[ZaidH]

Hello Legionnaires!

Many of your favorite game developers, like Hideo Kojima, Shigeru Miyamoto, Sam Lake, and the Houser brothers, have cited books as a major inspiration for creating the worlds and stories we love. In my opinion, movies and books are gaming's closest companions, so it’s only fitting that we start our very own Book Club!



To kick things off, let’s share our top 5 books or series to see what everyone’s into 😁

Here are mine:

1. The Stormlight Archive
   
2. Project Hail Mary
   
3. East of Eden
   
4. The Sirens of Titan
   
5. Hyperion

Looking forward to seeing your picks!

[CandelaSynth]

Awesomeee @ZaidH 🤩

I´m already loving the book club!! I have to say that from your recommendations, I only know Hyperion : 0
So this is a fantastic initiative to look for new books to read (especially now that winter is coming, reading is at the top of my list of things to do indoors 💜)

Here are the books (and comic books...I´ll also include them) that I´ve been reading this year:

1. The King Kong Theory by Virgine Despentes
2. South of the border West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
3. Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
4. American Gods by Neil Gaiman (comic book adaptation)
5. The Reddest Rose by Liv Stormsquist (also a graphic novel)

What are yours @Aaricia and @DoctorEldritch ?

[ZaidH]

@CandelaSynth So glad to see someone else who's read Hyperion 😁 What did you think of it?

Yes! Many of us here share similar gaming tastes, so we might have common interests in books too. If this club takes off, maybe we could have monthly book picks to discuss 🤔

I've read American Gods. What an ambitious book! Gaiman's vivid portrayal of Lakeside still sticks with me. I just wish I knew more about the U.S. states to fully appreciate Shadow's journey 😅

If I ever get into the world of Murakami, South of the border, West of the Sun will be my first pick 👍

[CandelaSynth]

@ZaidH

I loved it so much, I like how addictive and immersive his writing is.
But I didn´t know enough about the original literature piece (the Canterbury Tales, right?) to fully appreciate the literary references. However, I read Ilium and I liked it even more (but it´s cos I´m quite familiar with the Iliad!).
South of the border, West of the Sun is one of his first books, and quite "light-hearted" compared to later ones. I truly recommend Murakami´s writing. Very good at describing feelings and situations using metaphors.
I really like the idea of a monthly book discussion here!! Maybe something related to video games? 🤔
I read this graphic novel recently and was pretty interesting:

[Aaricia]

@ZaidH I'm embarrassed to say that it's been many years since I read a book 🙈 😅 I remember that in the years where I did read a lot, I loved adventure books, for example about Tarzan, and a Polish series about Tomek Wilmowski, who was a young traveller and had lots of adventures 🤩

[ZaidH]

@CandelaSynth Mythology with a sci-fi twist? Sign me up! Ilium is now on my to read list. Do you think I'll enjoy it even if I already know about the Trojan War? (Haven't read The Iliad though 😅)

Looks like South of the Border, West of the Sun is a great entry point to Murakami’s work 😄 Thanks for the recommendation!

Wow, Gamish is getting a lot of praise for its designs! 😯

@Aaricia No need to feel embarrassed! Everyone has different tastes. I’ve read that the Donald Duck comic series is HUGE in Europe. Is this Tarzan thingy a similar comic or a retelling of the movie?

I wish I could have gone on world adventures like Tomek when I was younger 😭

[CandelaSynth]

@ZaidH

Yeah, and I think you´d like it even more because you´ll get the literary references ; )
(This is why Dan Simmons is so good at what he does, hehe)

@Aaricia
+1 to what Zaid said, nowadays there´s so much to choose to keep ourselves entertained, and who knows? maybe this book club will reignite your reading passion...! Is there any particular theme you like? Also, I can lend you a graphic novel next time we see each other 🤓

[ZaidH]

@CandelaSynth That's great! So hyped to read Ilium now. If you ever come across any good sci-fi books, then please let me know 😄

@Aaricia, not sure if this will interest you, but some Disney works, like the Tarzan series you mentioned, are based on books with incredibly dark tones. Peter Pan and Pinocchio, in particular, are polar opposites from how they're portrayed in the movies 😅

[CandelaSynth]

@ZaidH
Likewise, I used to read lots of Sci-Fi, but haven´t done it in a long time...! would love to go back to it : )
My favourite Sci-Fi book is Star Marker by Olaf Stapledon, have you heard of it?
PS, I love Peter Pan, and the latest adaptation of Pinocchio by Del Toro was pretty nice, I think using that dark tone you mentioned. Have you watched it? 🤓

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH I will need to think about 5 books. Terry Pratchett's Discworld would be my first pick, but I may need a bit of time to think of the others.

But I can tell you the trilogy that I read last, while I was on my latest vacation. It's the Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty:



I enjoyed it very much, and this may be of extra interest to you in particular because it takes place in your neck of the woods and takes a lot from the Arabic folklore. It is a fantasy but with believable and relatable social commentary.

That being said, although my favourite genres are fantasy and sci-fi, I enjoy it most if the stories have humorous elements to them. This is why I like Terry Pratchett's Discworld the most, it is set in a fantasy world that is used as a stage to talk about real problems in a humorous way, and it is hard to do that. There are a few Russian book series that try to do that too, but I am not sure how known they are in translated versions. And humour is notoriously difficult to translate while keeping the feel of it.