Scope and Content

Overview || Scope and Content || Book Summaries and Questions || Sample handouts and flyers

Scope and Content

Books for Gamers is a program designed around the concept that young adults with an interest in video games, role-playing games, sports, or just hanging out can enjoy reading books. As a result, the program is based around themes gleaned from gamers' interests rather than the gamers themselves. So while we might not discuss books that tell the history of Nintendo or coin operated arcade games, we will discuss books that deal with Groups and Friendship, Isolation and Alienation, Warriors fighting battles, Wizards casting spells, and even Quests and Fantastic Places. By presenting this alternate viewpoint to gaming, I hope that the program can lead young adults to find good books, lead others in their reading, and discover that there are more to books than just the plot.

Books for Gamers targets young adults, but the book selections seem to specifically call for an older young adult audience (13-18, high school years). While young adults are gaming at younger ages, older young adults tend to be in larger schools as public school systems tend to consolidate their student base as students get older. A young adult can become lost in this larger setting, so combining two social activities (discussion and gaming) would be a way to lure them into the program.

While it's true that many gamers are boys, computer gaming allows for girls to compete in "the boy's room" without the social stigma of being a girl gamer (at least, initially). However, girls also dominate book discussion groups, so it's not clear what the dominant gender of this discussion group would be. Hopefully, the genders are mixed so that no matter what gender is dominant, the minority group would have someone else representing their gender group in the group. Two boys in a discussion group filled with girls is infinitely better than having just one boy in the discussion group filled with girls.

There are a lot of shared interests among gamers than can be used (i.e. exploited) to promote Books for Gamers. Anime clubs, similar to movie clubs but focused on Japanese animated films, feature a mix of boys and girls. Gaming events (with prizes!) can entice young adults to the library. If regular gaming groups meet in your area or if you know students who play World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs, they can promote the program among local gamers/young adults.

Male or female, once the young adults join the book discussion they will find a variety of fantasy books based around the gaming themes topics of Groups, Isolation, Quests, Fantastic Places, Warriors and Wizards.

Groups

Gamers like to gather, whether to play with or against other people. It's a social activity. One of the most social types of gaming is roleplaying, which has its history in Dungeons and Dragons. Discussion of this theme centers around roles in society, friendships, and teams.

Other activities: Team building games

 

Isolation

Not all gamers are social, and some may feel beset upon by other people. Outsiders are always suspect and dangerous. The discussion of isolation tries to associate the idea of difference with strength rather than alienation, as empowering rather than marginalizing.

Other activities: Heroic boasts about what makes them unique, film discussions (many films explore Isolation and difference including Rocky, Powder, Mulan, Edward Scissorhands, any superhero film)

 

Quests

Quests are familiar to gamers. In order for a person, hero or otherwise, to grow they must fulfill x, y, and z. Some young adults pick up on the idea that quests are about much more than obtaining the treasure or slaying the beast all on their own, whereas others need it to be pointed out to them.

Other activities: Personal journey map, film discussions (Lord of the Rings, ANY adventure film)

 

Fantastic Places

Utopias, dystopias, fantastic, and future places reveal our fears and hopes.

 

Warriors

Warriors represent the strongest aspects of a culture or idea. If the warrior is flawed or weakened, then the culture or idea they represent is flawed or weakened, as they are often the pinnacle of achievement. However, warriors can also be the tiniest of people representing the pinnacle of fighting spirit, if not ability.

 

Wizards

Wizards change the world through force of will. What does that mean for us? It means that what we believe can shape what we can do. A discussion of wizards and how they are represented in novels can lead to discussions on cultural values.

Young adults are encouraged to attend the discussions even if they do not read the books on the list. As a contribution, these participants can present a book they have read in the genre and see if others are interested. So not only are young adults discussing books read for the program, but they are encouraged to read on their own and booktalk their books. Young adults learn about books from other young adults with the side effect of increasing the circulation of books popular among the young adult set.

I assembled the list of books for gamers based on themes that I thought were both universal and particular to games and gaming. From there, I selected books that I had loved, and realized that many of these books were series books, which is a plus as readers who like them can easily find other books to read. The fact that they were fantasy books (for the most part) means that they would appeal to gamers who were not normally fond of reading in the summertime.

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