I love the book so far, and I highly recommend it to anyone pursuing writing seriously. Not only is it motivating, but it’s full of excellent advice from accomplished and well-published writers. Each section and chapter deals with a different problem area, from creating believable characters to combating writer’s block and manipulating pace effectively. The book is just as much directed toward aspiring novelists as it is writers of any form and genre, so I entreat you to give it a read—this year or the next.

Anyone else take up a book reading challenge in 2011? Are you aiming to read more starting in January?

The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing (Second Edition) and other helpful guides are still available as free e-books on the Writer’s Digest website.

This is a brilliant marketing strategy in my view because while price now greatly affects whether I purchase a print or digital copy of a book, my decision is also strongly influenced by how interesting the cover is. Whether we admit it or not, I think all bibliophiles judge books by their covers; otherwise book browsing wouldn’t make any sense. We look at shelves and tables in stores and linger on the books that catch our eye, partly for the wittiness of the title and partly for the creativity put into the book’s jacket. Sometimes there’s a funny animal on the cover, or the type treatment is smart, or we like the colors. The point is that we’re not sold purely on book reviews alone, and if a book is nice to look at, I’d much rather tote around a paperback than my Kindle.

That’s why I love graphic novels. They look so damn good on a bookshelf it’s ridiculous.

Would you be persuaded to buy physical copies of books or music if the product design and build was a little more collectible?

No matter what holiday you celebrate this time of year, any book reader can appreciate the thought of reading a new book, freshly printed or gently aged, amid the glow of a brightly decorated Christmas tree. That’s one favorite activity of mine, but even if you don’t celebrate Christmas or have snow falling outside your window these next few months, I encourage you to share your book plans here on the blog.

What books made your wish list? Do you have a beloved backdrop when reading? Do you prefer print or e-book? Personally, I go for both. I own a Kindle but still crave the nostalgic experience of turning pages and holding a work of creativity in my hands.

As for books, I’ve been meaning to check out The Monstrumologist, so hopefully that winds up under the Christmas tree (hint, hint).

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Okay, I finally finished this bastard of a book. October has been an extremely busy month for me, and it didn’t help that The Girl Who Played with Fire was such an enormous step down in quality from the addictive and well-characterized Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The difference is more a cliff than a gentle drop.

Larsson’s second book took everything I loved about his first and spat all over it. Yes, this is an angry review.

Dragon Tattoo had an excellent build-up that hooked me and kept me interested from the second chapter onward (the first chapter is awful, but nevermind). The character perspectives were well-balanced, the detail of narrative was a good counterpoint to the suspense, and I started to understand why people love Lisbeth Salander so much.

Girl Who Played with Fire removes everything admirable from her personality and forces her into a cookie-cutter girl-power mold. The biggest change with her occurs very early on in the book, and it has to do with cup size (the end). While I can’t say that Larsson made her totally unappealing—she does rock some awesome moments, especially later on—he has made her more of an open book. Literally. We learn a lot about Lisbeth’s past, and it’s both compelling and terrible because Larsson spends so much time cutting her down and skinning her motivations so that they become transparent, uncomplicated, and boring. It’s a dual and very convoluted transformation, and Larsson is still busy pretending that she’s a mystery when he’s removed everything interesting and original about her mind and behavior.

The book also spends a lot of time switching back and forth between at least a dozen characters, and this is way too excessive for it’s own good. I much prefer the careful and controlled moderation of Dragon Tattoo. Plus, here I got to read the perspectives of various characters I didn’t care to know that intimately. Often they were mundane characters anyway, although a few gained my affection, and even still, Larsson makes it painfully clear that he has a prose formula that involves coffee and sandwiches and overnight visits with sexually open and forward women, a characterization and event that is both refreshingly frank (not all women are submissive or timid when it comes to matters of the bedroom) and seriously annoying because Larsson could have at least offset the sexually in-charge females with a couple good-wife types, but he chose not to take full advantage of his own clever thinking.

Because of the hodgepodge of characters, the plot is severely less interesting than the former book’s, and it failed miserably to capture my interest and hold it. The book does improve, but it took a long time to stoke its potential. For a book titled The Girl Who Played with Fire, it sure does need a lesson on passion and the benefits of impulsive and unpredictable writing. What we get is slow-building and dragged out, and not in the smart way Dragon Tattoo was.

Worst of all, Girl Who Played with Fire just gets cheesy, and at certain intervals I even felt embarrassed for Larsson for succumbing to such cliched and overwrought writing and plot points. I even finished the book aggravated because he ended it with such a blatant and unfair cliffhanger, which is the most unforgivable thing he could have done after boring me for so long and then finally managing to work up my interest. Now I’m cornered into reading the final book, which is supposed to be the best of the three as it happens, but if it wasn’t I wouldn’t budge on the issue. I would refuse to read Book Three. Thanks for 600 pages of torture and pain, Larsson. You really are good at this S&M stuff—which, by the way, you took to indulgent extremes. I need a really long shower now.

Level Up by Gene Luen Yang

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Because it’s a telling of one gamer’s lifelong quest for personal acceptance despite the demands of higher education, adulthood, and familial obligations, the comic is a bit aimless. You just have to sit back and go with it, wherever it decides to take you. I was deciding whether to buy this book as a gift for someone when I read it, so I’m not the most reliable judge of its narrative stability—I was obsessed with figuring out whether the intended receiver of the book would enjoy it, since it would have a more personal attachment for him than the common reader.

Still, it won me over and I went to the register with the book in hand. Yes, it’s largely about video games, but it’s not as filled with nerdy references as would something like Scott Pilgrim. The story veers into more serious discussions and events, so it’s more about life happening than it is about playing video games without shame or repercussions. This protagonist isn’t the lovable slacker Scott Pilgrim, whose greatest accomplishment would forever be gaining an extra life and powers of awesome. This book is a little more real world, and the real world can suck.

That’s not to say the book is dull or even uncomfortable. But it’s more emotional than the usual comic about video game love would be. And by the end, it ties everything together not neatly and conveniently, but in a way that speaks to a lot of us. It’s not about settling; it’s about opening yourself to the best of both worlds and finding happiness with what’s there in front of you, instead of trying to escape into a virtual world and running away from your problems in the real one. It’s a solid read, but maybe not what most people would expect.

Batman: Noel by Lee Bermejo

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lee Bermejo, who has illustrated such fascinating character tellings as Joker and Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, sets down his brush long enough to try his hand at writing. His storytelling is, incredulously, as amazing and dedicated as his artwork. In Batman: Noel, he cleverly infuses Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol with the superhero icon Batman and his city of Gotham, assigning Barbara Ciardo the role of colorist. Bermejo still provides visuals that will take your breath away, but this time he lets Ciardo light them all aglow in snowy whites and holiday reds, blues, and yellows. Superman himself illuminates a trash-heaped alley with his usual primary colors, now festively bright and cheery.

The only thing that suffers in Bermejo’s script is the ending, which is kind of abrupt and lacking, but otherwise Noel is a captivating and intelligent read. It’s definitely a perfect gift for comic book fans this winter season.

Keep an eye out for my interview with Lee Bermejo. I’ll update my review here with the link, or you can visit whatistechnoagain.com for new postings.

View all my reviews

Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America by Jeff Ryan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A really great Nintendo history written at a crucial time for the company. It’s very readable and smartly presented. There are some downsides, though. One: Although the gorgeous minimalistic front design is covetous to collectors and graphic art appreciators, the interior contains zero pictures. Odd for a book about a visually driven medium. Two: There are some sparse grammatical errors in the Kindle edition, at least. Three: The author makes non-video game pop culture references that will disappear from zeitgeist within about thirty years, and thus become inaccessible. Four: Oddly little is said about the 3DS.

Otherwise, it’s a fantastic, must-read book for video game enthusiasts.

UPDATE: For a more detailed review and my interview with author Jeff Ryan, visit http://nintendo_3ds.gamezone.com/editori…

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kurt Vonnegut, as usual, assumes a finicky writing style: it’s sometimes depressing, sometimes beautiful, sometimes funny, and always rightly contemplative. Breakfast of Champions observes American life in all its glory and ugliness. The narrator speculates often, but also leaves the interpretation of irony up to the reader, who can probably identify similar patterns in his or her own day-to-day experiences. Life is what you make of it when you’re an average, everyday citizen.

Of course, Kilgore Trout and Dwayne Hoover are far from average citizens, yet they embody much of ourselves and the people around us. Trout (a character also from Slaughterhouse-Five) is an ignored and shunned outcast, who suddenly gets a lucky break. Hoover is a man falling to madness, who got all the breaks in the world and is faced with metaphorical repossession and inheriting nothing but a sodden reputation instead.

And all the characters in between offer some reflection on some small but true piece of life. Vonnegut captures so much of life that he essentially records more of it than he comments on. The end product is a hodge-podge of humor, sadness, wisdom, and fickle fate.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I heard that The Girl of the Dragon Tattoo was being made into an American movie and that there were other films before it, I knew I wanted to read Larsson’s novels. Watching movies always spoils the enjoyment of a book for me, so print comes first.

A friend told me that the books were possibly overhyped, and that’s a fair assertion. But aside from a terrible first chapter, which plunged me head-first into a well of financial jargon that I didn’t begin to understand, every subsequent chapter of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was excellently paced and accessibly written. Whatever Larsson may lack in actual literary prowess, he amends for with a wide scope of narrative detail and believable, down-to-earth characters. In some cases Larsson gives readers more information about the setting and persons involved than they’d care to know, but much later on I realized that this diligent approach was how the author managed to create such an engrossing story and carefully concocted murder mystery. Every inch closer to the truth came as a revelation not because it was an outlandish twist, but because Larsson had filled in the remaining cracks with so much of the ordinary.

But don’t let that fool you into thinking that Larsson’s pages are a waste of time. The characters make the story, no matter how mundane or riveting its plot, as special as it is. They’re given flaws and attributes that are fascinating, and it’s a rare occurrence to feel so close to fictional characters as I did—especially Lisbeth Salander. She’s like looking into the rabbit hole and wanting selfishly, gluttonously to see more.

The book also contains one of the most powerful, unsettling uses of juxtaposition I’ve ever seen put to use.

Now the author of that book is back with another investigation into the possible and impossible, and this time he’s adding another layer to the inquiry: human and machine. E. Paul Zehr, who so kindly provided me a review copy of his latest work (on sale October 1), has chosen Iron Man as his sophomore course of study, and he follows through with as much curiosity and passion as his first. Inventing Iron Man: The Possibility of a Human Machine uses Tony Stark’s original and remodeled suits as a launch point to answer countless questions about man and his capability to connect with complicated machines and to investigate how close to current technology those wondrous armors are.

The questions lead the reader down paths of neuroscience and kinesiology (the study of human movement) to possibilities of flight, the myth of multi-tasking, the effects of substance abuse, the damage sustained by prolonged biological interface with a machine, to the long-lasting effects of subjecting the human body to a second exoskeleton that does all the major work for you. As with Becoming Batman, the most fascinating parts of Inventing Iron Man are the avenues of discussion most comic book fans never consider: like how wearing the Iron Man suit would expose Tony to the same gravitational issues that astronauts face when they return to Earth, or what realistic explanation could be offered in replacement of Stark’s fictional origin story.

Like a true costumed hero, Zehr masks learning in the guise of pop culture enthusiasm—the language and life blood of comic book nerds. Readers will forget they’re being taught real-world information and that at the book’s center—and Iron Man’s heart—is the same science and technology they were exposed to in school. The techno-speak weighs down the occasional chapter, but most of the time the author has a good handle on making the language accessible and easily understood. I wish Zehr had written all my biology textbooks.

Inventing Iron Man: The Possibility of a Human Machine is a perfect source to learn about the history of Iron Man and the strength and limits of the human body and brain. If you’re already a genius-level Iron Man fan, then you’re bound to discover a new facet of your beloved hero. Take it from a girl who knows her Batman ever better now than before.

For more information, visit inventingironman.com.

Head over to GameZone for my combination editorial on Nintendo’s current state of affairs and interview with Jeff Ryan, author of the recent book Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America.

Anyway, here’s a quick rundown of my August reads. If anyone wants more thorough reviews, just let me know.

The Crying of Lot 49
by Thomas Pynchon

Try as I might, I couldn’t get into the language or the story. The writing is long-winded and obtuse, and the characters are offensive. I was unable to sympathize with the main character, a woman, who was completely pitiful to me, nor could I, as a moral person, take a liking to a number of the repulsive men she met.

The plot itself eluded me in many spots and was terribly dry and uninteresting. Whenever the story dove into thoughtful meditation, it swerved back to Pynchon’s rambling, mind-labyrinth style of writing, and I was bored all over again. Probably the only reason I finished was so I could get to the bottom of the Tristero/Pierce nonsense, and none of it satisfied me.

Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five got better the further into it I read. I’m usually a fan of WWII-themed literature in general, but Vonnegut’s sad and beautiful narrative goes beyond the average retelling of the war and bombing of Dresden. He presents a disordered world that’s very much ordered, an insane man who’s very much sane, and a shocking series of events that are very much the way of the world. Pay attention to the details, and you’ll see how everything comes together, all the inseparable little pieces of life, war, and peace.

Paper Towns
by John Green

John Green makes writing look as easy and simple as everyday thought, but underneath this high school coming-of-age story is a much deeper acknowledgment of human nature. The chapters are perfectly paced, and by the end of the book, you’ll find yourself as transfixed with the idea of a perfect ending as Quentin is with Margo.

(And finally …

… the conclusion to His Dark Materials, the whole of which I’ve reviewed on Goodreads.)

The Amber Spyglass
by Philip Pullman

I didn’t enjoy this book nearly as much as the first two. Pullman calmed the story down in the last third, but most of the time there was too much going on and it just wasn’t as consistent.

The ending [SPOILER] is, by most people’s standards, depressing, but it’s not necessarily uncalled for. If you think about Pullman’s message of how joyous being one with the universe is, you’ll understand that even though Lyra and Will are forced to live apart, they’ll be rejoined one day, and sitting on the same bench in their different Oxfords holds a certain power, as well. That spiritual connection, something we could all do well to learn from, is more powerful and real to Pullman than a belief in God. [END SPOILER]

Agree or disagree with anything written here? Read anything good/bad/horribly atrocious lately? I’m open to recommendations.

Act fast: this lightning-fast offer is only valid for one day, after all. Omnivoracious has a nice anecdote from a fan/blogger if you need convincing.

I’ve never read Riordan’s work before, but I’m curious about The Lightning Thief. Amazon’s sale seems like a good way to catch up with either the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles, or The Heroes of Olympus (new) series.