You should read it and then play Silent Hill 2. They compliment each other well.
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House of Leaves is spectacular. One of the few books i got through almost non stop in the last couple years. It’s a mind bending experience
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Awesome. I look forward to it. I put a copy on hold at my local library but I might check our some used book stores near me as well. I have a feeling it will be a title I will be adding notes to.
@BMO, I adore the first three titles and after reading this, I might replay them. It’s been a great deal since my last playthroughs anyways.
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Notes are good. If you can find it there’s also a companion book, it’s only like 90 pages, that has letters from the point of view of characters that give more detail on the book events. It can be helpful as well. I believe, though my memory might be off it’s something like The Whalestone Letters.
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Some quick thoughts on recent books I’ve read:
IQ84 – by Haruki Murakami. An extremely long novel about a couple characters in 1980s Japan who slip into a slightly alternate reality that has a few elements of strange magical realism to it. I have read some other Murakami works, and unfortunately I have to say I enjoyed this one a lot less. Felt like the author at his most self-indulgent. There are some interesting concepts and some nice prose to be found (I particularly liked the tale about the city of cats), but the story as a whole could have easily been cut in half and lost nothing. Too repetitive, too meandering, and too unfulfilling for most of the plot threads. I get that all the unanswered questions is likely by design, but it left a sour taste for me in the end.
The Miracles of the Namiya General Store – by Keigo Higashino. The story coincidentally also deals a lot with 1980s Japan. Three thieves in the present day hide out in an abandoned small-town shop, where they find letters from people from the 1980s asking for advice – which the three can then answer, and the people in the past receive their responses (establishing a sort of time-travel correspondence they have to keep secret). What more or less follows is a series of feel-good vignettes about people having to make difficult life decisions, and ultimately the advice itself isn’t what matters as much as the people being willing to go through with what they feel is right. A breezy read that I felt lost its charm in the final act, but overall was nice enough.
The Book of Magic – by seventeen different authors. This is an anthology of fantasy short stories, all dealing with mages of some sort. The variety of stories included was quite nice, but as is always the case for anthologies I found some of them really interesting and some of them really dull. My favorites were “The Friends of Masquelayne the Incomparable” (an amusing dark comedy about a very full-of-himself wizard), “The Wolf and the Manticore” (a bizarre alternate-history spy thriller involving magical creatures), and “The Fall and Rise of the House of the Wizard Malkuril” (a grand sci-fi / fantasy narrative about the magical AI of a deceased wizard’s house).
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I don’t think I disliked IQ84 as much as you seem to, but I agree it’s not one of his best works.
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The book of his I really enjoyed was Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, but it’s been a long time since I read it so maybe my opinion would be different nowadays. In some ways it’s rather similar to IQ84 with its alternate realities, bizarre secretive organizations, and bits of noir detective fiction. I recall it cutting to the chase more quickly though, and going in a direction plot-wise that clicked with me much more (and led to an ending I found both unique and satisfying). Hard-boiled was also a major influence on a favorite anime of mine, Haibane Renmei (which was why I gave the book a read in the first place).
Before IQ84 the most recent thing I read of Murakami’s was a short story anthology called Men Without Women – which I read because I really liked the film Drive My Car (an adaptation of one of the short stories, though it greatly expands upon it [and does an excellent job of it IMO]). I think I mainly liked the anthology because the short stories are pretty much just snapshots of characters’ lives, not really needing to get across much of a plot. Just lets the author hone in on an emotion, give us some nice prose, and leave.
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IQ84 is the only Murakami book I have read so far and I enjoyed every page of it. It is long, but for me it was an experience like sitting by a river and watching the water flow. You are not doing anything productive, you are just watching the water flow, but all the time I am happy and relaxed and interested in what is happening. The book was like a holiday for me. Had it been longer, I would not have complained in the least. I cannot explain why his writing has this effect on me.
Apart from the more bizarre aspects of the story, I found the parts where he describes how bestsellers are basically made by the decisions of a few people, and the Fukaeri book scheme, where it is Fukaeri’s story but the book is actually written by Tengo Kawana, extremely amusing. I have to think Murakami is aware that his book is a bit of a scam, like the river flowing, not exciting or overly deep, but there is something about it that makes people buy and read and even love it. I found it a bit 4th wall breaking, but that might just be my imagination.
I will look into his other books you all have mentioned. If they are even better than this one, I am in for a great time with them.
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Recently read Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult by Dayal Patterson which is a pretty comprehensive history of the genre, especially the first and second wave of the 80s and 90s. But it also touches some on more modern Black Metal and subsequent subgenres and styles that became popular in the 2000s like Blackgaze. A lot of info in this book, maybe not structured and presented in the most captivating manner, but I enjoyed it.
He’s written several more books on BM, as well as a biography on the Greek band Rotting Christ which I’m a big fan of, so I’m interested in checking those out too eventually.
Currently I’m reading Fearless: The Making of Post-Rock. There’s already a lot of bands that get mentioned that I’ve had to write down to check out later because I’m not super familiar with Post-Rock or many of the bands and artists that helped create the genre. Early on it’s mentioning Brian Eno quite a lot, and I love Brian Eno but I don’t think I really realized just how prolific he was in the industry until now. Not just with Roxy Music and all his solo stuff, but also all the other artists and records he helped produce or write for in some capacity. When you look up all his credits it’s just insane how much he’s done over the decades.
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In the subject of Murakami, the only thing I read from him was Tokyo Blues (which came highly recommended) and I can’t for the love of life remember a single thing from it.
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You most certainly are!
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I saw this post and went to a local used bookstore looking for this and it was the only book by them they had. I plan on reading it after going through* House of Leaves*.
Thank for the post.
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I was doing an anti-recommendation there though lol but I hope something from it stays with you
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If I would recommend non-gaming books they would probably be
- 48 Laws of Power
- Gods at War: Shotgun Takeovers, Government by Deal, and the Private Equity Implosion
- The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
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Went into a little bit of shopping spree and bought “What we think when we think about football”. Call me odd but to me there’s something really, really intriguing about a phenomenon that’s so passionately and similarly lived by half of the world (literally) across so many cultures.
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I have a little bit of a book buying ban in my house until I read more from my personal library. Due to lack of finances and not reading as much lately, it’s been awhile since I’ve bought any books or visited a bookstore. I will make an exception for manga though as I’m reading through the Berserk series and will purchase the next omnibus once I have the funds.
I am falling so behind on reading though. I usually make a goal of reading 50 books a year and since the pandemic, I have barely finished my goal by the end of the year and I sincerely doubt I will manage it this year as I’ve only read 25 books. I’ve still managed to read some bangers though so I’ll share some of them here.
- the Rage of Dragons (the Burning #1) by Evan Winter
This was a book club pick among my friends that I thoroughly enjoyed. It is an epic fantasy that plans to be a four book series, two of which are already published. I am currently reading its sequel and am enjoying that one as well. The overall tone of this book is negative but it is still inspiring with its depiction of human perserverance. It began as a self-published book before Orbit Books picked it up and was featured on TIME’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time.
- Berserk by Kentaro Miura
While I’m not even close to finishing this dark epic fantasy series (I’ve read the first three Deluxe Editions and need to pick up the fourth), I can’t stop recommending it. I have a strained relationship with action scenes in manga because it can be hard for me to tell what’s going on but this one has been mostly easy to follow. There were some topics in the second DE volume that felt sexist but overall I have been having a great time. The Deluxe Editions especially are fantastic since the manga panels are displayed much larger than normal volumes. Now that I’m thinking on it, it would not surprise me in the least if the Rage of Dragons was inspired by Berserk as the main characters are comparable.
- Ajin: Demi-Human by Gamon Sakurai
Another manga series! This one is considered an action, dark fantasy, and supernatural thriller. It might be a little early recommending this one as I’ve only read the first three volumes but one of its primary themes, otherness, feels extremely relevant considering current society.
I’ve definitely enjoyed other books but these are my top recommendations.
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I was tempted to start the Berserk series myself as well. I’ve never read any manga but I still plan to get into that particular one, SNK (kinda did it already though, at the end of the 4th season a of the TV adaptation, I told myself "oh fuck, I can’t wait, fuck it all I’ll just read the worst traducion I could find online), and probably Evangelion.
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Finished this one a few nights ago. The reading wasn’t too dense for a book about (basically) parallels between football and philosophical theories. Even a bit too simplistic if I may (although more simplistic on the football side than in the philosophy one). And it’s funny how, for something that seems to be a very cross-cultural topic, it’s almost never possible for any author to avoid centring 90% of the narrative in the environment where their personal experience lives, and use the other 10% as something even less than a filler. Still it was a very interesting reading and one that -I think- expanded the “sociology of the sports” trend that it’s becoming more and more, well, trendy.
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Ah lol forgot to add that I re-started Dune and am past the part where I stopped before (which was the beginning of chapter 3 so not a difficult thing).
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I have always been a fan of quality science fiction. Like that of “Dune” and Foundation.
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