Favorite Books

[Yukyon]

Shadow of the wind and Angel's game, both by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Also the Sicilian by Mario Puzo

Shadow of the Wind is the book that got me into reading, I had read before bjt no book had actually made me invested in the story or the characters until a cousin lended me this, out of nowhere. I was mesmerized by it, I carried to school every day until I finally read it fully and went back to his house to ask for the rest, alas, he did not have the other 3 (2 at the time)

The Angel's Game was not a sequel, but a prequel of Shadow of the Wind, it managed to capture me again once I finally got my parents to buy it for me, I finished it in 4 days or so, it was just more of everything I loved from the first book, sadly I do not have my original copy as I gifted it to my school crush.

I need to reread all of them, but specially this one since I do not recall much, I do remember how after reading it, I was disappointed that we saw none of what happened in the book in the godfather movies

I'm awful at summarizing btw, so sorry for talking about the actual plots UnU

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Any non-fiction readers here?

Spoiler: A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

View attachment 24819

Just to give you an idea of how good this book is, this reviewer called it "the best book ever written". Is it really? Doubt it, but it's still a soul-clenching book for anyone with a hunger for understanding. The history of how we know what we know is far from what the classrooms depict. It's not formal nor sophisticated, it is messy, dramatic, and worthy of plenty of gossip.

Sounds interesting for sure. I'll have to look it up.

I like reading non-fiction books about the game industry.

Masters of Doom is a good read if you are interested in knowing the back story and early career of Carmack and Romero and the founding of Id Software. It is a good read but I find they glamorize the game industry a bit too much.

Console wars covers the Nintendo/Sega war from the perspective of Tom Kalinske, the CEO of Sega of America. It isn't as broad as you'd expect from the title, since it doesn't cover the Nintendo side of the war in detail, but the stories about Sega and the dynamics with the Japanese parent company were interesting.

 

[IDMTINP]

Sounds interesting for sure. I'll have to look it up.

I like reading non-fiction books about the game industry.

Masters of Doom is a good read if you are interested in knowing the back story and early career of Carmack and Romero and the founding of Id Software. It is a good read but I find they glamorize the game industry a bit too much.

I know that Carmack is some sort of damn genius who has contributed to gaming as we know it today in a pretty essential way, but I've never bothered learning about it. It may be interesting!

 

[VampireLord1024VampireLord1024's icon]

Oh, well if Grapes of Wrath is one of your favorites I would really recommend it then, I think most would consider the prose to be Steinbeck's best. Grapes of Wrath is certainly a more ambitious work, but I think cannary row is more engaging. Also, MUCH shorter :P

I would read it but I don't really read books much anymore.

 

[Octopus]

Masters of Doom

Console wars

I know that Carmack is some sort of damn genius who has contributed to gaming as we know it today in a pretty essential way, but I've never bothered learning about it. It may be interesting!

Listened to both those on audible, can also confirm they are great. Doom Guy is also a great one, it's John Romeros autobiography that came out more recently.

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

In english: Henry James The turn of the screw, Aldous Huxley Brave new world and Poul Auster The New York Trilogy.
In Spanish: Braulio Arenas "El castillo de Perth", Jorge Manrique Coplas a la muerte de su padre, Julio Cortazar Historias de cronopios y famas.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

The Spanish language GOAT, in my personal opinion is Gabriel García Marquez. I had to read "Cien Años de Soledad" for school but that book is like Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones level of ambition in the generations of family and interconnected stories.

I also like "Noticia de un sequestro" and "Cronica de una muerte anunciada". Those fall more into the journalistic style crime genre. He's very good at writing those diary/chronicle style stories.

Well, there's also the old timey books that I read in school that are quite good. "Don Quijote" and "Cantar del Mio Cid" aka the Song of the beloved Cid. Everyone knows about Don Quijote, but the legend of El Cid is crazy. Legends are always fanciful, but this one is somewhat based on a true story. He was banished unjustly from his country by a jealous king of Spain and was forced to seek employment with the moors that lived in the south of Spain. Normally Christians and Moors were enemies, but he was so well known as a brave fighter and commander, that the Moors adopted him as their own. He was known affectionately as Al Sa'id (the blessed one) due to his prowess as a general. Cid adopted the nickname, transliterated into El Cid in Spanish.

 

[dropsmegamega]

Top 5:
-Kafka's The Castle
-Dostoievski's The Devils
-Agota Kristof's The Notebook Trilogy
-Steppenwolf
-Naked Lunch

A few others that come to mind: The Lunar Trilogy, Cosmos (Gombrowicz), Don Quijote, Faust and Marat/Sade

 

[PhaseJump]

Malazan Book of the Fallen. It is up there with Lord of the Rings.

 

[cjl8336]

Any non-fiction readers here?

Spoiler: A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

View attachment 24819

Just to give you an idea of how good this book is, this reviewer called it "the best book ever written". Is it really? Doubt it, but it's still a soul-clenching book for anyone with a hunger for understanding. The history of how we know what we know is far from what the classrooms depict. It's not formal nor sophisticated, it is messy, dramatic, and worthy of plenty of gossip.

this book saved my ass in my economics classes

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

View attachment 25398
this book saved my ass in my economics classes

 

[IDMTINP]

View attachment 25398
this book saved my ass in my economics classes

Would you be able to give me a brief summary?

 

[tropicalavera]

Whilst I do read a fair amount of fiction, I'm gonna recommend some of my favorite non-fic books bc that's usually what I gravitate towards! These are things I regularly include in my reading lists.

Fantastic collection of essays and writings about appropriation art, copyright law, and post-modernist art approaches at large. Mostly focuses on literature, music, and the traditional arts but there's lots of lessons to learn and apply to videogames!

WOW! Turns out the industry has ALWAYS been awful! But for every story of done-by artists, programmers, and other professionals there's a lot of inspiring stuff too. It's great hearing first-hand accounts from lesser-known names, to find out how they contributed to titles you've played - and others you've maybe never heard of!

Game studies is, by-and-large, a little dense to get into. And whilst it's always tempting to introduce people to Juul and Suits and Caillois and Swink etc. unless you're actually throwing yourself into the field it might be a little difficult to chew. Bo Ruberg on the other hand is remarkably readable - and this book explores the ways in which we can engage with videogame texts through a lens of queer theory to discover new things about the emergent narrative possibilties of the medium.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

View attachment 25554
WOW! Turns out the industry has ALWAYS been awful! But for every story of done-by artists, programmers, and other professionals there's a lot of inspiring stuff too. It's great hearing first-hand accounts from lesser-known names, to find out how they contributed to titles you've played - and others you've maybe never heard of!

I'm glad that there are some books that keep it real. Most books about game devs tend to romanticize the industry and make the devs seem like gods/rockstars. And they are to a certain extent, but we don't get to hear about the crunch, the weeks/months without seeing families, the sleeping under the desk and all the negatives of that lifestyle.

View attachment 25555
Game studies is, by-and-large, a little dense to get into. And whilst it's always tempting to introduce people to Juul and Suits and Caillois and Swink etc. unless you're actually throwing yourself into the field it might be a little difficult to chew. Bo Ruberg on the other hand is remarkably readable - and this book explores the ways in which we can engage with videogame texts through a lens of queer theory to discover new things about the emergent narrative possibilties of the medium.

Not sure whether I vibe with this type of analysis, but I'm not going to judge without reading it. Whether its queer theory, feminist theory, minority studies, it feels like sometimes they are reading way too much into things. One of the positives of certain genres of games is that they accommodate any type of gamer, no matter the gender, sexual preference or race/nationality. But to say games are explicitly queer because of that is weird to me. I guess I'm not sure what video games being queer is supposed to mean.

 

[tropicalavera]

Not sure I vibe whether I vibe with this type of analysis, but I'm not going to judge without reading it. Whether its queer theory, feminist theory, minority studies, it feels like sometimes they are reading way too much into things. One of the positives of certain genres of games is that they accommodate any type of gamer, no matter the gender, sexual preference or race/nationality. But to say games are explicitly queer because of that is weird to me.

I could disassemble this comment but I would just be explaining the book?? If you are worried that the author is claiming videogames are explicitly queer then ig don't worry? It's not really doing GAY ROPE style close readings of embedded elements within the games discussed - but rather applying queer theory to game studies approaches and conversations regarding play - the suggestion is that play is inherently queer. Which it is? (and again, dw - not queer as in gay but queer as in against-the-grain - Bo is not out here saying the grasshopper was trans (basedbasedbased) but that the grasshopper is maybe better understood through a lense of queer theory). It absolutely might NOT be the text for you though - and that's okay! You can find some of Bo's standalone essays via scholar and see if you vibe with their shtick. OTHERWISE, there's plenty of other cool game studies texts out there!

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I could disassemble this comment but I would just be explaining the book?? If you are worried that the author is claiming videogames are explicitly queer then ig don't worry? It's not really doing GAY ROPE style close readings of embedded elements within the games discussed - but rather applying queer theory to game studies approaches and conversations regarding play - the suggestion is that play is inherently queer. Which it is? (and again, dw - not queer as in gay but queer as in against-the-grain - Bo is not out here saying the grasshopper was trans (basedbasedbased) but that the grasshopper is maybe better understood through a lense of queer theory). It absolutely might NOT be the text for you though - and that's okay! You can find some of Bo's standalone essays via scholar and see if you vibe with their shtick. OTHERWISE, there's plenty of other cool game studies texts out there!

If he's saying games go against the grain, why not say that? Someone saying games are queer doesn't bother me, just its odd to me that someone would assign those type of qualities to video games. Perhaps I need to read the book, instead of hassling you, lol.

 

[tropicalavera]

The grasshopper was trans? I'm so confused.

If he's saying games go against the grain, why not say that? It's more that I don't get the point of this type of analysis. Someone saying games are queer doesn't bother me, just its odd to me that someone would assign those type of qualities to video games. Like I said, I don't get the point of that type of study as a concept and would like to get some insight into that.

There's a lot to unpack here! Just a quick note to say that I'm really not trying to be flippant or anything - I'm very happy to do my best to explain anything!

Bo is directly applying approaches to analysis from queer studies to game studies - this would be, like, taking critical approaches of film theory and applying them to graphic design, or post-modernist literary analysis and applying it to 19th century gothic opera. So the reason they don't 'just say that' is because? well I mean, they do!! in the book!! If you're gesturing towards the title then I don't know what to tell you - book titles are the original clickbait thumbnails; they're meant to grab your attention.
As for WHY we do this, well? That's how the humanities work - we aim to analyse texts through a multitude of lenses to make sense of them. And no one approach is the 'best' approach - like any other science we test them, we put them through their paces, apply them to as much as we can to see what value there even IS to that sort of approach. So the book is basically just "hey! there's some cool theories from this other field of study that have already been applied to film, music, theatre, architecture, art history, literature, language, and NOW i'm gonna try and apply it all to games! Let's see what we can learn!".

the grasshopper is (probably) NOT trans - but they did die happy.

 

[diapered]

I would read it but I don't really read books much anymore.

I know that feel... I don't read books anymore either, and I used to read a lot. I don't think I have read another book after I finished undergrad. Whatever I read nowadays is either from a textbook, a journal article, or randomly reading arxiv. I kind of miss it, but I don't think I have the patience to read a novel anymore ;_;

Anyway, favorite book is probably

 

[Kamako]

Stephen King's The Stand is the only book that's made me tear up, so that's gotta count for something

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Stephen King's The Stand is the only book that's made me tear up, so that's gotta count for something

I started reading the Stand after watching the TV series in the 90s. My sister was really into Stephen King and horror but I liked his non-horror writing the best. It was really riveting but I never finished it. Another book on my list to read. That and the Dark Tower book, sounds like my type of Stephen King work.

 

[Kamako]

I started reading the Stand after watching the TV series in the 90s. My sister was really into Stephen King and horror but I liked his non-horror writing the best. It was really riveting but I never finished it. Another book on my list to read. That and the Dark Tower book, sounds like my type of Stephen King work.

I bounced off of The Stand two or three times in my teens before finally burning through it in my early 20's. It was a rewarding experience. I've not watched either of the two limited series but may do in time to come.

I finished the first book in the Dark Tower series...like you I enjoy his non-horror writing the best, especially his thrillers...The Running Man, The Long Walk, The Road Virus Heads North and The Man in the Black Suits are my faves :)

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I bounced off of The Stand two or three times in my teens before finally burning through it in my early 20's. It was a rewarding experience. I've not watched either of the two limited series but may do in time to come.

I finished the first book in the Dark Tower series...like you I enjoy his non-horror writing the best, especially his thrillers...The Running Man, The Long Walk, The Road Virus Heads North and The Man in the Black Suits are my faves :)

Don't forget Shawshank Redemption and the Green Mile. Although, I've only watched the movies, I'm sure the novels are bangers too.

 

[Ikagura]

Too many books to read. I feel I'm still needing to read more.

I liked reading Soylent Green, 2001 and Do Androids.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Too many books to read. I feel I'm still needing to read more.

I liked reading Soylent Green, 2001 and Do Androids.

I read "Do Androids dream of electric sheep?" and watched Blade Runner for my film studies class. I feel like reading it adds a lot to the film. Same with 2001: A space odyssey and its source material.

 

[PhaseJump]

Dark Tower was great, up until King was hit by the van and he rushed through V-VII. He turned into a different writer altogether back then. He lost his edge.