The Design of Everyday Things

This is one of those books that has been on my “recommended design-related reading” list for ages. It is extremely relevant to designers of any field, game designers included, mainly in the realm of the importance of usability. Aspiring game designers, read this book!

It’s pretty interesting to read now through the lens of the future (the original was written in 1988) and seeing how the author’s predictions about the future have come true. Basically he longed for the iPhone. Thinking about electronics now compared to those of the late 80s, I wonder how many designers “grew up” on this book and came into design with usability as a priority.

Anyway, much of it was reiterating what I had learned about playtesting through other means, while providing a more systematic framework for thinking about usable design. Every time I use a public restroom now I consider whether the automatic faucets have been “playtested,” and I feel like I appreciate a well designed object much more when I run into one. I also finally learned what those weird little gates are in stairwells that lead to the basement level.

Books Post

I'd been pretty good before about writing entries on books I'd recently read, but that sort of fell behind. Thus, a huge backlog entry of books I've read since my last book post!

War and Peace
I thought I'd give this a go after Anna Karenina, since it was big and meaty and kept my brain occupied for a long span of time. His books are very strange in their plot arcs. It's just one thing happening after another and after another. I believe I enjoyed it in an idle way of sitting back and watching people go about their lives.

Red Dragon
This was a bit of a whim and I can't remember what inspired me to read it. It gave me weird psychological nightmares, which has never really happened to me with a thriller or horror book before. Anthony Hopkins of course obeys the mental image of Hannibal Lector now and forever. I wonder how authors feel when that happens to their books?

Far from the Madding Crowd
Like Snow Fox before, this was a "randomly plucked from the shelves" title, and a pretty interesting read. At first it started out as a love story, then I realized it was turning into a love triangle, then it surprised me by taking it even further and turning into some manner of love quadrangle. The setting imagery was pretty nice. I approve.

Joust Series
I started reading Mercedes Lackey stuff only recently, which surprised me because I would have loved this stuff in high school. The Joust series is about dragon riders, and much of the books are occupied in the care and feeding of jousting dragons. These books are delightful, but kind of mild in conflict. There were always cases where I'd get nervous because they were perfect for the author to pull some cruel reversal, but she never did. That's okay, really, it made for a stress-free read.

The Lady in the Tower
A historical fiction book on Anne Boleyn, which I picked up because I think I reached her in some wikipedia link-clicking vortex I was engaged in one evening. Man, Henry VIII was a jerkface.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
For a long time my only frame of reference for this book was when it appeared as a gag in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, getting a pack of dogs excitedly rushing off to Brooklyn to find the tree. This book is AMAZING and I recommend it for anyone. Because of the time frame and the setting, there were a lot of parallels to what I'd read of the childhood of Harpo Marx in his autobiography (one of my favorite books), so a lot of the customs and scenes seemed familiar to me.

A Paradise Built in Hell
My brother recommended this to me, and I went in expecting a big downer, as it is a study in the behavior of groups after large scale disasters. Much to my surprise, however, a lot of it debunks the common perception that normal people turn into savage looting mobs. Normal people actually tend to behave quite altruistically, and can even experience a sense of joy in spite of being in the midst of a disaster due to the communities that and sense of belonging that form up around them. The trending behavior of power holders in these situations, however...

A Song of Ice and Fire
Yeah, I'm deep in the midst of this series. I never realized that I could be so entranced by the vivid details of political intrigue, yet here I am!

Man in the Iron Mask
I was really surprised at how good The Three Musketeers was the first time I read it. But man, this one is just a huge downer. Also it has no resemblance to the movie whatsoever, in case you were wondering.

Anathem
I read this because the other Neal Stephenson book that someone recommended to me wasn't at the library. Reading this book sometimes felt like taking a college course, due to all the specialized fictional vernacular, but I loved it. I loved the idea of a monastic society based on math, and the story unfolded into something bigger and more spectacular than I'd been expecting. It kept me hooked the whole way through

Snow Crash
Since I enjoyed Anathem so much, Nick lent me this (I never did get around to reading the original Neal Stephenson recommendation that got me to the library, and I don't remember which book it was at this point). I loved the context and the conflict in this book, and it was fun to see how the future evolved from the time this was written. Some of it was in the right direction, other aspects were a bit of a miss (no one expected smart phones in the 90s!)

So there you go! I hope to do these a little more frequently in the future, to avoid huge backlog posts like this one.

Books!

These posts are really more for my own reference than anything, but I figure it’s good to share them all the same.  Here’s a bunch of books that I’ve chewed through recently.

East of Eden – is this my first Steinbeck ?  It might be!  I’m glad I read it now, though, since I’ve lived in California a bit and have a much better mental context for the setting.  It was exciting when Nick and I took the train to San Francisco and passed Salinas.  The character of Cathy Ames was so horrifying, though, that I almost ended the book prematurely.  I stuck it through!

The Snow Fox – sometimes when I don’t have any ideas of the next book I should read, I wander the aisles of the library and randomly pluck out titles, then try the first one that has a blurb of interest to me.  This book was a love story between a samurai and a poet in medieval Japan, and had wonderful imagery.  They did some playing around with time jumps, though, so occasionally I wasn’t sure when I was reading, but the story was nice, if not somewhat melancholy.

Cat’s Cradle – I usually have a really hard time with Vonnegut, but I really enjoyed this one.  The whole Bokononism thing was really fun, and a clever lens through which to interpret the world

Trickster Makes this World – I was actually kind of disappointed by this book.  I am really interested in trickster stories and was hoping to learn more about their origins and their relations to each other across cultures.  There was some of that, but he would get so swirling and deep and metaphysical about the interpretations of just a few key trickster stories that they felt worn out and uninteresting by the end of it.  Pretty “meh,” and I probably should have just stuck to reading actual trickster tales.

To Kill a Mockingbird – another classic story that I realize I’d never read.  This book is wonderful, but it’s also pretty depressing to see that many of the uglier aspects of how human beings treat each other still go on today.  Sigh

Neverwhere – I generally enjoy Neil Gaiman but just had never gotten around to reading this one.  It was awesome.  I liked it.

Magic Street – I always think I’ve read more Orson Scott Card than I actually have.  I always think I’ve read Ender’s Game when it was really The Worthing Saga that I read.  Anyway.  I love fantasy books that spin on the traditional Tolkein-inspired notions of fantasty, and this story is a prime example.  Highly recommended!

As always, if you have a good read to suggest, please do so!

Books

It's been awhile since I've made a book post, hasn't it?  Here's what I've been reading recently:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A story told from the perspective of an autistic savant boy, mostly about the mysteries and adventures in his daily life.  I found it a good read from an interesting perspective.

Our Tragic Universe: A story about a writer which gets a bit meta from time to time, but has just the right touch of magic to keep me interested.  I found that I kept coming up with plots that would help the main character solve her problems.  Interestingly, there were two anecdotes in this book that also appeared in the previous book, even though the two are completely unrelated.  One was The Cottingley Fairies, and the other was the joke about the economist, the logician, and the mathematician on a train who see a cow and derive various conclusions based upon what they see.

Anna Karenina: This was referenced several times in Our Tragic Universe, and piqued my interest, so I checked it out.  I'd never read anything from Tolstoy before and I *think* I enjoyed it, though it did have sort of a depressing portrayal of how jealousy in relationships destroy people.


I'm looking for more books to read, so send suggestions my way!

Book Review: Too Rich for a Bride

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Too Rich for a Bride is a romance about a young woman striking it out in the business world in late 19th century Colorado, finding herself and love and all that. I found the story to be a little dull and predictable, but I don’t normally read romances, so it could be that the pacing is just a little slower than I’m used to. The characters were pretty believable, with a few bordering on one-sided, but I thought Tucker Raines and Ida were both well-rounded.

My biggest issue with the book was that I never felt completely sold on the setting and period. When I was reading the first chapter, I at first thought it was taking place in the late 20th century, until I flipped back to check the date at the header, and was surprised to learn that it was supposed to be in 1896, not 1968. It comes out the most in the language of the characters, for example, in their openness in speech about one character’s pregnancy, which didn’t feel very believable for the time period that it’s supposed to take place in.

Other than that, it was an okay story that never got too intense. It seemed to focus a lot on sisterhood, so if you’re into that sort of thing, it might be for you. 2 1/2 stars.

Book Review: Plain Wisdom

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

Plain Wisdom is a simple collection of brief life-lesson stories from respective modern and Old Order Amish lives of the authors. I was expecting more crossover of the two and connections between the different societies, but most of the short stories are standalone and just share similar themes.

A surprising number of the tales revolved around motherhood, so I found them less easy to relate to. However, I think it’d be a good mother’s day gift for this reason, or a good read for anyone who feels a close connection to motherhood.

I was hoping to find more insight into the Amish way of living as I’d experienced reading another of Cindy Woodsmall’s books, but I think her narratives painted a more graspable picture of the lifestyle than these short stories, which were more focused on experience. Other than that, it’s a very simple collection of life-lesson style stories that’s good for one straight read or for picking up now and again over time.

Book Review: Breath of Angel

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

Breath of Angel was a great fantasy story and a strong setup for future stories in its world. Melaia, a young priestess, finds herself entangled in the secret struggle among angels, who have remained mostly hidden from the normal populace. She soon is carried off into adventure and ends up with more responsibility in the secret war than she had bargained for.

The mythology and backstory for the setting of this book is quite strong, and I will be curious to see what comes next in the series. I especially liked the eerie depiction of the draks, vulture-like creatures made from human souls that bear their former inhabitants' hands instead of talons.

There were parts of the book that felt a little bit hasty in development of character relationships or the unfolding of events, but it is a minor criticism and didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the story. 4 stars!

Book Review: The Ale Boy's Feast

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

The Ale Boy’s Feast was a fantastic read in a rich, vivid fantasy setting. It was the last book in a series, but the opening synopsis was thorough enough that I never felt lost, and though I felt like I was missing some of the subtleties of some of the characters’ relationships, it just made me curious and did not frustrate me. That said, I will most definitely go back and read the series from the start, because Jeffrey Overstreet’s wordsmithing is just an absolute joy to read!

The world that the story takes place in is rich and original in terms of fantasy standards, and the conflicts are complex without becoming confusing. It follows where I presume the previous storylines diverted off and eventually brings them all back together: Cal-ravan the young king, Rescue the aptly named ale boy, Krawg the thief-turned-storyteller, the kite-taming sky man, the mage and his dragon, the insidious Seers...The strong characters in this book make a solid foundation for the plot to weave around.

Even though I read the last book first, I am incredibly excited to go hunt down the rest of the series and start over from the beginning. I would highly recommend checking out the sneak-peak on the publisher website to get a taste of the writing style. 5 stars!

Book Review: Blind Hope

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

Blind Hope was a very fast read - I finished the day I received it, in fact. However, I think it would have benefited from being shorter than it was in some ways. You see, the stories about Laurie and Mia are wonderfully inspiring and well presented. The stories are heartwarming, and each one offers unique spiritual insight.

However, after each life tale, the author feels the need to spell out the meaning of the dog-to-human/human-to-God analogy in careful detail. Explaining why a metaphor is insightful is akin to explaining why a joke is funny, it takes all the humor our, or in this case, diminishes the insight. A summary of the lesson wouldn’t be burdensome, but it goes too far: “When Mia did this it taught me this,” for every moment. These explanation moments took so much out of the otherwise fantastic spiritual life lessons which were perfectly capable of standing alone.

So, Blind Hope is a heartwarming animal tale of insight, but the meanings are way too spoon-fed for me. 2 1/2 Stars.

The publisher has the first chapter up for a preview on their website.

Book Review: Dragons of the Valley

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

If I hadn’t read this as part of the Blogging for Books program, I would have stopped after 3 pages. However, I felt a sense of obligation to give a proper review, so I suffered through the whole thing. I had high hopes for Dragons of the Valley because a) it has dragons in it, usually a win for me, and b) the premise - with the three interlinked statues and an artist-turned warrior - seemed an interesting fantasy setup. I was unfortunately very disappointed.

The writing in this book is just awful! There is almost no variation in the sentence structure throughout the entire book, no voice to the storytelling, no voice to the characters, and the figures of speech are crudely executed. Occasionally you’ll run into a piece of dialog that seems to remember that the characters need distinctive voices, and gives a frail attempt at doing the job before falling back to the same tone for everyone. Reading the story was agonizing because of the repetition of Subject-Verb-Object sentences with very similar length. And don’t give me any flack about target audience! There are plenty of examples of young adult fiction with good basic writing. But please, don’t take my word for it, check out the sneak peek of the first few chapters on the publisher website.

Besides the writing style obstacle, the style of fantasy in this book was really bland. I was excited at first at the mention of so many different races, but there is so little visualization of the various races that it may as well be 7 styles of humans with made up fantasy style names. It felt like a lot of the fantasy elements weren’t very unique, and had some pretty overbearing TSR-feeling fantasy standards. The kimen were very much like kender (only not as interesting) and the wizard very much like Fizban (only not as endearing).

Lastly, the religious messaging in the book was completely transparent, and took me out of the world of the story (what little I was able to immerse myself in) every single time. It was not elegant at all as an allegory.

The one saving grace of this book is that there were indeed dragons in it. That won it 1 star instead of a half of a star from me.

Book Review: The Bridge of Peace

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

The Blogging for Books program recently had a mishap where the book suggestions for review, which are based on user preferences, got all mixed up. It’s since been corrected, but let’s just say I’m not the target audience for an Amish romance novel.

However, I found the story to be very enjoyable. It chronicles the adventures, relationships, and struggles of several different members of an Amish community. The characters are varied and likable (except the ones you aren’t supposed to like) and have good depth to them, making them believable and easy to relate to. The details of Amish lifestyle and community are interesting and play in well with the storylines.

Cindy Woodsmall does a great job of giving hints of further depth to her characters, like referencing something in the characters’ past that they are aware of but the reader is not. It keeps readers curious and rewards them with further explanation later in the story. The pacing of events throughout is done really well.

There are some moments of romantic emotional inner drama among the characters that I wasn’t too fond of, but once again, I am not a usual fan of romances. That said, it was not so distracting that I wasn’t able to stay interested in the rest of the story. 4 stars!

Book Review: Lady in Waiting

So in an attempt to force myself into new genres and new books, I signed up for a program in which the publisher sends you a book for free on the condition that you write a review for it. In fact, I even have to post this disclaimer, ahem: “I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review”

Lady in Waiting is a dual-story book, one centered on modern-day Jane Lindsay, the other on Lady Jane Grey as the girl who would become the ever brief Queen of England. The two Janes are connected by a ring, found by the former and belonging to the latter, and the relationship between their plights of love and choice.

I found the book to be a quick and moderately enjoyable read. The move back and forth between the two stories kept things engaging without either one dwindling in interest. Both were connected in the themes of love and perspective of choice, but took unique perspectives on each. Susan Meissner does a great job of shifting language between the time periods of her two stories, so that you can pick up the book after a break and instantly recall in which time frame you last left off. I felt personally more drawn to the historical story and the close relationship between the servant Lucy and Lady Jane Grey, but I can see how the personal doubts, struggles, and revelations of modern Jane would appeal to certain readers.

The cons of the book were few but poignant. There are some religious overtones in the modern day story that feel heavy handed and inelegant in execution. They took me out of the story, and as a result probably lessened the impact of any spiritual connection that they were trying to instill in the first place. In particular, some subtle digs at Catholicism were pretty awkward. These were less out-of-place in the historical story, which was placed at a time between Henry executing Catholics and Mary executing Reformers, so the tone from the perspective of Jane Grey on matters of faith felt more believable. When these showed up in the modern story, they disrupted my immersion in the fiction rather than enhanced it.

For example, here is an excerpt from modern Jane’s story:
“I wish I had the Onyx rosary too. I found myself whispering prayers to God to make Brad love me again. And to silence the questioning in my own heart. An easy fix. I could almost hear Stacy, who prayed without a rosary, telling me it doesn’t work like that.”

I found that this bit came off as particularly tasteless. It feels “out of the story,” and doesn’t make sense with, nor make me feel a closer understanding to, the modern Jane character.

In spite of the awkwardness of the religious overtones, I think the whole book does a great exploration on the choices we have in our lives, even in times when it seems we are given none. I can’t speak on the historical accuracy of the Lady Jane account outside the fictional relationship with Lucy, so Tudor lineage buffs might or might not find fault if they are very picky. As a non-historian, I found it enjoyable.

I give Lady in Waiting 3 of 5 stars. If you want to give it a go, the publisher has the first four chapters up for a preview.

Books

I've been keeping my brain filled up on books, but I've been slacking in my intentions to give my thoughts on them. My two most recent excursions have been A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, and Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins.

A Confederacy of Dunces was a bit of a rough read, not because it was bad or anything. On the contrary, the dialog brought its characters to life in impressively distinct and colorful ways. It's just that most of the characters are so dreadful and hate-able that it's hard to endure their presence for very long. I kept thinking "if these people don't each get theirs in the end, I'm going to be really upset."

Fortunately, I was not upset! The ending wrapped things up in the most pleasing way it could, and I was satisfied. However, I don't think I'd go on that adventure a second time.

Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, on the other hand, I enjoyed very much from start to finish. Tom Robbins has a way of pouring out words in buckets, and my brain had a way of lapping it all up into order. It's strange, too, because some wordy authors I don't like at all, I just read too quickly and get tangled up in the words. With Robbins, though, everything synched up, and I ended up being delighted by his wordiness. Not to mention the fact that the story was engaging and the characters all felt real.

It was also fun because Josh, who lent it to me, had written notes in the margins and underlined phrases throughout. I love it when that happens in books, because it makes me feel like I'm spying on the inside of someone's brain.

Anyway, if you're looking for a new book to read, I'd highly recommend the Robbins book, but approach A Confederacy of Dunces at your own risk.

Art Books - Internet Garage Sale

I have a few art reference books that I have no use of anymore, but I remember how very valuable they were to me when I was drawing and learning the ins and outs of rendering anatomy and all that, so I'm selling them (hopefully to some artsy folks who would get good use out of them).

Prices are cheapsville, with shipping costs on top.

If you're interested in one, shoot me an email (since my journal propagates to so many sources, I don't wanna play the timestamp game with comments) - wertle at wertle dot com

Bridgman's Life Drawing - George Bridgman
Selling for $2 plus $5 shipping

How to Draw the Human Figure: An Anatomical Approach - Louise Gordon
$5 plus $5 shipping

Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters - Robert Beverly Hale
$6 plus $5 shipping

Anatomy for the Artist - Jeno Barcsay
$5 plus $5 shipping

Costs may vary a bit, and if you'd pay with a credit card through PayPal, it'd be a little more for the fee they charge the seller, stuff like that. Basically, email me and we'll work out the exact price :)

Books

It's easy to take for granted, but the library is pretty much the greatest thing ever.

I haven't just been focusing on games since moving to LA; there are plenty of books I'm plowing through. Living right next door to the library has inspired me to use it, it would seem. Here's what I've finished so far.

Moby Dick, which I'd never read before. I liked it a lot! Even the whaling sections! I think it has to do with my insanely fast pace at reading: it made all those informational chapters feel like pleasant asides, nothing that I had to plow through. As I mentioned in a status update before, it could just run in the family (my brother is a big Melville fan).

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I always got this and To Kill a Mockingbird mixed up, because they both had birds in the title. I enjoyed this read quite a bit as well, even though I foresaw the inevitable end. It was tough, but fascinating and well-contained.

Shardik. In spite of Watership Down being my favorite book ever, I realized I'd never read any of Richard Adams' other stuff. Shardik was a focused journey story, and had a lot of the same feel as Siddhartha to me. I think I prefer Adams' animal-POV stuff, but it was a good read nonetheless.

Next up on my plate are The Forever War and another Adams' book, Traveller

Don Quixote

After seeing this particular xkcd (which I can strongly relate to) I realized that, while I know the story of Don Quixote through parodies and pop culture, I've never actually read it. So I picked up from the library and gave it a try.

At first, I was very amused at the silliness of the language, and the fact that the antics were just as ridiculous as portrayed in any parody. But the depth of the story never really changed. There was a shallowness and redundancy to the plot that made it feel less like reading a book and more like watching TV - in particular, like watching a painfully mediocre sitcom.

Occasionally there would be long pages of what was obviously social commentary and satire on some topic from the time it was written, and before long I would skip entire chapters. It's kind of like when you watch a really dated movie that has pop culture references, you think "oh, that's commentary on this thing that happened," and shrug and move on.

Don Quixote is very straight forward, and pretty flat. There's really no change in any of the characters, and the plot devices and antics never really change, either.

When I found that the incident with the windmills happens in the very beginning of the book, and is pretty unimportant to the story as a whole, I was puzzled. But after reading on, I figured it was because very few people probably read much further than that :)

So, Don Quixote, I gave you a solid attempt! It just wasn't working out. Sorry!

Perdido Street Station

So, in an effort to acquire new fiction for my mind to devour, I checked out Perdido Street Station by China Miéville, as recommended by Drew on my LA visit.

The story world is a brilliant sort of non-Tolkien-derived fantasy, complete with science-magic, math-magic (Scott, you would like it), and a splash of steam punk for good measure. It is gripping, exciting, and in the end, rather rough. I just finished it tonight and feel shaken and slightly ill-at-ease, but in the good way that happens from immersive books.

My brain feels refreshed and newly hungry, after going quite awhile re-reading stories that I'd known already. Fortunately for me, there's more to the series.

I have to sit for awhile, though, and digest and ponder what I've read before I subject myself to another. Back to the library with it!

Masque of the Red Death

Okay, so, I have this thing about the Masque of the Red Death. No no! Hear me out on this...

I feel like I've talked about this before, but if I have it's been ages. I think I read the short story first in the 8th grade while we were doing a segment on Edgar Allan Poe, and have re-read it many times sense.

In spite of my frequent reviews of the story over the past 13 or so years, and in spite of Poe's specific description of the many rooms in the suite where the story takes place, I can NOT wrap my head around the way the place is laid out. I've gone so far as to scrawl maps onto grid paper, and I still can't grasp it.

Part of the problem, I think, is my ignorance of the typical architecture of the story's time. I don't even have a basis to begin with to imagine what a *normal* imperial suite would have looked like, let alone Prospero's bizarre rendition of one.

I've often contemplated doing some renderings of the rooms and the layout, but I think this is the year I'm actually going to sit down and do it. You will not conquer me, Poe, not this time!

Likely, the internet could help me in my need of a map, but somehow I feel like this is something I have to generate straight out of my brain. Will I succeed? Mystery! Intrigue!

Books and Weather

I believe I've hit a new reading record for myself: A 435 page novel in less than 6 hours (subtracting some time of boarding and unboarding the plane, the drive home, and the time it took to eat a late lunch).

 Also, I wanted to make a clarification. Judging by the bewildered expressions and exclamations of people I told about the heavy, 14 inch snowfall here in Louisville, it seems there is a huge miscomprehension in New England that everyplace south of Pennsylvania is a vast, burning desert with year-round heat waves. This is not true. Just wanted to let you guys know.

 Merry Christmas! It'll be below 0 for ours.