A Reading List By Gamers
If you’re reading this, you probably play a lot of games. And, as the stereotype holds, if you play a lot of games, you probably don’t read a lot. But most of us know that not to be the case. Want proof? I sort of did, too. So, I put the question to some movers and shakers in the game world: Whatchya been readin’? My e-mails didn’t demand gaming or non-gaming books, but, these being the people they are, I certainly got a few of that nature. I’m still waiting on a few responses — I’m looking at you Major Nelson — but I wanted to go ahead and share what I’ve got so far. Without further ado: a short reading list for gamers. Just in time for summer.
If you’re all about flOw, then you know wunderkind game designer Jenova Chen is all about keeping things lucid. He’s cited his inspiration for the flash-to-PS3 title plenty of times. Sure enough, when I asked him about a reading list for gamers, he stayed on message:
If anyone in the group are interested in game design, this book is a must read.
If you’re too lazy to follow the link, he’s talking about “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
But you’ll have to go to the site to find out what’s it about. It seems simple enough, but I know I wouldn’t do it justice it if I tried to sum it up.
Ste Curran with the One Life Left gaming podcast, which is absolutely essential these days, had this to add:
“Ok! Steven Poole’s Unspeak, about language and manipulation. Beautifully written and illuminating. By the author of Trigger Happy which is still the best book about videogames ever written.
And Game On! by Simon Byron, David McCarthy and, uh, me. Which is look at the 50 greatest games of all time, individual chapters with overviews and historical context, and quite fun to dip into I think. But I would.”
I’ll wrap up this edition with Heather Chaplin’s reply. She’s the author of Smartbomb, which I’ve been told is fantastic though I haven’t read it. (Sorry, Heather!) She offered something for those of us who would rather take a break from games in our literary pursuits. I’ll let her speak for herself:
“Little Children, by Tom Perrotta - I’m loving this book. Sharply drawn characters and good writing. Feels totally true, as if the book were an entranceway into world that existed in sharper relief than our own.
Martin Dressler, by Steven Millhouser - I’ve been on a novel kick. This is about a hotel entrepreneur at the turn of the last century, who’s every creation becomes more elaborate, fantastical and self enclosed than the last. Ultimately disappointing, but interesting insights into our love of miniaturization and replication. Also, of the ‘anything is possible’ feeling of the early 20th century.
The Barnum Museum, by Steven Millhouser - A friend gave me this collection of short stories for my birthday so i wouldn’t give up on Millhouser. It’s short stories and the first one takes place around a game of Clue - the characters are both the players and folk from within the game. You know them, Miss Peacock, Col Mustard, etc. It’s pretty cool, actually.
Charlie Wilson’s War, by George Crile - This is narrative non fiction at its best. And I mean absolute, jaw dropping best. It’s the story of the congressmen and CIA agents who first started backing the Islamic Afghanistan factions because they were fighting the Soviet Union in the 1980s, unknowingly paving the way to the well armed and trained jihad movement we all know about today. I recommend this to anyone who’s interested in modern day geopolitics.”
What’s everyone out there reading?
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27. April 2007 at 06:37
Only with reading I´m able to compensate a gaming rush that I get once in a while - to the very dismay of my wife I have to admit! :-) She doesn´t quite share my enthusiasm for this type of media.
Currently I´m reading “Zahir” by Paulo Coelho…
27. April 2007 at 07:45
I love reading! I read a bit of everything, I think - from murder mysteries to scifi on the fiction side of things, encyclopedias, history, philosophy, politics, etc on the non-fiction side of things. News and game reviews/guides in the misc. section ;)
27. April 2007 at 10:31
I tend towards Fantasy, stuff like Mercedes Lackey, Terry Brooks, and the like. I like the High Sci-Fi too though, such as Allan Dean Foster. Swords and starships.
29. April 2007 at 18:34
Currently reading Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter :)
29. April 2007 at 19:40
Great post! I love stuff like this.
I’ve just about finished up Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein. I’m also resisting the urge to start the Harry Potter series.
30. April 2007 at 08:55
Forgot all about Heinlein. Tunnel in the Sky is a favorite.
Don’t resist, it’s a good series. (Skip five.)
30. April 2007 at 11:16
Favorite Science Fiction: Idoru by William Gibson, pure genius.
Favorite Gibson Quote from All Tomorrow’s Parties
“The bridge, behind him now, perhaps forever, is a medium of transport become a destination: salt air, scavenged neon, the sliding cries of gulls. He has glimpsed the edges of a life there that he feels is somehow ancient and eternal. Apparent disorder arranged in some deeper, some unthinkable fashion.”
30. April 2007 at 12:48
My favorite SciFI would have to be 1984 by Orwell, and Brave New World by Huxley.
30. April 2007 at 12:50
As for fantasy…well, I like the classics: Illiad, Oddesy, Dracula….all reach far beyond simple categorization :)
30. April 2007 at 15:24
Wonder how long it would take for Gibson to pop up. It’s been a while since I tried Idoru, but I remember it being obtuse, even by Gibson standards. Can’t beat ATP, though.
1. May 2007 at 09:08
Actually, I read “Smartbomb” and can’t say I was all that impressed by it. It seemed to be written by “we know better” outsiders, with a “can you believe this story?” feel to it. If you’re reading The Game Chair, you won’t learn anything new.
1. May 2007 at 21:01
I’m reading “Snow Crash”, by Neal Stephenson. I enjoy books by Neil Gaiman and Sarah Waters, just to name a couple of authors.
1. May 2007 at 21:04
I have “Smartbomb” but I’ve yet to read it. I have a bit of a reading backlog. Been reading a bunch of technical books especially on Agile software development, css, and OO PHP. Outside of that I’m just about finished with “Smart Mobs” by Howard Reingold and before that finished “Get Back in the Box” by Douglass Rushkoff. Big fan of the latter. Also squeezing in “The Educated Mind” by Kiernan Egan on the subway. When these are all done, I might need a little fiction break.
1. May 2007 at 23:27
Has anyone read The Road? When I first got it, i put it down in a night. Thought it was great, but figured it was a little too video-gamey (a lot of resource management) to break into the mainstream. Now it’s on Oprah’s book club and won the Pulitzer for fiction.
2. May 2007 at 08:35
[…] (I should mention that this post was inspired by a post over at The Game Chair discussing reading lists of gamers) Technorati Tags: books, Lists, Movies, Music ; […]
2. May 2007 at 14:37
Obtuse is my middle name Neil!
Speaking of obtuse, has anyone read Accelerondo? The only book where a main character appears as an emergent property of a flock of seagulls.
29. May 2007 at 00:28
I keep trying to read Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs & Steel, but then I pick up something else. I’m liking Set This House In Order by Matt Ruff, and I just finished rereading The Master & Margarita because a new (to me, at least) annotated English translation came out in paperback.
Ruff’s novel is a wonderfully imagined trip into the head of two people, both of whom have multiple personalities. It manages to be a novel of ideas, a romance, and a thriller all at the same time. Lotsa fun.
Oooh…there’s resource management in The Road? Farming nodes with Cormac McCarthy. Now I want to read it. I wanted to read it because I like postapocalyptic travelogues, the I didn’t want to read it after Oprah anointed it, but now I want to read it again.
As soon as I get my elven hunter up to 30th level in LOTRO. (Can we petition Turbine to quit with the awkward and imprecise “elf hunter” and “dwarf champion” nomenclature? These characters neither hunt elves nor champion dwarves. They are, however, of elven and dwarven stock. But I digress.)