen should I get into conversations about the geeky things we love, but were much more eloquent in our delivery. Sure, we've had conversations about the inner meanings of the different things we love, but we've never come close to the depth that Robb Pearlman's characters do.
The book is eye opening and relevant, and I feel like the main character does at the end, looking at the world of fandom with new eyes. While I did know the various things outlined in the book, having it put through the lens of an Elder, a Vulcan, a Wookie and a Hobbit makes the life lessons much more entertaining and easier to swallow.
Beyond that, the book is well written and concise, flowing nicely from start to finish.
Everyone can learn something about life from reading it.

Live Like a Vulcan, Love Like a Wookie, Laught Like a Hobbit by Robb Pearlman was an entertaining read. It is based on a man walking into a bar and meeting being invited to sit with an elder, a Vulcan, a Wookie and a Hobbit. While sitting there the five characters discuss the life lessons they have learned through pop culture.

This book was a quick read and I really liked the chapter titles. However, I did wish that some of the chapters had more in depth analysis.