Reading and Playing In November

It’s been a while since I’ve featured an update to my reading and playing list, so this one is long overdue.

Rather than try to catch up on the great books and games that I’ve been reading and playing lately, I want to just focus on the few that have captured my attention during the month of November.

Good Leaders Ask Great Questions by John Maxwell

I’ve been a fan of John Maxwell’s leadership writings for quite some time but I really enjoyed his latest book, as it tends to be more of a resource guide. This book is a testament to the power of asking questions, and is filled with great practical questions that can unlock doors for you and your career.

There’s also a great benefit to asking these questions of yourself. In typical John Maxwell style, he takes large concepts and makes them simple and accessible while still remaining powerful.

If you’ve ever wanted to meet for coffee or lunch with a mentor or someone influential this book will make sure you don’t squander the opportunity you’ve been given. Good Leaders Ask Great Questions will provide you with excellent question that will help you make the most of any encounter.

Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson

Based on the title alone, you can already guess that video games might make an appearance in this book, especially given that it was written in 2005. The obvious draw for me here is the large section on video games.

Even though the first edition of this book was written around the time that Grand Theft Auto III was released, there is a lot of great content and ideas in the book discussing the positives that video games have to offer, especially when compared to traditional media.

Several of the incredibly thought-provoking concepts included in the book completely aligned with ideas I’ve been writing about, both in this blog and my upcoming book – which I look forward to sharing more details about before the end of the year.

What I have been playing

Resident Evil: Revelations

I have to say my Nintendo 3DS XL has been getting the bulk of the play time that I’ve had available to me during the month of November. Its portability and capability of being able to suspend mid game by simply shutting the screens is really helpful when I’m looking for an opportunity to grab a few minutes of game time. I’m also much more interested in the street pass option than I really should be – Nintendo sure know how to make behavior modifying features a part of their gaming experience!

I’ve successfully managed to play through the normal difficulty of Resident Evil Revelations. I’ve always enjoyed the franchise but the latest entries lean a bit more action oriented and a lot less survival horror than I prefer.

The “puzzles” aren’t very challenging and are really just a matter of accessing the areas that you can only access at this point in the game – not a lot to figure out, you just push forward.

An interesting addition to the game is the “Genesis” scanning tool – essentially it’s like a night vision device that lets you find hidden items, but eventually I became tired of scanning every room just to find extra ammo or healing items.

The plot….well, it was possibly written by several different people, then all mashed up together. There are so many acronyms in the game that feel like they were added to try and sound sophisticated, but in the end I found myself not caring or relating to the story at all. I guess I miss the days of the cheesy B Movie grade Resident Evil.

I will say that the graphics are incredible and the gameplay has really come quite far when it comes to portable game experiences. This game has definitely up to my expectations when it comes to what portable games can be. However, I found the game was really difficult to play if you are in a sunny environment, which is ironic since I could never have enough sun with my original Game Boy and Game Boy Advance.

I would still recommend the game as it is well worth the $10 or $20 that you can pick up a copy for today. Being the old geezer that I am, I still prefer the physical copy of the game, and if you’re into rare collectible features you can always scour eBay for a copy of the misprinted version of game “Resident Evil: Revelaitions.”

Now it’s your turn – what books and games have you been enjoying during November? Leave your answers or recommendations in the comment section below!