Out of interest, what do you mean ‘you don’t read too closely’?

I like the sound of this! The Starfield coffee article was funny. $7 a month miiiight be a little bit much for me - but I’ll keep an eye on this and if the journalism is decent and they put out a fair number of articles I’ll definitely consider it. I guess I used to spend around that amount on gaming magazines…

Yeah I guess that’s my take on ‘gamifying things’, but there’s probably a few different ways to do it. I’ve heard that in psychology, rewards are a lot more effective than punishments - so maybe frame it slightly differently. Personally I wouldn’t base things on how well you do in the game, because that could get frustrating - in the worst scenario you’ll already be annoyed at doing poorly in the game, and that’s followed by having to do more work. Instead I’d spin it, so if you do all the tidying reward yourself with an hour of gaming. If you get all your chores done, you get 2 hours of gaming etc.

I agree with what others have said about gamifying life. For example, ‘oh it’s 5pm, I need to spend 30 minutes doing some tidying before I can play a game again’. And for games with no clear end point, set yourself goals so you know when to take a break. ‘Once I’ve built this factory, I need to take an hour’s break before I can play again’.

Weirdly enough, I’ve heard the opposite - that the first game is way better than the second 🤔

So if I’m understanding this correctly, they did a extremely high resolution CT scan, but it’s not possible to determine the letters from that. However by using other fragments of scroll as a ground truth, you can train a model to pick up on subtle differences in the fibres where there has been ink. That’s very cool!

Children of Time is definitely one of the best books I’ve read in recent years. If anyone asks for a sci-fi recommendation, it’s usually my go to!

I didn’t enjoy the second book as much, but it was still a fun read. If you like fantasy, Guns of the Dawn by Tchaikovsky is also great.

The first two games that came to mind are unfortunately only available on PS4. I’ll mention them anyway, just in case they come to PC in future or someone else that has a PS4 is interested: Tearaway Unfolded is a really sweet game in a paper craft world. You manipulate paper scenery to help with platforming and really customise your character in creative ways. Just a unique and charming game. And Gravity Rush 1&2. These games let you alter gravity to fly around a beautiful open world - I’ve never played something with a traversal and combat system like this.

I agree with Obra Dinn and the Witness as mentioned by others!

This is probably a weird suggestion, but you could emulate Metal Gear Ac!d 2 (PSP game). It’s a stealth game (like the rest of the MGS series) mixed with a deck builder, so your actions are dictated by the cards that you play. The second one in particular perfects the formula IMO. It’s super satisfying and I’d love to see more games of this type!

Whoa, I love this. The found ‘artifacts’ in particular - it’s fascinating seeing things that people probably used as bookmarks. Plane tickets, old adverts and receipts. Just little snippets of time - worthless then, but capturing a moment forever.

Can users write reviews?

Do Agatha Christie’s series need to be read in any particular order, or are they standalone? I was tempted by And Then There Were None

Many thanks for this list! Some great looking books in there, and I do enjoy the sound of unique sci-fi/fantasy settings

Thanks for these suggestions - I hadn’t heard of the author. The first one you mentioned has a particularly interesting setting, on an East India ship!

I’ve read the Neal Stephenson books you mentioned and loved them but I wonder if they’re really dystopian? Injustice is certainly a big part of those worlds but I don’t find them as bleak and hopeless as some other truly dystopian novels I’ve read. He seems to explore how new technologies could completely change our societies, but they always feel like worlds that are on the cusp of something new (rather than allowing technology to back themselves into a corner with no hope of improvement).

Thanks :) I haven’t read much King or any Butcher so I’ll check them out.

Thanks for sharing! Are you still an avid reader? Do you have a favourite book?

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+1 to both of these. The Red Rising series is great and the Count of Monte Cristo is a long but extremely satisfying tale of revenge.

This is a really difficult one for me. I do 100% agree that adult classics should remain as they are, and we should view these through the lens of historical context. Keeping those classics as they are allows us to analyse them and see how views have changed - sometimes we need to know how bad things were so we can learn from our mistakes. But I think it’s also important that for young adults, these works should be studied in a classroom so there’s someone there to explain the uncomfortable parts.

The difficulty comes with books aimed at very young audiences, like Roald Dahl novels. Kids may not always have the necessary support or understanding of the context. So I’m inclined to agree with Wilson here with regards to kids books, but it’s a bit of a grey area for me.

*Her 2005 novel is pretty worrying though. As the other commenter mentioned, the subject matter was inappropriate even at the time. It doesn’t sound like the book tackles the consequences of what happens either.

I think people are being unnecessarily harsh in response to your comment. I get what you mean - it must be frustrating to writers to see their work reduced to a few key points that remove it from the greater context.

I don’t think you’re being snobby in saying that.

On the other hand, I don’t think summaries are a bad thing. On the whole it’ll encourage more people to give the book a try. Anyone that’s put off by the summary probably wouldn’t have read the book in the first place, and at least it gives them some basic background.