Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! Did you know that the word ‘book’ was originally spelled with several extra ‘o’s in it? This was changed when it was collectively decided that telling someone to “please, just read a book” was resulting in several more murders a year than anyone could be bothered to keep track of. This week, it’s Obsidian vet and Pentiment creator Josh Sawyer! Cheers Josh! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?
What are you currently reading?
Uncommon Prayer by Kimberly Johnson. It’s a book of poetry about desire, much of it framed by the concepts of the Liturgy of the Hours and other temporal structures. It’s quite beautiful and moving and feels like a good chaser to Pentiment.
What did you last read?
Stasiland: Stories From Behind The Berlin Wall by Anna Funder.Funder lived in Berlin after the fall of the wall and she conducted interviews with people who either suffered under the East German Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit – Ministry for State Security) or worked within it – sometimes both. I started reading it shortly after watching the 2006 film The Lives Of Others / Das Leben Der Anderen) and found it fascinating.
What are you eyeing up next?
I’m going to take another run at Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet On The Western Front) by Erich Maria Remarque. I watched the German film adaptation last year and resolved to read it, but my German language skills were in better shape back then, so I think it’s going to be a hard start.
What book do you quote from the most?
Probably The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco. It was hugely influential on Pentiment and has some great passages in it. Stat rosa pristina nominee; nomina nuda tenemus [‘the ancient Rose remains by its name, naked names (are all that) we have’].
What book do you find yourself bothering friends to read?
Tragically, also The Name Of The Rose.
What book would you like to see someone adapt to a game?
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster as an adventure game of some sort.
Well, it seem Mr. Sawyer can craft a stunningly well-written and fascinating murder mystery, but when it comes to this column’s secret goal of naming every book in existence, he’s just as useless as anyone else. Thus, history repeats itself, and we’re doomed to do the whole thing again next week. As a bonus reader game: I’ve almost run out of cool industry person responses from my first round of answer harvesting. Anyone you’d especially like to see in the column? Let me know, and catch you next week. And remember: No use crying over dropped bookmarks. Just fold the corner of the pages like I used to until someone literally broke up with me over it. Honestly, fair.
