Gamelife
Book description
In telling the story of his youth through seven computer games, critically acclaimed author Michael W. Clune (White Out) captures the part of childhood we live alone.
You have been awakened.
Floppy disk inserted, computer turned on, a whirring, and then this sentence, followed by a blinking cursor. So begins…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Gamelife as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Where David Sudnow’s Breakout: Pilgrim in the Microworld focused on the flamboyant poetry of gaming, Michael W. Clune’s Gamelife opts for minimalism.
Clune himself describes the book as a memoir about computer games, which is true, and that description alone warrants inclusion in my list. Why? Any topic that can be a lens through which to reflect on one’s own life is noteworthy.
Clune isn’t a game developer recounting a life spent developing games. Clune isn’t a games industry executive doling out business advice. Clune is a gamer with a childhood he’s able to better understand when filtered through video…
From Caleb's list on to defend your video game obsession to non-gamers.
Gamelife is a true memoir, reliving moments from Clune’s childhood in vivid detail. He turns his rocky journey through elementary and middle school into painfully relatable stories, where his younger self often rushes home to find solace in computer games. It’s amusing, also, how young Clune tries to find deeper meaning in these games and extend those meanings to his social and school life. Of course, his classmates usually don’t understand where he’s coming from. I’ve been there, my friend. If you’ve ever felt like an outcast growing up and/or used games as a coping mechanism, Gamelife will hit you…
From Clark's list on reliving playing video games from your childhood.
If you love Gamelife...
Tap Dancing on Everest
Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.
The team attempts a new route up…
Want books like Gamelife?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Gamelife.
Share your top 3 reads of 2024!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,898
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like Gamelife, you might also like...
A Last Survivor of the Orphan Trains
Four years old and homeless in 1930, William Walters climbed aboard one of the last American Orphan Trains, and, without knowing it, embarked on an extraordinary path through nine decades of U.S. history.
For 75 years, Orphan Trains transported 250,000 children from the East Coast into homes in the emerging…
The Twenty
Marianne Bohr and her husband, about to turn sixty, are restless for adventure. They decide on an extended, desolate trek across the French island of Corsica — the GR20, Europe’s toughest long-distance footpath — to challenge what it means to grow old. Part travelogue, part buddy story, part memoir, The…
