Review: Extra Lives

Extra Lives by Tom Bissell

Being reared on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, both a wonderful game and a touching tragedy from the right angle, has meant that I’ve never doubted the idea of video games as an art form. I believe that any medium can be an art form, but I find that others don’t share my faith in video games; when I picked up this book from the library, I ran into an acquaintance who asked me if Extra Lives was similar to books trying to prove that fast food is good for you. Yes, we have a long, long way to go.

Review: Maus

Maus by Art Spiegelman

(Note: I rented and read Volumes I and II of Maus, not The Complete Maus, so my review doesn’t reflect The Complete Maus.)

Maus is almost universally acclaimed–it won a Pulitzer Prize Special Award, which is what happens when the Pulitzer Prize jury doesn’t have a specific category for a work but wants to honor it anyway. I do believe it is one of the recommendations that came to me via Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust. With seventeen years to accumulate such a brilliant reputation, I knew I had to read Maus at some point. I’ve been dragging my feet about writing this review, actually–I feel guilty for not being bowled over by it.