A Good Read

I think finding my way back to books has had a material effect on my sleep. The 3 a.m wake-up still comes but not with a rush that truly wakes me. I simply roll over and go back to sleep, and when I am awake, I look for any excuse to sit down with the book and get on with the story. And if you’re curious as to story, it’s the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I’m on book three. There are eight books, with more planned. I’m not sure how far I’ll get but we’ll see how it goes.

It’s a sci-fi fantasy thing in which an alien corporation decides to mine earth, and all the human inhabitants find they have two choices, stay where they are and try to survive or enter a giant galactic gameshow and try to survive. Carl and his cat Donut take the game, and hilarity ensues. If you’re not a gamer it’s a great introduction to what a lot of kids and young folks are doing these days. Think Free Guy with Ryan Reynolds, except with aliens and more blood.

Apparently, the book series is proving a boon to bookstores because they’re attracting young gamers who abandoned books for games. It makes me think we might have taken the wrong course when we decided literature needed to be taught in schools, when all we really needed to do was introduce kids to the fun of make believe that could be found in a good book. It also makes me think perhaps young gamers aren’t as lost as once thought because while the games have weird rules, life has weird rules and they’re certainly learning how to survive the chaos.