Title: Reality Transurfing 1: The Space of Variations
Author: Vadim Zeland
Number of pages: 182
Genre: non-fiction, psychology, esoterics
Book Number/Goal: 26/52
My Rating: 1/5


Review:
Make your wishes come true - not by changing yourself or the world, but by navigating to another version of reality where you are already successful. The book presents the model of reality composed of infinite number of possibilities existing simultaneously in the space-time continuum, where it's possible to change your fate only by the power of thought. However, it doesn't mean "wishing for success", because there is the law of balance which sabotages every intention as long as you consider it important. In particular, you attract everything you hate or despise, and repel everything you strongly desire. Besides, the world is populated with malicious energy-devouring entities called "pendulums", which arise from human activity but exist for their own sake (such as, every organization and every popular idea is a pendulum). These should be avoided, or at least not taken seriously.

This book is a hybrid of The Secret and Taoism. It claims that a certain way of thinking allows to achieve everything you wish for, but the approach is ripe with contradictions. What's the use of success anyway if you're not allowed to "really" want anything? The theory is supposed to be taken on faith, as there is no proof save for primitive analogies. It sounds kind of scientific and doesn't appeal to any higher force, but unlike religious and occult systems, it has no aesthetical or emotional benefits. The book doesn't include any practical techniques either, though maybe they're presented in the sequels (there's at least 5 books in the series).

There are some interesting concepts, such as love and hate being basically the same thing from the energy point of view. But as a whole, it's just another New Age nonsense.
Title: The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures
Author: Kurt Kalata
Number of pages: 772
Genre: non-fiction, games
Book Number/Goal: 27/52
My Rating: 5/5

Review:
This book contains hundreds of adventure game reviews, covering most of the important games starting from 80s till 2010. It includes screenshots, brief description of the theme, the interface and gameplay, the author's opinion on the game, and anything else he considers important, such as characters, backstory or particularly memorable puzzles.

The book doesn't present any groundbreaking or new information, apart from several interviews with game developers; if you played these games, you know everything there's to know about them, and if you didn't, it might be better to skip these entries in case you will someday, to avoid the spoilers. But it is a HUGE NOSTALGIA RUSH. I frequently had to stop reading and took a break to cool down, because I couldn't handle such an overload of memories! Moreover, it rekindled my desire to create adventure games.

Wonderful reading and great emotional experience all the way! (I see that the Amazon reviews complain about monochrome screenshots, but my version, bought at storybundle.com, has gorgeous color screenshots :)
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