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Gamervision Book Club?
Sans crumpets, tea and false sense of accomplishment.
by Raccoonacorn
So I've had an idea.
I've always wanted to start a book club of sorts, but there are a few things holding me back:
- Lack of free time in this 21st century Facebook, high-speed society.
- A tendency amongst my friends to be too lazy to coordinate large gatherings that aren't simply bar drink-a-thons.
- I am not in the Oprah book club.
Thinking about it yesterday, I realized that I can circumvent some of these hurdles (not #3, of course) by using Gamervision.
Here's what I'm thinking:
- If you are interested, leave a comment on the right. You don't have to commit fully, just let me know what you think.
- As far as books, this is a video game website, and I would like them to be gaming related. Now, I'm not talking about novelizations of games. Let's get something with substance. I have a few books that could work (which are listed at the end of this article).
- However, I'm completely open (and encourage!) participation. So when you leave a comment, I'd like it if you also threw a book in that you think may be relevant. If we get a bunch of people, we'll take a vote and the book with the most votes wins.
- Like I said before, we are all in a time crunch these days. I'm not trying to make this group into homework or something we dread. We'll obviously have to find out what most people are comfortable reading in a week. I would imagine a chapter or so. That should be enough to read in one sitting, leaving us with at least a few days to mull over it before we begin discussing.
- I'll write up a recap of the chapter as a blog post each week, post it, and then the discussion can begin. We can also consider putting this into a group. We'll work that out when the time comes.
So let me know what you think, guys. If no one takes interest, I'll still do this by myself. You can comment and leave uninformed opinions that I may or may not choose to heed.
Some Potential Book Choices:
What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy
Good Video Games + Good Learning
>
Lucky Wander Boy
Get at me, kids.
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Comments
are there that many books about games? I would be afraid the ones out there would not be very interesting. Hmmm if there was a book up that was somewhat interesting looking for me, i think i would participate..
*looking up books now*
Sounds like a brilliant idea. I raise you some other suggestions:
Power Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life
Author Chris Kohler (some may know him from his Game|Life blog or his appearances on the 1up Retronauts podcast) analyzes the way that Japanese developers saved and continue to save gaming as we know it.
Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokemon
A series of essays discussing the cultural impact of the Pokemon phenomenon, what the games can teach, and how it influenced how both games and chirldren's products in general are made.
Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution
Authors Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby give a breezy overview of the industry with interesting pieces on everything from Nintendo's origins to the current MMO trend.
Perhaps?
Lucky Wander Boy is actually a fictional book, but a lot of it is obviously based around real games that existed in the 80's. There are a ton of books on games as art/educational tools etc.
I was thinking of a more academic feel for this as I'm always looking to learn something, and I'm really interested in games as a mode of learning right now.
I love the idea, and I've wanted to read Grand Theft Childhood for awhile now, so that might be an interesting choice. But I'll really read anything gaming-related, I'm obsessed with learning more about this industry. I'm in!
I especially like the sound of Smartbomb, Quacker.
Grand Theft Childhood sounds interesting as well. I don't think there will be a shortage of books to choose from.
We can just see who is in, then I'll make a list of the books and we can all put in our votes.
I can tell you this ahead of time. I'll join in because this is a great opportunity to learn more about the industry as well as the social aspect of learning more about the others that are reading it. Opinions, and facts, help out when people get together and discuss one subject. Just make sure that whatever the book selection is and the final choice of the book are good ones.
I like the title to the left Good Video Games + Good Learning along with what Sarah posted with Grand Theft Childhood. Just the titles alone make me interested in reading them.
I'm in the middle of a decent read right now. Not too intellectual (actually, that's my strongest criticism for the author) and covers more than just games, which makes for an interesting cross section of today's pop-culture soaked society.
I'm glad some people are interested. I guess the best way to go about this would be to make a group. I'll start it and you guys can just look under the groups tab in my profile.
Let's wait a few days and see how many people join, then we can begin discussing which book.
Oh, good. This will actually give me an excuse to force myself to finish something. I keep picking up books, reading partway through, then starting another.....
ender's game needs to be a game and a movie!
I agree with both Ninjapino and Nikkita for both of their comments!