Weekly Non-Fiction Reading List 9.18.23
This week, I finished four books from some amazing authors. The first book is an incredible book about depression and suicide from a philosophical lens and first-person account. Then, we have two books that shed a light on the video game industry. Finally, there’s an atrocious book by a therapist who treats the rich and famous. Enjoy!
Each of the links to the books are affiliate links, so if you use my link to purchase any of these books, some comes back to support what I do (and it also helps fund my reading habit).
How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind by Clancy Martin
This is one of the best books on suicide that I’ve read, but it’s difficult to know who to recommend it to. Personally, I loved the book for a multitude of reasons. First off, I could relate to the author, Clancy Martin, a ton. Like the author, I’m in recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction, and I struggled with suicidal ideation for many years. Especially those first years sober. The author is a philosophy teacher who has attempted to take his own life many times, and this book gives you an inside look at his life while also discussing a lot of research and various philosophies. I’d say the book is probably 70%+ memoir, though. I typically don’t like memoirs, but I could relate, so it kept me hooked.
The reason it’s hard to know who to recommend this to is because it’s brutally honest. As the author says in the intro, if you’re suicidal or struggle with depression, you may not want to read this book. Fortunately, after a decade of sobriety and getting my life back, it didn’t trigger me, but I could see how this would be a bad read for those struggling. I think this book might be great for those who don’t fully understand depression or even suicide because the author gives you a raw look at what goes on in the mind of the suicidal as well as some insight to what famous people may have been going through when they unfortunately took their own lives.
This is a fantastic book, and I guess I just hope it finds the right people.
Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier
Since recently getting back from my first PAX event, I’ve taken an interest in learning more about game development and potentially trying to learn some skills to get into the industry. Because of that, I do what I always do; I found books to read about the industry. Shreier’s book was the first one I came across, so I decided to give it a read, and it didn’t disappoint.
This book is excellent reporting that tells the true stories behind some of the most popular video games as well as some failed ones. Jason Schreier interviewed tons of developers and people within the industry to learn about the process of creating a game, launching it, and the aftermath. I learned a ton about the industry and how hectic it can be as well as all of the hard work that goes into each game.
My only criticism is more of a personal preference. As someone who is very risk averse and considering getting into the industry, I wish there were more stories of failure. Each chapter covers a different game, and I believe there was only one (maybe two) games that didn’t see massive success. While the author mentions it multiple times in the book, my concern is people will get the idea that they’re going to be the next Stardew Valley or Shovel Knight creators.
Overall, I’m glad I learned so much from the book because it lets me know that if I decide to start learning game dev skills, I’m getting into an insane industry that requires a ton of long hours.
Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry by Jason Schreier
I binged Schreier’s first book in a couple of days and immediately picked up this one to learn more about the video game industry. My only criticism of the first book was that it focused too much on the unicorn success stories, but this book really remedied that. Press Reset is about the turbulent waters that are working in the gaming industry. It really shines a light on how chaotic and unpredictable job stability is in this industry, and I really hope aspiring game developers read this book.
The book ties together in a really interesting way with people who worked for the same studios going onto other (sometimes doomed) projects. For example, like the previous book, each chapter focuses on a specific game or developer, and you’ll hear familiar names from previous chapters. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad because it may have been more interesting to learn about completely different, unconnected stories.
Overall, you learn about how capitalism taints the video game industry just like every other industry with people in the C-suite just trying to maximize profits as much as possible. The amount of anxiety many of the people in this industry must have seems unbearable. What’s really interesting was reading this book as everything with the Unity situation is all over the game dev community.
Schreier is a great writer, and I really enjoyed this book as someone who is thinking about getting a foot in the door of the industry.
Fragile Power: Why Having Everything Is Never Enough; Lessons from Treating the Wealthy and Famous by Dr. Paul L. Hokemeyer
My only hope for this book was that it’d be better than Dr. Drew’s nonsense book, so it was a pretty low bar. With that said, while this book from Hokemeyer exceeded the expectations, it didn’t do it by much. This book surprisingly started out pretty decent. Hokemeyer clearly has some in-depth knowledge and expertise, but the problem is these clinicians trying to get us lower-class people to empathize with some of the most well-off people in the world. While I do see them as humans who deserve the basic rights of everyone else, my personal believe is that with so many suffering in this world from mental health issues, the resources could be better spent elsewhere.
After the initial few chapters of the book, it just spirals downhill from there. First off, I’m already skeptical of authors who tell so many stories in their books using direct quotes without any hint of recording their conversations. Most of Hokemeyer’s stories sound like complete BS and spruced up to feed his own ego. By the end of this book, you start to get a clearer picture of who Hokemeyer is, which is a mental health professional who gets off working with the rich and famous and being seen as one of the top authorities treating these people.
By the last third of the book, it completely goes off the rails. At one point he gloats about being featured by known grifted Dr. Oz and then spits terrible advice about working with people with addictions. I don’t know who this book is for, but it’s not good. Maybe he’ll get some more rich and famous clients, and maybe people prone to celebrity gossip will enjoy this book. But as someone who cares a lot about mental health and helping as many people as possible, this book was just brutal.
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