I read this book on an e-reader. Specifically, the library app on my iPad. I feel like there should be some sort of subsection of academia out there that focuses on interactions such as this, meldings of the old world with the new, if there isn’t already (I’m almost positive there is, but I don’t know what one would call that; media studies? But it feels like it should be so much more…). That thought kept striking me as I read this book, which tries, […]
Next-Gen Business
Console Wars is a riveting industry expose. Author Blake J. Harris tells the story of the late 80s/early 90s videogame renaissance, and the battle for market dominance between elder statesman Nintendo and impertinent upstart Sega. Harris hinges the narrative on Sega of America’s CEO, Tom Kalinske. Kalinkske himself is a disgraced businessman, once the driving force behind Barbie’s can-do attitude at Mattel. He is recruited to SoA by then-president of Sega Enterprises, Hayao Nakayama. The goal: revitalize Sega in the American market, and beat Nintendo […]
Snow White and the Big Bad Wolf walk into a ball…
I was a freshman in college when I started reading comics, and as someone who’d cut her teeth on Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, Bill Willingham’s Fables struck a sweet spot I was previously unaware I’d had. Fables, the literal characters and enchanted objects from fairytale and legend alike, have been displaced by an otherwise unnamed Adversary. Chased into our world, they occupy a block in Manhattan, and hide their existence from the “Mundies” using a variety of means, but mostly magic. Fables manages to […]
Just So-So Stories
I stayed up until 3:30 in the morning reading Rob Lowe’s book, Stories I Only Tell My Friends. The late hour was not due to any exceptional interest in the book (though I am a sucker for good Hollywood gossip) nor any other particular qualities. I just really wanted to finish reading it. To those who would shame my interest in decades-old drama, be content with the knowledge that I did not get what I came for. As an author, Lowe pulls his punches. […]
Sure, I’d like to do cool sh*t.
It’s the title. The impish little asterisk accentuated by Crayola-colored block print on a field of black. The irreverence of such a scatological term in a title, of all places. Maybe you knew Miki Agrawal before you picked up Do Cool Sh*t, as the owner of WILD, or maybe, like me, you’d heard of her latest endeavor, Thinx, before you ever heard the name of the “Bohemian Capitalist” (that one’s from the Grey Lady herself, not me). But what drew me to the book was […]
Hamilton Makes a Dent in Modern History
Please spare me your lack of surprise that I’ve finished Hamilton: The Revolution, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter’s book chronicling the gestation of the eponymous musical, before having finished the book said musical was based on, Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton. They are both big thick tomes spanning years (arguable decades), but while Chernow’s prose is delightful and accessible, his book does not consist of rap lyrics, easily digestible footnotes, and beautiful photos. Like Cannonballer ellesfena, I bought the book because I am an obsessive Midwestern […]