Even if you haven't read any posts from the blog Hyperbole and a Half there's still a good chance you've seen a bit of Allie Brosh's work. The "all the things" meme inspired by this image:

(image credit: Allie Brosh)

came from her post This is Why I'll Never be an Adult. That post is as good an introduction to her work as any.

Much like the What If? book, Brosh has collected many old posts and combined them with new content to make a spiffy little book full of awesome. Again, like with What If?, if you've read the blog then there isn't necessarily enough extra in the book to warrant the purchase beyond perhaps a desire to bestow monetary recompense on a source of previously free joy. And that's a totally valid thing to do. Me, I picked up the book used for $5 as part of a charity sale so I guess I'm at least helping sales in the less quantifiable but still important secondary market. And also, charity! I'm not a monster.

Either via the book or the blog I do recommend reading her work. It's frequently silly and hilarious which makes the random moments of poignancy all the more powerful. Her two posts on depression (#1, #2) are maybe not the best places to start reading the blog, but combined form a pretty amazing look into a chronically misunderstood condition. Also the blog/book has lots of dog stories if you're into that sort of thing.

I've been on a pretty good reading streak lately (comes from reading shorter, easier books). This one from Mr. Rothfuss is a novella that brings some depth and backstory to the character Auri from his "Kingkiller Chronicle" series.

The author bookends the tale with an apologetic foreword and afterword. He feels it isn't a "real" story and that he commits all sorts of grievous sins against the craft of writing. He gathered lots of feedback before publishing and in the afterword he paraphrased the most common statement from his beta testers: "I don't know what other people will think. They probably won't like it. But I really enjoyed it."

I feel the same way. It's definitely an unusual story. Also in the afterword Rothfuss recounts a meeting he had with Vi Hart about the novella and she says, "I felt more of an emotional connection to the inanimate objects in this story than I usually feel toward entire characters in other books...it's a good story." This is so incredibly apt. I loved every minute of reading this book and I wish it lasted longer.

If you've read "The Name of the Wind" and "The Wise Man's Fear" then you'll know Auri and know that she deserves the special treatment she gets in "The Slow Regard of Silent Things." If you haven't read those books, go read them now, and then please kindly refrain from directing anger in my direction about the fact that the series is currently incomplete (I think half a dozen people harbour some degree of irritation at me for introducing them to the series in its unfinished state).

"Ready Player One" is an intensely nerdy, dystopian, cyberpunk-ish novel full of references to popular culture, particularly from the 80s. So it's a ton of fun if you fit the demographic. I am definitely near the centre of that demographic and so, unsurprisingly, I stayed up rather late one night this week to read the whole book in one sitting.

I'm not sure if the book is "good" in the literary sense but I loved it, and the premise is to some degree plausible. The world in the book is almost completely broken, but there is a fully immersive MMORPG called the OASIS which much of the world plays (free-to-play, monetized with in-game purchases). The game is accessed with a virtual reality headset and haptic gloves. Such technology already exists and many companies (including my own) are rushing to be the first to create a successful product around these next generation interfaces. People in the book use the game for education, business and communication, not just entertainment. This already happens on a smaller scale in traditional MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. It is easy to imagine something like the OASIS coming into existence in my lifetime.

The book reads like a movie, so it's no surprise that Warner Brothers snapped up the film rights immediately. In March 2015 it was announced that Stephen Spielberg has been tapped to direct. It should be a good show!

While visiting Chaucer's bookstore in Santa Barbara last month it was recommended to me that I read Hugh Howey's "Silo" series. I picked up the "Wool" omnibus (containing the first five of nine books) right there. Chaucer's is a lovely bookstore, by the way.

Hugh Howey self-published the first few parts of the Silo series and the success he achieved with that strategy eventually led to print deals with a major publisher and the sale of film rights. He has maintained e-book rights for himself, accepting less money in his various deals to do so.

The book itself is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the surface of the earth is toxic and the remaining humans live in a "silo" that extends more than 140 stories under ground. Howey slowly introduces you to a surprisingly well-developed and complicated culture/social structure. The book isn't high literature or anything, but it's a lot deeper than it seems at first glance. It's also a lot of fun. I'm excited to read the rest of the series.