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Topic: Nintendo Life Book Club

Posts 121 to 140 of 551

Maxz

One upside of the last month’s quasi-quarantine is that it’s given me plenty of time to read, and I’ve finally come to the end of ‘Iwata-san’, the posthumously published book on Nintendo’s former president. Maybe ‘on’ is not the quite the right word, as it’s mainly composed of musings from the man himself, taken from interviews with the Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun and Iwata Asks, but also features contributions from Shigeru Miyamoto, Masahiro Sakurai, and Shigesato Itoi (co-founder of the aforementioned company where Iwata was IT manager).

Due to the fact that the book is largely a compilation of previous interviews (many of which readers may be familiar with through Iwata Asks), not all the information will be necessarily new. However, having it all chronologically assembled does lend the book a coherent narrative which would be hard to appreciate by reading its constituent excerpts in isolation. The switch from Iwata’s own words (which make up the bulk of the book) to the closing contributions from his friends and colleagues means that we get a few different perspectives on the same events, and at times it almost reads like a pseudo-dialogue as we see a single relationship reflected upon from both sides.

Another effect of these interview-derived excepts is that the tone is a lot lighter and chattier than might be expected of something weightier like an official memoir, but this helps give an honest reflection of events at the time they were experienced. We’re largely carried along in the same stream as Iwata as we travel through his thoughts and musings, and it’s only through the contributions of his colleagues in the final chapters, that we catch up to the present where Iwata’s passing has become part of reality. It’s actually quite heart-wrenching to be breezily riding through life with someone, and then looking back upon that life through the eyes of those who had been part of the story.

The musings themselves are thoroughly interesting, and really highlight just how many of the decisions and workings of such a large company were direct products of the corporate and personal philosophies cultivated by Iwata over the course of his career. Exploring his relationships with various other prominent figures at the company is equally fascinating. The mutual respect shared by Miyamoto and Iwata is particularly interesting because the of just how different the two individuals are revealed to be. Miyamoto’s antipathy towards businesswear contrasts with Iwata’s insistence on wearing suits for nearly every occasion, and every time the two would share long haul flight, it would be Miyamoto who fell asleep first only to find Iwata still busying away on a laptop next to him when he awoke several hours later.

Unfortunately the book is currently only available in Japan in its original language, but what with a certain percentage of the contents coming of Iwata Asks excerpts (which have presumably already be translated), and wouldn’t think an English publication of the book need be enormously far away. We haven’t seen any more indications other than the request for individuals not to publish translations personally, but if it does make it overseas I’d definitely recommend anyone interested in the late president’s life and philosophies to give it a read.

Edited on by Maxz

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urrutiap

The last week or so for the rest of this month for books im busy. Reading these

Mistborn book 1 Final Empire
To Kill a Mockingbird

urrutiap

Kenchi

Just finished Infinity Abyss. Also reading The Time Machine and The World of Ice and Fire.

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MsJubilee

After finishing The Saga Of Tanya, The Evil volume 2(fantastic book may I add) started on The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. It's also incredible, never read a civil war book in my life, but this got me hooked.

The Harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

I'm currently playing Assassin's Creed: Revelations & Watch Dogs 2

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Tasuki

Just got The Witcher series in the mail today. After watching the Netflix series I was curious about the books so I ordered them from Amazon. I will hopefully be starting them in the next few days. Anyone else read the books?

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My Backlog

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BabyYoda71

The Doughnut Fix by Jessie Janowitz.

Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

Heigh Ho Heigh Ho. It’s off to work (from home) I go.

Magician

I'm not sure how often authors narrate their own work for others.

A chilling read for a chilling tale.

Edited on by Magician

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Magician

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ogo79

jealousy.
man i swear.
if i could read i would read as hard as i could.
i would read so hard i would have read everything on the internet, get banned from every library in america, and kicked of jeopardy all in one day.

the_shpydar wrote:
As @ogo79 said, the SNS-RZ-USA is a prime giveaway that it's not a legit retail cart.
And yes, he is (usually) always right, and he is (almost) the sexiest gamer out there (not counting me) ;)

jump

I've really gotten into the Inspector Chen Cao series of books which are about a cop in China. They are all solid crime mystery novels but what I'm really I enjoying about the series is how it looks at modern China. I keep finding myself having to google various things that are mentioned throughout the books.

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Alright, I gotta stop getting into arguments with jump. Someone remind me next time.

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Magician

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Losermagnet

@Xianders i really enjoyed the stand. King's books tend to be very hit or miss for me, but that one clicked.

I'm 2/3rds the way through Murakami's '1Q84'. It's great, but a bit of a slog.

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Krull

Just finished A True History of Seven Killings by Marlon James. Very, very good book, but not the easiest read at times. Definitely made me want to read more of his stuff, though - love the sound of his latest one.

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LEGEND_MARIOID

Currently reading Richard Morgan's "Woken Furies".

Third book in the Takeshi Kovacs novel trilogy. I've read the first two.

The first book was called "Altered Carbon" and has had an adaptation on Netflix for it. Season 1 follows the first book as an adaptation for a tv series.

The second season appears to he mostly about book 3 but with a fair few character names taken from book 2. So season 2 ends up being quite different to the books in plot.

"They say video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock n' roll."

Eel

I have been going through Coraline on my Kindle (which I recently decided to charge again after a long long time), slowly, one chapter at a time every now and then. It's pretty nice and simple so far. Though I get the feeling it will be a short one.

I've been trying to read it all out loud, making voices and stuff. Since it's in English, I think it might be good practice. Gives me an excuse to actually speak it, at least.

Of course, that also means I only read it when nobody is around.

My other current book is Jurassic Park (second time reading it, but now in Spanish). Which is also going slowly.

Edited on by Eel

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jump

@Eel I liked Coraline, it's not my favorite Neil Gaiman book but it's still very enjoyable.

Just curious but would you read a book you have already read if there's a new and better translation?

I am currently debating in my head if I should read a new version of a Russian book The Master and Margarita as apparently the copy I read was a rubbish translation and this other version is much better. I'm not sure I want to spend my time reading a book again which I liked but didn't love.

Nicolai wrote:

Alright, I gotta stop getting into arguments with jump. Someone remind me next time.

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Eel

@jump I guess I would, if I liked the story enough, and the one I read first was just bad. Kinda like... Watching a fan-translated anime, and then watching the actual dub.

Edited on by Eel

Bloop.

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Magician

Some superb voice acting for this Alien-themed audiobook.

Switch Physical Collection - 1,241 games (as of March 23rd, 2024)
Favorite Quote: "Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age the child is grown, and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies." -Edna St. Vincent Millay

porto

I read Into Thin Air, a narrative nonfiction written by one of the many survivors of the tragic 1996 Everest climb, Jon Krakuer. Super cool book

porto

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Krull

@Apportal I’ve heard that is very good. Did you ever read Touching the Void? Another very good true climbing story. There’s a few of them, I think.

I recently read all 48 issues of Initial D on Kindle. Starts OK, but with some weird localisation decisions, and then the translation gets really shaky for a while. Then, oddly, they completely backtrack on all the patronising anglicisation of Japanese names and the translation becomes really good in the late 30s. Really enjoyed it - don’t read much manga, but this hit the spot.

Other than that, I’ve just finished a collection of Akutagawa stories and started Vox, which reads like a neutered Handmaid’s Tale. Apart from the fact the protagonist isn’t a teenager, I’d call it a YA novel. Wanted an easy read, though, after Marlon James, so it does the trick.

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