Tuesday, April 25, 2006

(A lot.)

I realize that I update this particular "I'm [whatever]ing" blog for less frequently than my other mini-review blogs ("I'm Playing", "I'm Seeing", and "I'm Hearing").

That's probably becuase I read a ton all at the same time, so it takes me longer to finish any one item, but diversifies my reading quite a bit.

So, here's the shotgun summary of what I'm working through, though I'm probably missing quite a bit. I honestly due hope to have mini-reviews for all of these (at least the non-periodicals) at some point.
  • Get in the Game: Careers in the Game Industry -- This book is actually growing on me. The errors are still irritating, but the content is getting a little more game industry vertical market centric, which is useful (and interesting). I still think it trie too hard to make gaming software development "more special" than other software devlopment -- "managing software is managing software".
  • Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life -- This secret little project I mentioned requires that I learn from the master. And Harryhausen is the master. More soon. Seriously.
  • The Art of Voice Acting -- This is my first-read and oft-returned-to voice acting handbook. James Alburger's book put me in a good place for starting the technique, Biz and business of voice acting (building on the strong foundation of my coach Lainie Frasier). I recently finished a tele-seminar with Alburger and Penny Abshire, and though I didn't really get what I wanted out of the class, Jim and Penny are amazingly talented, gave some good feedback and techniques, and the class used the book heavily, which helped me remember some VO basics I'd taken for granted. I really need to get the updated version of the book, which has new scripts, demo clips, chapters, and resources.
  • Comic Book Character: Unleashing The Hero In Us All -- It's no secret that I'm a comic book geek. It's somewhat less known that I'm a leader, and want to be a good leader than people follow. A buddy of mine got me this book, which is a treatise of comic book characters, uh, character, and how it relates to hopes, fears, real-world character, leadership, and religion. It's a little unbalanced, but surprised me in how it challenged me(I'm an active reader).

    "If you were a superhero, how could you get through a day without wondering about the origin of reality, without questioning how you came to be so specially gifted?... how could you avoid demanding an accounting from God for the pain and suffering you witness day in and day out?"

    I actually just put this book on hold, because it started to give spoilers to Truth: Red, White & Black, which is sitting on my nightstand waiting to be read (I buy pretty much all things Captain America).
  • Captain Britain -- Sticking with the comic book theme, I'm an Alan Moore fan. I'm an Alan Davis fan. I'm a fan of the Alan Davis Captain Britain/Excaliber run in the 1990s. So when I saw this trade paperback of the Marvel UK serial that was the first time Alan Moore and Alan Davis teamed up -- recreating Captain Britain -- I had to snag it. Great read so far.
  • Ephesians -- Going back to religion, whether from a religious or literary perspective, I find it fascinating to read two books of the Bible from the same author, with different audiences and messages. Ephesians is a good one to juxtapose with, say, 1 Corinthians.
  • Magazines -- The last two months each of The Official Xbox Magazine and GameInformer, and the April ("Video Game Edition") of Wired Magazine (now available online), because I'm a video games junkie, too.
OK, that's good for now. You now have a view into the reading portion of my head.

Huh. I should probably add a novel or two in this round.