2011 Holiday Gift Guide – Books
Tags: Apple, Books, Chris Von Allsburg, Extra Lives, Gauntylgrym, Gift Guide, Harris Burdick, Jane McGonigal, Neverwinter, Pixar, R.A. Salvatore, Ready Player One, Reality Is Broken, Steve Jobs
Shopping for geeks at the holidays is hard, luckily we’re here to help! As nerds ourselves we know that when there’s something in stores that we want, we tend to just buy it then and there. So gauging what we could want under the tree is like trying to find oil just by throwing your shovel in the dirt.
We’re here to give you a bit of a roadmap, highlighting items that might’ve fallen just off the radar of the person on your shopping list. In part 1 one of our 2011 Holiday Geek Gift Guide we’re taking a look at the books that would be welcome under any geek’s tree this holiday season. Enjoy!
The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: 14 Amazing Authors Tell the TalesChris Van Allsburg is one of the most prolific children’s authors to ever grace the planet Earth. He’s penned and illustrated numerous classics including the Caldecott Medal winning Jumanji and The Polar Express. In 1984 he published the picture book “The Mysteries of Harris Burdick”. In it were 14 exquisite and mysterious illustrations and a single line of a story about them. Haunting in their vagueness and a rapture for the imagination. Staring at those pictures is like a treasure map, that first line the only clue. The treasures found after that are only limited by our minds.
Now, we get to see what 14 famous authors have found in those pictures. Collected here are stories drawn from the inspiration of the Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Kate DiCamillo, Cory Doctorow, Stephen King, Lois Lowry, Gregory Maguire, Jon Scieszka, Lemony Snicket and more. Sure, it’s a children’s book… but don’t let that stop you.
Ready Player OneIt’s little surprise this book comes from a child of the ’80s. Dripping with nostalgia for all things geek, wrapped up in a tense battle for supremacy. A classic underdog David Vs. Goliath tale, it’s parts played by people living most of their lives in virtual worlds.
The aspect sure to please the geek on your list is how genuine the old nerd references are. There’s a legitimacy to it all, with super specific calls to old text-adventure computer games and Dungeons and Dragons, 80′s metal and Blade Runner. Then the giant Japanese robots show up.
So far two of us here have read it, both in our 30′s… and we each finished it in 2 days. Compelling and impossible to put down, to a geek in their 30′s this is the book their brain has been dying to read.
Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the WorldYou’ve probably looked at that gamer geek on your list and thought to yourself, how can they play those silly games for hours on end? On it’s face it’s an excellent question. Games are hard work. They’re at times challenging, frustrating and monotonous. We even use words like “grind” sometimes when describing it. But we love them. Why?
Turns out there’s a scientific reason why. In games we see problems, we solve them. Obstacles are observed and beaten. We exert the kind of control that we lack in the real world. We’ve all been there, the feeling that the job is sapping the life out of us and what we do has no discernible effect. That’s where “gameification” can help turn that feeling around.
Taking lessons learned by what game players (even sports) respond to, game designer Jane McGonigal lays out a course for how to take the powers of games and apply them to real world problems. She bases this on 4 ideas: satisfying work, learning, collaboration with peers and a sense of “epic” meaning. Escapist entertainment is all fine and good, but what if we could effect real world change by applying the power of games to them? It’s a thrilling possibility, and it’s hard not to be inspired by her ideas.
The Art of Pixar: The Complete Color Scripts and Select Art from 25 Years of AnimationIt should go without saying that every good coffee table needs a most excellent coffee table book. Something to flip through or entertain company for a few minutes. Something besides an ever rotating mix of magazines and Chinese take-out menus.
Enter this beautiful hardbound art history of the animation king Pixar. They’ve made nearly every fantastic animated movie in the past 25 years, and have produced more classics than fingers on our hands. This book collects the scripts and art from all 25 years of their existence, and proves an enthralling look at both the company and computer-generated graphics in general. We’ve come a long way in the last 25 years.
Perfect to read cover to cover or just flip through to look at the pretty pictures.
Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
Playing video games is obviously something a gamer loves to do, but what is the geek in your life supposed to do when the console turns off, the PC is in sleep mode, and he or she is about to go into sleep mode themselves? The answer is simple when you buy them this.
Author Tom Bissell continues the gaming by analyzing some of the most thought-provoking and important video games of the past several years in this passionate defense of this interactive medium. He walks a fine line of analysis by mixing his own sense of humor and extraordinarily personal experiences with video games.
Even amidst a self-proclaimed “golden age” of gaming, he takes a critical look at several trends of modern gaming and dreams of what improvements video games will make in the future. If the geek in your life enjoys reading, then “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matters” would be a welcome addition to any gamer’s library.
Steve Jobs
There’s a pretty good chance that the geek on your gift list owns some sort of Apple device. Be it an iPhone, laptop, iPad or iPod, the tractor beam-like draw of the products Steve Jobs and his company created simply speak to geeks. Even if there’s someone who isn’t a fan of their products the story of the man behind the myth is a fascinating one, as told by Walter Isaacson in his biography of Steve Jobs.
Created after conducting over a hundred interviews, including over forty with Jobs over the course of two or so years, this posthumously-released biography provides a completely uncensored look at a man that millions admired and loved. His notorious pursuit of perfection is well outlined, warts and all, for better or worse. Time will tell, of course, but this might end up being the definitive biography on one of the biggest icons of our time. Well worth picking up for any geek in your life.
GauntylgrymNo list of books for geeks would be complete without a fantasy themed title, now would it? Author R.A. Salvatore has been writing about Drizzt Do’Urden now for over 20 books. But luckily for all of us the books don’t require you to start all the way at the beginning to be able to start enjoying them now.
Gauntylgrym is the beginning of a new trilogy of books following Drizzt and his pals as they search for the fabled home of a long dead Dwarf clan. Unbeknownst to them they’re not the only ones looking, and whoever finds and unlocks the secrets there will alter the course of the land of Neverwinter forever. A light, fun read full of grand adventure and sword fights to the death.
The books ties together Dungeons and Dragons stories and stands as a prequel to the upcoming Neverwinter PC game. For us geeks that like the fantasy genre Gauntylgrym and the just released 2nd book in the set “Neverwinter” make a great gift.
Know something we missed or use our list to pick out a gift? Let us know in the comments!
5 responses to “2011 Holiday Gift Guide – Books”
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Steve Jobs and Ready Player One are both waiting in my iBooks.
Earlier this year, I started and quit both ‘Extra Lives’ and ‘Reality Is Broken.’ Extra Lives seemed less about ‘why videogames matter’ and more about ‘I like this recent popular game and here’s the experience I had playing it.’
Reality is Broken is full of great ideas and wonderful in theory. However, the tone of the book seemed very pretentious and talked down to its’ audience.
I don’t know, I didn’t find Reality is Broken to be condescending at all, just saddled with doing double duty of not only explaining the power of games but trying to explain why they’re so awesome to people that have never played a game before.
Seemed written with the complete non-gamer in mind.
For my pick I’d say Dance with Dragons from George R.R. Martin. Though you’d really have to start at the beginning of the series for it to make any sense.
If you listened to our show you know I HIGHLY recommend Ready Player One! Must-read.
I saw Jane McGonigal’s keynote at PAX East this year and though I haven’t gotten around to her book I know that she has nothing but utter respect for her audience and simply wants everyone to take the way they think about games (and life) to a higher level. I guess that could come off as pretentious, but she doesn’t when you see her talk about it.
Mott, I’m about 40% of the way through Storm of Swords. I probably won’t put these books down until I’ve finished Dance With Dragons. I guess we didn’t think to put it in here since none of us had read it yet. Thanks for the suggestion though!
maybe it was just the girl doing the narration (listened to the audiobook.) a non-gamer friend of mine got to participate in her Find the Future thing at NYPL; she shared my thoughts on the book as well.
I’d seen her talks online and watched her on TV a few times. Def. a fan of her ideas, just not the book.
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