The book discussion thread

[isleepinabed]

I just watched a small clip from the series. Jim acts brilliantly insane! I have to see more of this.

Your writing piqued my interest to take a look at the book. I can appreciate how the author divided the Western and Japanese with different coloring, but that Japanese section looked pretty slim as you mentioned. Pictures look crisp, something you don't always see with these types of books.

Regarding the Royles it's another short series that didn't overstay its welcome, apart from a few Christmas specials, and thus every episode is memorable. I think it was really top rated at the time too. I visited England during those years and there were Jim Royle dolls in shops, stuff like that. It was very popular.
One of the creators, who played Jim's daughter Denise in the show as well, passed away I would have said a couple of years ago but apparently already in 2016 (time flies), so it had a small revival then, rerunning the shows on television.

As for the Dreamcast book, it excels because of its high production values. The author detailed the way he took screenshots, which are from original hardware but through a "special RGB 480p SCART cable from a site called Retro Gaming Cables: this cable isn't supported by normal TVs but it is supported by some video upscaling devices, like the RetroTink 5X (which was also used)" - This might to some extent explain the fine quality of the screens.

The trouble of course is with our memories. When I think of the Dreamcast I think of 15 or 20 great, memorable games. Even if you give those games a full page, and everything else just a quarter of a page, it's still going to be loaded with (yet another) Acclaim, Midway or Infogrames polygonal platformer or racing game. We obviously tend to forget that however good a console or computer's library is, the overwhelming majority is usually mediocre.
That's not really the book's fault of course, it is what it is.

I have a few other similar books on other consoles and computers, none from the same author, and I'd say this is one of the nicest.

 

[peacefulhomecare]

Movies—yep
TV—yep
Music—yep
So where's the book thread? Can't find it, so guess this'll have to do until it shows up. My reading days are mostly done—changed interests, deteriorating sight—but I devoured anything in print in my teens and 20s…literature, non-fiction, scifi, thrillers, mysteries. Never took to drama or poetry in a big way, mostly only for school and college work.

Novels, novellas, drama, poetry, etc etc—all are welcome

Short Stories

Let's start with a poor relation, sandwiched between the upper class Poetry and the hoi polloi Novel. In my reading days I loved short stories—what it says on the tin, devoted usually to a single theme in a single location during a single time span.

Drawing on memory, some of my favs:
William Trevor, Seán Ó Faoláin and Frank O'Connor, probably Ireland's top 3.
Edgar Allen Poe, Ernest Hemingway and O Henry in USA.
PG Wodehouse, Arthur Conan Doyle, Roald Dahl, Joseph Conrad, GK Chesterton—yeah, Brits like a shorty
Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, masters of scifi shorts.
Forgetting some for sure, it's been a long time…

I used to usually have a short story book going along with a novel, dipping into either depending on time available.

So what about you and short stories?

Great list! Short stories are underrated, but they pack such a punch when done well. I’m a big fan of Ray Bradbury—his stories always have this nostalgic yet eerie vibe that sticks with you. Shirley Jackson is another favorite, especially The Lottery—such a simple but chilling read.

For something more modern, I really liked Ted Chiang (Stories of Your Life and Others is mind-blowing) and George Saunders (Tenth of December is weird and brilliant). Oh, and Jorge Luis Borges—his stuff is on another level, like little intellectual puzzles.

I also love the idea of having a short story collection alongside a novel—perfect for when you just have a few minutes but still want something meaningful. What was the last short story that really stuck with you?

 

[Johnway]

I just finished 2 more books from my list both of them from the warhammer crime series: no good men and Sanction & Sin.

Both books are anthologies of one off stories from both sides of the law. Some good stories there and we will get to see some of these characters get their own full fledged books. But for now the warhammer crime anthologies authors to flex their writing muscles and get some recognition in the warhammer universe.

I'll probably read the next anthology, but i would like to perhaps read some books from other authors or locations. Like cocaine nights.


As for other books? I'm still reading through the rise and fall of the trigan empire vol 3. might finish that off tonight and move to the books again tomorrow evening.

 

[isleepinabed]

GameCube Anthology by Mathieu Manent, Geeks-Line

This is probably the only available book on this strange machine. The book itself presents a bit of conundrum in that it is quite uneven.
On the one hand, and comparing it with the Dreamcast Encyclopedia, it has an extensive coverage (I would go so far as to say it is too extensive, going far beyond what would be necessary or even interesting) on the machine itself: from the design stage, to announcement, bringing to market and discontinuing it, almost quarter to quarter in depth.
There's also an extensive look at the hardware itself, including its various accessories. This section presented, in my opinion the most jaw dropping pages that included photographs of every variation and special edition the console was available in, as well as the whimsical Panasonic Q variation.

On the other hand it suffers from a fatal characteristic that deals a fatal blow as an objective document: it's not impartial, as it's palpably written "in defense" of Nintendo. Even while presenting hard facts on sales the author would have you believe the Nintendo 64 and this one were an incredible success. But in case it wasn't it was the public's fault because Nintendo did everything right. This, as well as some awkwarding phrasing from a sometimes very literal translation from French, makes for some difficult reading.

This is compounded by the "meat" of the book: the full library of games. Here, especially when compared to the Dreamcast Encyclopedia, things become harder to stomach, as it's got loads and loads of poor licensed games. Amusingly the author decided it would be a good idea to rate each and every game from 1 to 5 stars - I can't see the point. Screenshots are usually small and low quality and only the usual suspects get more than a quarter page worth.

As it is, then, it's difficult to recommend wholeheartedly. It is both the best and worst GameCube book available. It's strength is in the incredibly in-depth feature on the machine itself - if you can battle through the Nintendo bias - while the photos of the machine and accessories are great. The section on the games themselves I would put it as a miss. As it is, it's a fans-only affair.

 

[isleepinabed]

SEGA CD Summer by Matt Adams

When I ordered this I thought I was ordering the same sort of "collection/anthology" historical book on the Mega Drive/Genesis add-on, as I had got one a few months ago on the 32X. To my surprise this a semi-autobiographical novel.

The tone is that of a slice-of-life of, I have to imagine, a typical north-american 12 year old kid during the Summer of 1994. The big premise is the trials and tribulations he has to go through to be able to afford the SEGA CD, particularly in becoming a paperboy and how he deals with his customers but also the relationship with his mom & dad, his brother and his friends. There's also a lot of summer baseball action that, quite frankly, goes a bit over my head as a sport I am not very familiar with.

The book is typo-free (always a plus in these self-published works) but there's otherwise not a lot of depth to the story. The big takeaways are really the nostalgia of what seems now a weird time and, I guess, the relationship he builds with his family and some off-the-wall episodes with his friends, family and neighbours.
There is some insight into videogame situation in that particular summer: the SEGA CD is out but the 32X and Saturn are incoming, and so is the Sony Playstation. The Atari Jaguar and the 3DO get mentions. Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat are the hit games. This is perhaps the most relatable part of the book as I also lived through 1994 as a Mega Drive playing kid. Some parts are somewhat jarring in the way that the author or the protagonist relates things as if he were in the present, with the knowledge of all that happened to SEGA, Sony, Nintendo, etc in the following 25 years.

There's also a huge bit on what Star Wars was in those times. The trilogy was already over 10-15 years old and the new ones still a few years away. Kids were fascinated by the films but had never watched them in the cinema. However, VHS tapes are now affordable. I have never been a big Star Wars fan but I remember that time the series was quite mythical. There weren't that many toys of it around as there are today, videogames on it were not that great but everytime it would show up on the regular channels on a saturday matinee or something, it was quite an event. Remarkably, there's also quite a bit of time dedicated to those summer movies, with Ace Ventura leading the pack. Surprisingly, no cartoons.

Finally, while we tend to think about the SEGA CD these days as a failed product that however, had a few remarkable games like Sonic CD, Afterburner, Snatcher, Lunar, Robo Aleste or Popful Mail. However, the announcement at the time made more sense than it does today in hindsight and, what the kids really wanted to play was not obscure japanese games but the same sports games, Star Wars and fighting games.
In the end this ended up being a light and pleasant read that I'm sure a lot of gamers who lived through these times might relate to. It's not Dickens or Melville nor I think does it intend to, but it doesn't offend and provides a vivid window into a forgotten time.