If you’re looking for new reading material and hoping for something superb to bookend your weekends, we’ve got some advice on where to begin. Or head to the page we put together on Jelly Deals for everything you need to know on how to make the most of World Book Day! A couple of years back I was struggling a bit with flying and had a bunch of long-haul trips looming on the horizon. Donlan bought me this book and, while it hasn’t cured me, there really is no arguing with its wide-eyed enthusiasm that describes flying as something extraordinary. There’s a reason people have loved Microsoft Flight Simulator so much over the past year, and why so many are now looking forward to it on consoles. In video games and in the real world, flying provides a literal means of escape, a sense of scale, and for all but the most world-weary of fliers, a child-like sense of wonder. Skyfaring describes all this brilliantly. (Tom Phillips) As one of the games which helped usher in the modern roguelike, learning how a game as multifaceted and beloved as Spelunky came to be is a delight, especially in a book that’s as easy to read as this; one particular highlight is explaining how procedural generation works, using ASCII-like diagrams to show how ‘segments’ flow together. It also offers an insight into the realities of development you rarely hear about - publisher relationships, working in a team, and the vital experience you gain from bringing projects to the finish line - that anyone interested in the process of making games will find fascinating, whether you’ve played Spelunky or not.
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Flora Poste is always doing things like this. Following an education that was “expensive, athletic and prolonged,” and the death of her parents, she leaves London to settle in with her distant relatives in Cold Comfort Farm. What follows is a miracle: a parody of a literary form that no longer exists, but which is still vibrant and hilarious. Stella Gibbons pulls apart the rustic potboiler in a manner that is stunningly inventive. Flora is an agent of change for the bizarre relatives she encounters at Cold Comfort Farm. But in between delivering little mops and getting brooding Seth off to Hollywood there is time to learn about a film in which everyone wears glass trousers, a bull named Big Business, and something nasty that happened in the woodshed. Or maybe the potting shed. Whenever I re-read Cold Comfort Farm I always forget that it’s moderately futuristic. Kensington is a slum, I think, and the characters talk on video phones and knock about in twin-props. What I never forget is the astonishing richness of this hilarious book. And I never forget about the little mop, neither. Make sure to leave your comments below about your recommendations when it comes to great books and literature! Of course, there’s plenty more great deals on books at our sister site Jelly Deals, or check out what games you can get cheap right now on the current Humble Choice subscription! Or just head to the Jelly Deals Twitter and find out all the best deals as they appear!
