The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is the Fall 2012 selection for “One Book, One Chicago”. Narrated by Death and set in Nazi Germany, this award-winning novel, chronicles the story of the titular character a girl named Liesel Meminger. Originally intended as a novel for young adults, its selection by the Chicago Public Library has elevated its status– at last in my eyes– as something that can (perhaps ought) to be read by everyone. As art should, the novel raises important questions about how we pursue our lives:

• What choices do we make about groups we will belong to?
• What groups do we belong to without choice?
• What are the consequences of belonging to groups?
• How do we show courage? Or cowardice?
• Who has power? How do we come by it?
• Can words give us power?

For many of us that grew up in the 80s, the video game arcade holds a special allure. The one I haunted at our local mall was appropriately named “The Goldmine”. I spent hours in there playing all kinds of games. And then came home to spend even more time playing on the Atari 2600. Games have always fascinated me: video games, board games, role-playing game, card games. All kinds of games, but especially the sorts of games that were published during my youth in the 80s. So when Smokes recommended that I read this book based on the premise that a quirky billionaire has created a contest based on the details and the spirit of those games, I was intrigued. Ready Player One is the first novel by Ernest Cline. I’ve read a number of various descriptions of the book: quest novel, love story, nostalgia, dystopia, “Willy Wonka meets The Matrix“, and virtual space opera are just a few. Set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, Ready Player One is a critical mass of 80s pop-culture. The geekier the better.

Perhaps even more interesting is the game within the book itself. Cline’s own obsession with the 80s is manifest in his project car. In an interview with Stephanie Carmichael of VentureBeat, he describes the car this way:

“I have modified the car so that it matches the DeLorean driven by the protagonist in my book. I’ve added personalized license plates that read ECTO88. I’ve also outfitted the car with a KITT scanner from ‘Knight Rider’, an Oscillation Overthruster from Buckaroo Banzai, a large array of Ghostbusting equipment, and a Flux Capacitor. So now it’s a time-traveling, knight-riding, ghostbusting jet car. Probably the geekiest vehicle in history. I love it.”

But he didn’t just build one of these cars. He built two. One is for himself — and occasionally he allows friends to sit in it. The other is a prize to the first reader clever enough to solve the series of puzzles within the novel itself.

It’s a fun book. If you’ve ever enjoyed a game of Dungeons & Dragons, a John Hughes film or an Oingo Bongo song, I guarantee there will be something in it for you.

When I told Mick that I was reading the fifth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin he offered to save me the trouble of wading through the 1000 pages to find out what happens, “everybody dies.” Mick is like a number of people I’ve met who started reading these books early. Years ago. They are interested in the series, and invested in the story. You have to be invested after 5000 pages of text about a very rich and interesting world and set of characters.

But there have been some significant delays in getting the story out of Martin’s head, onto paper and into the hands of readers. The first three books came out in pretty short order. Three books in about four years. Then it was five years before the fourth book. And five more years for the fifth, A Dance with Dragons. Martin has publicly committed to writing a sixth book, The Winds of Winter, but with no date attached to it. And there have been rumors of a seventh and even an eighth volume. When a fan started to become restless about the interval between the fourth and fifth books, Neil Gaiman came to Martin’s defense on his blog, upbraiding the reader directly:

George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.

Mick’s complaint is that the story doesn’t have an ending. It’s not that Martin doesn’t know how to end it. It’s that Martin has created something that is essentially lacks the capacity to be ended– and certainly not ended in a satisfying narrative way. Or I should say, not a way that is satisfying to Mick. I haven’t had a particular problem with the story abruptly breaking off at the end of the various volumes. I enjoy the telling of it. I’m less interested in the final destination, at this point. I have faith that Martin will resolve some of the large story items, as he has done in the past. Battles will be fought. Primary characters that have been with us for some time get a spotlight– and often as not, as Mick addressed, a death scene. That’s okay with me. I like it. I enjoy it.

So when Whirl finally gave up waiting for the paperback edition of A Dance with Dragons to come out and acquired the hardback edition, I picked it up, nearly dropped it, and began lugging it around. I joked that the volume was doubling as some strength training exercises for swimming. It’s a very big book. The other day after Sunday swim practice, I stopped by Eppel’s for a delicious breakfast. I had the book with me. I was planning on reading some of it while I sipped my coffee and ate. My waitress saw it and immediately started talking to me about it. She has been a fan of the series since the first volume was published back in 1996. She said she was one of the fans who would rush to get the next volume on the first day it was published. So she was acutely aware of the five-year breaks that have occurred with the last couple installments.

I’ve kept up with the HBO television adaptation. And more recently have played the second edition of a wonderful board game based on the series with Hurricane, Steamboat and Whirl a couple of times. The first game, a 4-player game, I played House Stark, came close to winning, and lost to Greyjoy. The second game, a 6-player game, I played House Martell, came close to winning despite the repeated treachery of my child bride as House Tyrell, and lost to Greyjoy again. There may just be something to that family’s penchant for sociopathic ferocity. It’s a beautiful, brilliant game. If you are a fan of the book or television series and of board games, I highly recommend it.

But for now I must settle down and finish this volume, so that I can wait with my fellow fans for the next one. Someday.

Alright, so that went fast. It took me just two short days to finish Catching Fire, and now I’m already deeply into the third and final volume of the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay.

No doubt my enthusiasm to jump into the next book was fueled by the cliff-hanger ending of the second book. Fortunately for me, Whirl had already acquired the third book, and all I needed to do was put down book two and pick book three to continue reading.

Once again, Collins has expanded the scope of the story. Characters we met early in the series have grown to become icons, symbols and archetypes in a much broader conflict. Questions of true motivations, loyalty, trust and integrity all have greater meaning and consequence. Her interest in Greek mythology is most obvious in this book — and not just because two of the new characters are named Castor and Pollux. Rather it is in her use of characters to take on the ornamentation of concepts larger than themselves, to become living symbols or ideals. And always, because they are also human, to be flawed. I appreciate that touch in these novels. — And while the plot may stumble here or there on a particular obstacle, that larger point remains intact, propelling both the narrative and the associated messages along with it.

I’ve been patiently waiting for someone to publish the second and third volumes of the Suzanne Collins‘ Hunger Games series in paperback. I read the first volume in the series back in June and figured that with the success of the film, the paperback editions would come out shortly. I was wrong. A simple bit of research shows that an initial paperback edition was published, but was quickly sold out and not republished. I was patient. I waited.

In interim Whirl picked up the first book and tore through it. Before I knew it, she had returned from the bookstore with the hardback editions of the second and third books, explaining “I’m sorry, babe. I just couldn’t wait to read what happens.” She offered me some cool consolation, “You can read them right after I’m done?” I’d waited this long, I could wait a little bit longer. I didn’t have to wait long at all. Whirl finished the series with her characteristic speed and efficiency. Less than a week later and I had Catching Fire in my hands.

Catching Fire picks up six months after the ending of The Hunger Games. Like the first book, this one is told from a first-person point of view. Without giving much of the plot away, I will say that this book portrays a much broader picture of the world in which the characters live — geographic, political and social distinctions are all described. As a result we meet a number of new characters, and catch up with several who survived the first book. Some are more intact than others. The stakes are higher, the drama escalates appropriately and I’m still not sure who is wearing white hats and who is wearing black. And I appreciate that immensely.

Shortly after I started reading this volume, we watched the film adaptation of the first novel directed by Gary Ross and starring Jennifer Lawrence as the protagonist Katniss Everdeen. I quite enjoyed the film and am looking forward to the subsequent installments in the series. I think the inclusion of Suzanne Collins in the screenplay adaptation helped considerably in the transition from a first-person narrative to a limited third-person, cinematic perspective.