A day off work with lots of books, Limbo

[flexagon]

There've been a lot of diatribes about the holidays this year, but I won't be joining in the chorus. I don't mind Christmas, maybe because I don't feel any particular pressure to do it in any particular way... heisenbug and I put up a tree because we like it. We stay home by ourselves, make coffee, open presents and let the cats frolic in the mess of wrapping paper all day. It's peaceful, if not complicated or deep. I like peaceful.

On the topic of presents, it's always remarkably nice when after all the time spent picking out books people will like, it turns out that I get books too! This year I got more than usual... and with one more gift swap coming in early January (with a very bookish group of friends) I'm actually going to list what I got. It just might help avoid duplicates.

• de Bono's Thinking Course by Edward de Bono


• Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain by Kirsten Menger-Anderson (thanks kaigex!)


• 420 Characters by Lou Beach


• HBR's 10 Must-Reads on Leadership


• The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi


• Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal


• Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente


• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern


• The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman


• Everything is its Own Reward by Paul Madonna


• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Kindle edition, thanks heisenbug!)

Delicious... I'm so psyched about that list.

We also blew several hours yesterday playing LIMBO, a disturbingly beautiful video game that I think you should know about because it's my favorite since Portal. It's a puzzle-based platformer... black and white, eerie, lonely, filled with surprising and gruesome deaths, devoid of music, and oddly innocent. Best of all, it can be played in its entirety in well under 10 hours, which means it won't eat your life forever. And if you have a PC then it's available on Steam for very little money.

Comments

[flexagon]

I'm about halfway through it now, and it's very fun to read, but also steeped in privilege that she shows no particular awareness of. (Does she know?) This might be an intrinsic danger of writing books that focus largely on minutiae, but I don't think so.

Anyway, a fun read, and a good reminder to notice the details in life. I could easily imagine incorporating this style of thing into my blog, especially on days when long-form writing just isn't going to happen.