Forum > Non-Gaming Discussion > The Book Thread
The Book Thread
<< prevnext >>
avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 19294
News Posts: 9331
Joined: 2008-08-18
 
Mon, 23 Apr 2018 09:37:07

I just finished Slaughterhouse 5.  Won't know what I think about it until Foolz tells me! Nyaa

Ruining a future podcst, I think it would be a great video game. "The story is told in a nonlinear order, and events become clear through flashbacks (or time travel experiences) from the unreliable narrator. He describes the stories of Billy Pilgrim, who believes he was held in an alien zoo and has experienced time travel."

Edited: Mon, 23 Apr 2018 09:37:58

avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 16239
News Posts: 1043
Joined: 2008-06-21
 
Mon, 23 Apr 2018 22:00:05

I can't comment on the book, but from my exposure to holocaust deniers and American military historians, the bombing of Dresden is a favourite subject of both: one inflating the death toll and expunging the existence of any military-related targets by referencing contemporary Nazi propaganda (a trend started by one of the OG holocaust deniers, David Irving), and the other references the actual death toll of a single attack in contract to the millions upon millions of civilians killed by the Nazis, and often brings up the book itself to complain about how it offends them.

But my sister says it's good, and I defer to her in such matters when I am ignorant, so you get a second-hand approval from me.

Edited: Mon, 23 Apr 2018 22:00:34

avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 523
News Posts: 0
Joined: 2009-01-08
 
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 12:10:29

I've read too many things to list since last time, so I'll just say I've been reading about Russia recently. Mostly the revolution(s) for now. I've just bought Anna Karenina so I'll get through that one in a few weeks or months, whenever I feel is right.


By Miu Watanabe.

avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 17220
News Posts: 2806
Joined: 2008-06-21
 
Tue, 06 Apr 2021 19:35:20
I finished reading Masters of Doom. It was a good read. Very interesting to see how id Software started and what led to Romeo leaving/fired from id after Quake.

The VG Press

avatar
Country: US
Comments: 17934
News Posts: 770
Joined: 2009-02-25
 
Tue, 06 Apr 2021 19:47:53
a side note to that, I've mentioned this before, but I was living in Dallas when Quake was one of the biggest things in gaming and when the split between them happened. I had a few friends who were programmers and visited Ion Storm's studios for jobs or internships.

They said it was one of the most over the top and lavish things they had ever seen. They were in a penthouse suite in a downtown Dallas building and they pretty much had green neon in every corner you could stick it in. Romero
was making the Daikitana investors his bitch.
avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 17220
News Posts: 2806
Joined: 2008-06-21
 
Tue, 06 Apr 2021 19:56:57
Yeah that book goes into detail on Ion Storm. Romero was like a kid in a candy shop with unlimited money. LOL

The VG Press

avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 17220
News Posts: 2806
Joined: 2008-06-21
 
Wed, 14 Apr 2021 21:28:05
Reading Ken Williams book. Sierra nearly bought id Software after Wolfenstein 3D for 2.5 million in stock. id also wanted $100,000 cash upfront too, but Ken told them that was impossible, so the deal fell through. Interesting. This didn't come up in Masters of Doom.

The VG Press

avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 523
News Posts: 0
Joined: 2009-01-08
 
Thu, 15 Apr 2021 02:55:16

It's good to see others posting here. I've almost finished Dracula. I was hoping I wouldn't end up picturing Bela Lugosi's rendition of the character and fortunately that hasn't happened. It's very similar to Frankenstein in that it's hard for me to see the movie version of the character with the way the book version is written.


By Miu Watanabe.

avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 19294
News Posts: 9331
Joined: 2008-08-18
 
Thu, 15 Apr 2021 03:23:26
Finished Sid Meiers biography, will write a mini review this week. Surprisingly very little (no) gaming related books left to read now. I did start a book about ... fuck me I cant remember and Im like over 100 pages into it.

Glad you are reading Kens book Rave.

avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 19294
News Posts: 9331
Joined: 2008-08-18
 
Thu, 15 Apr 2021 03:24:57
Ravenprose said:
I finished reading Masters of Doom. It was a good read. Very interesting to see how id Software started and what led to Romeo leaving/fired from id after Quake.

yeah its in tge top three best books about gaming.

avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 19294
News Posts: 9331
Joined: 2008-08-18
 
Thu, 15 Apr 2021 07:11:00
Ok book I am reading is NBA Jam.

avatar
Country: CA
Comments: 31773
News Posts: 1717
Joined: 2008-06-22
 
Thu, 15 Apr 2021 13:57:32

I finished reading Itchy, Tasty, an unofficial history of resident Evil by my friend CVXfreak. It chronicles the making of the first decade of RE, great stories of how these games came to be and how RE literally saved capcom. My favorite parts were the development of 2 and 4 which of course went through different versions until it was done right.

660896.png
avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 16239
News Posts: 1043
Joined: 2008-06-21
 
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 02:36:29

Dracula was a disappointment. The migration paranoia was fun for sure, but all the spreading vampirism that followed had going for it was that it was strangely sexless (at least making it unique), and I suppose the melodramatic promises to kill anyone infected if they turned was kinda funny.

Nosferatu nailed the good parts. Copola, the hack, naturally chose to focus on the crap, and didn't even have the decency to keep it sexless.

Bad enough that I'm subjecting myself to Ready Player One, now. May the lord have mercy on my soul.

P.S.

Anna Karanenin makes me despise Dostoyevsky almost as much as Shakespeare, but the former was a great poet and aesthete so I just can't bring myself to dismiss him so easily, and while he doesn't offer any psychological insight into some universal vision of humanity, he nevertheless offers great insight into the Christ-hating sort of Christianity masquerading as the one true vision of Christ to which he belongs. To say Shakespeare offers insight into anything is like saying The Secret Life of Pets 2 is a revelatory exploration of American culture because of its skitzophrenic combination of the importance of indocrinating children yet anxiety of helicopter parenting, the importance of individual expression through things like trans rights yet only if one also buys into collective visions of bonkers xenaphobia and fascistic fetishisation of farming lol. And The Secret Life of Pets is at least endearing!

Edited: Tue, 20 Apr 2021 02:57:19

avatar
Country: US
Comments: 17934
News Posts: 770
Joined: 2009-02-25
 
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 04:19:55
Foolz said:

Dracula was a disappointment. The migration paranoia was fun for sure, but all the spreading vampirism that followed had going for it was that it was strangely sexless (at least making it unique), and I suppose the melodramatic promises to kill anyone infected if they turned was kinda funny.

Nosferatu nailed the good parts. Copola, the hack, naturally chose to focus on the crap, and didn't even have the decency to keep it sexless.


The concept of the sexy vampire didn't really exist until the Universal/Bela Lugosi version of Dracula. Bela was considered a very handsome man of his time, so the vampire as a seductor (seducer??) was created because of that. And I can only assume that because of its success, the two have gone hand in hand ever since then and has only gone further down that path with the Hammer Dracula films, Ann Rice's books, and of course the television classic True Blood.
avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 16239
News Posts: 1043
Joined: 2008-06-21
 
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 05:13:58
robio said:




The concept of the sexy vampire didn't really exist until the Universal/Bela Lugosi version of Dracula. Bela was considered a very handsome man of his time, so the vampire as a seductor (seducer??) was created because of that. And I can only assume that because of its success, the two have gone hand in hand ever since then and has only gone further down that path with the Hammer Dracula films, Ann Rice's books, and of course the television classic True Blood.

Agreed, as long as we add the qualifier that this applies only to modern fiction and motion pictures, as that whole shtick was preceded by sexy vampires in painting, poetry and mythology for ages.

<3 hammer films. But you forgot easily the sexiest of them all, Twilight.

Edited: Tue, 20 Apr 2021 05:15:34

avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 19294
News Posts: 9331
Joined: 2008-08-18
 
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 09:35:38
aspro said:

I just finished Slaughterhouse 5.  Won't know what I think about it until Foolz tells me! Nyaa

Ruining a future podcst, I think it would be a great video game. "The story is told in a nonlinear order, and events become clear through flashbacks (or time travel experiences) from the unreliable narrator. He describes the stories of Billy Pilgrim, who believes he was held in an alien zoo and has experienced time travel."

Reading old threads is a trip. I have no memory of reading this book.

Anyhoo just finished Boss Fights Book 21 on the making of NBA Jam.  Whlie it does cover absolutely everything you'd want to know about NBA Jam it is also a detailed history of Midway and Acclaim.  Certainly worth reading.

I've found the quality of the Boss Fight Books to be uneven -- anyone had any exp with them and which are good and bad? For me Earthbound one was utter crap, the Spelunky one was fascinating, even for someone like myself who has never played it.

avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 19294
News Posts: 9331
Joined: 2008-08-18
 
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 09:36:43
Dvader said:

I finished reading Itchy, Tasty, an unofficial history of resident Evil by my friend CVXfreak. It chronicles the making of the first decade of RE, great stories of how these games came to be and how RE literally saved capcom. My favorite parts were the development of 2 and 4 which of course went through different versions until it was done right.

Is he thr one you two had the RE fan site? Is book available on kindle/amazon?

avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 523
News Posts: 0
Joined: 2009-01-08
 
Mon, 26 Apr 2021 12:12:23
Foolz said:

Dracula was a disappointment. The migration paranoia was fun for sure, but all the spreading vampirism that followed had going for it was that it was strangely sexless (at least making it unique), and I suppose the melodramatic promises to kill anyone infected if they turned was kinda funny.

Nosferatu nailed the good parts. Copola, the hack, naturally chose to focus on the crap, and didn't even have the decency to keep it sexless.

Bad enough that I'm subjecting myself to Ready Player One, now. May the lord have mercy on my soul.

P.S.

Anna Karanenin makes me despise Dostoyevsky almost as much as Shakespeare, but the former was a great poet and aesthete so I just can't bring myself to dismiss him so easily, and while he doesn't offer any psychological insight into some universal vision of humanity, he nevertheless offers great insight into the Christ-hating sort of Christianity masquerading as the one true vision of Christ to which he belongs. To say Shakespeare offers insight into anything is like saying The Secret Life of Pets 2 is a revelatory exploration of American culture because of its skitzophrenic combination of the importance of indocrinating children yet anxiety of helicopter parenting, the importance of individual expression through things like trans rights yet only if one also buys into collective visions of bonkers xenaphobia and fascistic fetishisation of farming lol. And The Secret Life of Pets is at least endearing!

Tolstoyevsky.

Now I have to write an essay about Dracula. I'm also reading Crime and Punishment by the true Dosto(y)evsky. It's my bus book, so it will take a while to get through.


By Miu Watanabe.

avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 19294
News Posts: 9331
Joined: 2008-08-18
 
Tue, 27 Apr 2021 09:32:09

Crime and punishment is a quick read though. I;ve read it at least twice, it's always been a easy read for me.  I love it.

Finished NBA Jam by Boss Fight Books NBA Jam (Boss Fight Books #21) by Reyan Ali (goodreads.com)

It;s really good, it's good history of Acclaim, Midway/Bally Williams in addition to telling you everything that could possibly be known about NBA Jam itself.  Also gets into Midway's other arcade games.  Completely reccomened reading.

avatar
Country: UN
Comments: 523
News Posts: 0
Joined: 2009-01-08
 
Sun, 09 May 2021 05:22:10
aspro said:

Crime and punishment is a quick read though. I;ve read it at least twice, it's always been a easy read for me.  I love it.

Turns out reading on the bus once or twice a week isn't the best environment for reading it. I have decided to read The Sociological Imagination once or twice a week instead. Crime and Punishment will have its day (or however long it takes) later.


By Miu Watanabe.

<< prevnext >>
Log in or Register for free to comment
Recently Spotted:
*crickets*
Login @ The VG Press
Username:
Password:
Remember me?