What we’ve been reading and playing
Our tester form included questions about recently loved books and games. We saw some interesting responses from you guys (some have been added to my already infinitely-long reading list). We asked those questions partially because we wanted to choose testers with varied interests, but also because we wanted to get to know you all better!
It seems that a lot of you guys love fantasy and sci fi – not surprising, considering the nature of our game! We recognized some of the authors (Ursula Le Guin, Neil Stephenson) while others were new to us (Dan Simmons – or am I the only one who hasn’t heard of Hyperion before?). But while you guys love reading gamebooks, fantasy, and sci-fi, recently loved games were a much more varied mix. We got everything from Skyrim to Mirror’s Edge, and board games to digital board games.
Here are our own answers to what we’ve been reading and playing recently:
What we’re playing
Yuliya: I’ve been exploring the vast world of board and card games with my husband (you may have seen some tweets about that). We’re limited to two-person games, and so far haven’t quite found what we’re looking for. It would help if we knew what we were looking for, but for now we’ll adventure aimlessly until we stumble on it. We’ve tried Forbidden Island (thanks to Chris!), which we liked but thought was too simple. Hanabi was a hit with me and a huge miss with my husband, he was not amused at all. Ah well, back to the search!
Jessica: Chris left me a copy of Shadow of the Colossus while he was away, because I’d never played it (I know, I know, it’s terrible). So I brought it home, dusted off my PlayStation 2, opened the case excitedly… and found NASCAR Thunder. So sadly I’m still not playing Shadow of the Colossus. But I am playing Assassin’s Creed IV and Battleblock Theater.
Chris: These days, lots of Borderlands 2 (and an occasional 6-hour run of Battlestar Galactica). I don’t usually get around to playing games unless they’ve had at least a few years to ripen, so this is pretty up to date for me.
What we’re reading
Accidentally image searched “hp love”.. not what I was looking for. But hooray for hewlett packard!
Yuliya: Once in a while I choose a theme and challenge myself to read books on that theme. Last time I did this, I learned about Celtic mythology – which it turns out is oddly similar to Russian fairy tales. This time around I’m reading up on cult classics. I just started on the giant book of Lovecraft stories I’ve owned forever but haven’t actually read.
Jessica: I’m normally not much into “end of the world”/ “insert-creature-here apocalypse” stories, but The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin showed up on my radar not too long ago and it looked interesting, so I gave it a shot. Glad I did, the first two books are incredible (sadly, I haven’t read the third yet). I also recently finished The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, which is more along my usual route of fantasy/magic.
Chris: At the moment I’m reading Mindstorms, a book by the creator of a programming language called LOGO (those of you born in the 70s-90s might remember the turtle), about using computers to teach in new ways. (I think Seymour Papert might not be completely thrilled by classrooms in 2014.) I was also working on GRRM’s Song of Ice and Fire but stopped due to total textual exhaustion and dysentery.
October 14, 2014 Tuesday at 2:20 pm
Yuliya 
