What’s on your bookshelf?: Deus Ex, Looking Glass Studios, and Otherside’s Warren Spector

Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! This week, it’s Looking Glass Studios’ legend, Deus Ex director, and Otherside’s Warren Spector – who I suspect might have realised the very secret goal of this column. Cheers Warren! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?

What are you currently reading?

Let me start by saying I have 17,000 “dead tree” books and 7,000 e-books, so I have a lot to choose from! That may be why I read several books at once – a lightweight read, a heavy read, a medium read, some fiction and some poetry. Or maybe it’s just that I’d go crazy if all I read was pap or pretentious heavyweight stuff. That out of the way… right now, I’m reading these:

Gamer Girls by Mary Kenney

• There’s a huge chunk of videogame history I know nothing about. Reading this, I’m learning some more. A lightweight book, but informative and an easy read.

Introducing Walter Benjamin by Howard Caygill, Alex Coles and Andrzej Klimowski

• I’ve been meaning to dive into Benjamin’s work but haven’t made it any further than The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. I figure a quick overview of his life and work will ease me into the rest of his work.

Chilly Scenes Of Winter by Ann Beattie

• A novel I’ve been meaning to read since I saw Joan Micklin Silver’s wonderful 1979 (I think) film of the same name. I rewatched it recently and it hasn’t entirely held up but I figured I should finally give the novel a try.

Poetry 180 edited by Billy Collins

• For some reason I do not understand, I’ve become a poetry nut recently. It started with a course on Masterclass by ex-poet laureate, Billy Collins that was terrific. (If you don’t subscribe to Masterclass you might consider it. If nothing else, Will Wright does a terrific game design course…) Collins has become my favorite poet – funny, accessible and somehow pretty profound. If nothing else find his poem “The Lanyard.” It starts out being about trivialities but ends up being about so much more.

1001 Muscle Car Facts by Steve Magnante

• I’m a car nut. Have been since I was a teenager. Steve Magnante makes me look like an amateur. Which I guess I am, actually. Anyway, I love the guy’s stuff. (Check out his “Junkyard Crawl” videos on YouTube. They’re awesome.) I didn’t include this book in my first pass “what I’m reading” list because it isn’t the kind of thing you sit down and read – you crack it open, read a factoid or three and put it back down. But it’s a book; I’ve been “reading” it for months; I learn lots of useless facts from it; so here it is.

What did you last read?

I’ve kept a list of every book I’ve read since 1989, so this is an easy one to answer. Given that I read more than one book at a time, I have several books in my finished list:

New York In The ’50’s by Dan Wakefield.

• I grew up in New York, in the East Village, and was too young to experience what Wakefield writes about, but I’ve long been fascinated by the political/cultural/literary life of Columbia University, the jazz clubs of Manhattan and bohemian life in Greenwich Village. (Hey, I admit I’m nostalgic for a period I didn’t live through…) Wakefield is a terrific writer and he’s a Zelig-like figure who knew everybody from philosophers to poets to the Beats to jazz musicians to blacklisted writers to, well, everyone. Wonderful book describing an incredible life.

Signs And Meaning In The Cinema by Peter Wollen

• Another book I’ve been meaning to read for decades. It’s a collection of three essays and a massive interview with the author. The first essay is an evaluation of the work and theories of Russian film director, Sergei Eisenstein; the second essay is an evaluation of the auteur theory and some evaluations of various film directors; the third essay is the one I really wanted to read – it’s all about semiotics as it applies to film. I’ve never understood semiotics, a fact that really bugs me. I’ve been reading a bunch about it over the last few months, but nothing that, to my limited knowledge, applied its precepts to anything other than literature and anthropology (and rarely even those). I figured Wollen might show me how the study of signs and signifiers might apply to film and, in that way, show me how it might be applied to an understanding of games in a new and interesting way. That didn’t quite work out, but I’m not done with semiotics. Some of it is sinking in and I’ve been enjoying the journey.

The Beauty Of Games by Frank Lantz

• Not much to say about this other than STOP READING THIS AND GET A COPY! Frank’s a super smart guy who’s taught game design and game criticism as well as making games of his own. Here he offers ways to think about games that get far beyond good/bad and fun/not-fun. I’ve been saying for years that those ways of talking about games are useless – that “fun” in particular is a useless word that diminishes what we do. Frank goes way deeper in a book that’s an easy, accessible read. Required. Go. Now.

Play Nice by Jason Schrier

• Jason may be the best games journalist around. His books Press Reset and Blood, Sweat and Pixels give the most accurate look at what game development is really like I’ve ever read. His latest, Play Nice, is a history of Blizzard. No, make that THE history of Blizzard. There’s basically no need to write another one. I thought I knew the story. I didn’t. Now I do. (Jason has a way of getting people – okay, ME – saying things on the record they shouldn’t say at all. I don’t know how he does it. But he does. That’s very much on display here.)

What are you eyeing up next?

I’ve got a ways to go in the books I’m currently reading so it’ll be a while before “next” rolls around, but I do have my eye on some books. I won’t read all of these of course, but these are the ones from which I’m going to choose. I reserve the right to change my mind on any or all of these before or after I give them a try. Oh, and before you read this list, know that I’m unashamedly pretentious. That said, these are legitimately the books by my bed. No fooling. So sue me. Or join me. And let’s talk about stuff.

Basic Writings Of Existentialism edited by Gordon Marino

• I’ve been on a philosophy kick on and off for a year or so. Read a lot. For better or worse, Existentialism makes some sense to me but that’s on the basis of not very much. I want to broaden my range of reading. I’ll probably dip my toe into this over the course of time rather than read it all at once, but this seems like a good way to dive deeper.

Semiotics: An Introductory Anthology edited by Robert E. Innis

• Anyone want to bet this is the first book to drop off my to-read list? Reading ABOUT semiotics is tough enough. Reading original stuff is almost impossible. I’m going to give it a shot, but I’m not hopeful.

Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari

• Harari is a favorite of mine. He popularizes Big Topics in ways that bug a lot of people but I find enlightening, even soothing. This one is about the history of networks and their impact on humanity and society. I don’t know much more than that and don’t really care. I eat the guy’s stuff up.

The Virtual Life Of Film by David Rodowick

• I actually went to grad school with Rodowick and understood, like, every fifth word he said. He was our resident semiotics nut. He’s gone on to an impressive career as an academic and I’m hoping – as I did with the Wollen book – I can learn something about practical application of a critical approach I find opaque (at best). I hate when I don’t understand something and I’m going to lick this semiotics thing if it kills me.

The Work Of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing by Adam Moss

• I love reading books about creativity, the creative process and the creation of art works. I know very little about this book other than it got great reviews, I love the topic and the book itself is a work of art. I mean the way it’s bound, the quality of the paper, the beautiful illustrations. I’m in…

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell

• This is supposed to be the Next Big Thing in Fantasy. I’ll need something lightweight to balance out all the heavy stuff weighing down my night table. I’m hoping this is it. If not, there are a LOT of comics and graphic novels to read! (I’m not ALWAYS pretentious!)

Fight Me by Austin Grossman

• This wasn’t on the first list I submitted, but that was just a foolish oversight on my part. I was boxing up a bunch of books for reasons that wouldn’t interest anyone and there was Austin’s latest novel, somehow unread. I know nothing about it other than that it was written by Austin Grossman, which is all I really need to know. If you don’t know who Austin is, check his game design credits – System Shock, Deus Ex and more. He’s helped me on most of my games. He also happens to be a wonderful novelist. Fight Me is his latest, but you should check out Soon I Will Be Invincible and, if you want a peek behind the curtain of game development, his novel You is a great way to see what it’s like at a game dev studio… with monsters.

The City And Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

• This was another late entry – it just came out the day I submitted this list but it had to be included. I love Murakami. His brand of magical realism just does it for me. I could recommend ALL of his books and hate to single any out but if you’ve never given him a shot, you could do worse than start with 1Q84. But, really, he hasn’t written a bad book so start anywhere and prepare to have your view of reality changed.

Playing With Reality: How Games Have Shaped Our World by Kelly Clancy

• This book showed up in The Economist’s list of best books of the year this week and, given its title and subject matter, I pretty much had to make it a last minute addition to my list. It’s a history of games from a political, military, psychological, philosophical and, I understand, just plain fun perspective. Sounds both useful and, well, fun. It’s gotta be on my could-be-next list.

What quote or scene from a book has stuck with you?

I’ve been collecting quotes for decades so this is going to be both easy and hard. Easy because I have a lot to choose from. Hard because I have a lot to choose from. I’m tempted to pass on this for now – someday I’m going to start up a Quote a Day website where I provide a quote, talk about why it’s interesting in general and why it’s important to me, personally.

Okay, here’s one (out of, literally, thousands) in my collection. It sang to me. (Anyone I might work for should stop reading here!)

“I want everything we do to be beautiful. I don’t give a damn whether the client understands that that’s worth anything, or that the client thinks it’s worth anything, or whether it is worth anything. It’s worth it to me. It’s the way I want to live my life. I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares.” – Saul Bass

(As a note, Saul Bass created some of the most memorable film title sequences of all time. A second-to-none visual designer. Look him up. There’s lots of his work on YouTube…)

What book do you find yourself bothering friends to read?

Ack. Another one where I have to list several! I’ll list just six (and regret the ones I’ve forgotten immediately after I finish this!)

Time And Again by Jack Finney

• I love time travel stories and this is a doozy. My sister read this first, reading it in one sitting. She passed it along to my father, who read it in one sitting. He passed it along… and, well, you get the idea. Totally fun. No more, no less. It’s a popcorn read, but nothing wrong with that.

Organizing Genius by Warren Bennis

• This book by noted leadership thinker describes several what he calls “great groups” – teams that created great, innovative, world-changing things. He doesn’t offer instructions about how to create them, but describes their characteristics and the shared circumstances that allowed them to come into being and flourish. I LOVE this book. It describes a couple of teams I’ve been lucky enough to work with. That said, I’ll warn you that my current team, when I had them read it, HATED it. I won’t go into why here. (Hey, I want to intrigue you.) Read it yourself and see what you think. I’m happy to discuss it.

The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp

• Okay. This is simply the Best Book I’ve Ever Read About Creativity. Tharp is a world-renowned choreographer and, yes, there’s an element of autobiography here (that got me seriously obsessed with ballet for a while, about which I’m still simmeringly interested). The autobiographical stuff is fascinating. I mean, you wouldn’t believe the people Tharp has worked with. It’s like a who’s who of the arts community. But her discussion of her process and how it can be applied to any medium is just (insert four letter word here) brilliant. GO READ THIS!

The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

• Rubin’s book shares some characteristics with Tharp’s Creative Habit, but it has its own – dare I say it? – “hippie” vibe. The first third of the book lays that stuff on pretty thick, to the point where I almost stopped reading. Man, am I glad I stuck with it! The last two-thirds of the book are (insert four letter word here) incredible. I said earlier that I collect quotes. I got a LOT of them from this book. There’s insight on every damn page.

The Timeless Way Of Building by Christopher Alexander

• I keep a copy of Timeless Way of Building by my bed and read a passage when I need to lower my blood pressure. Alexander invented the idea of Pattern Languages, which have become an important part of software development, and that’s very much in evidence here. Be warned, Alexander was an architect and he had his hippie-dippie aspect, so there’s nothing about software in this book and there’s some stuff here that might send left-brain folks spinning off into some alternate universe. But if you can get past that, the writing is beautiful and the descriptions of spaces that are “alive” are pretty wonderful.

Designing Disney by John Hench

• Disney’s Imagineers are among the smartest, most creative people on the planet. No fooling. This book, by an Imagineer who was there at the very beginning of the effort that led to Disneyland in 1955 has lots of lessons to teach us – especially world-builders. The creation of spaces that tell stories, ways of directing players without leading them around by the nose, color to create emotions… All that and more is here. There’s so much to learn in what’s a surprisingly compact read.

What book would you like to see someone adapt to a game?

This may be the toughest question of all. I’m not sure there are ANY books I want to see adapted to a game. I mean, books are wonderful as books, and games are wonderful as games. The two media don’t need each other. That said, let me see… okay, here’s one almost entirely selfish one:

Wildcards edited by George R.R. Martin

• Wildcards is a shared world anthology created and edited by George R.R. Martin (yeah, the guy who writes the Song of Ice and Fire books, now and forever known as Game of Thrones). It’s a “what if superheroes and villains and vaguely monstrous things existed in an alternate version of our world.” (Man, does that not do it justice!) The first book came out in 1987 so it’s been around for a while, basically as long as Watchmen, the obvious competition. I think it’s on its 25 book or something. (Don’t quote me on that.) I say it’s here selfishly because a lot of the writers in the series are friends of mine and I love their work. In one case, I love the writer herself – my wife Caroline writes with George in the series. She’s created some memorable characters and, if I say so myself, written some terrific stories. But enough tooting my wife’s horn. If you want to give the series a try, you can start with the very first book or you can dive in with one called Inside Straight. One of those two – don’t start anywhere else or you’re likely to be confused. And if you just want more information, check out the Wikipedia page. I’ve tried to get every company I’ve worked for to license the rights to Wildcards and make a game but haven’t had any luck.

Ok, Warren wins. Or, is at least tied with Dan. Book for now!