Craig Mod has a great, thoughtful article titled “Books In the Age of the iPad” in which he celebrates what he believes is the imminent demise of the publishing industry as we know it. Some random thoughts, in no particular order:

• That many books are “disposable” isn’t necessarily a reflection on the quality of the physical product, but rather of the content itself. Ironic that Craig chose Danielle Steele as an example. I bet many people have hundreds of albums that they’ve listened to over and over, and dozens of movies that they’ve seen several times. But the number of books that people re-read is probably really small. I just did a quick survey of one of my bookshelves. Out of 89 books, there were 20 that I’d read more than once, and that was skewed high because it had a large number of children’s books, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, that I read obsessively as a kid. Anyway, the point is that if a book is thrown in a box in the garage or left on the airplane or in a hotel, it’s probably because the content was only meant to be consumed once.
• One problem I face in the switch to digital books is the loss of a signaling function. I like having my house full of bookshelves stuffed with books. I like seeing them and touching them. I like it when other people see them and touch them. Whenever I go to someone’s house, one of the first things I do is wander over to the bookshelf to see what they read. Physical books provide a powerful social signal that I worry will fizzle out in the transition to digital. Admittedly, the transition of music to digital means this could just require a behavioral change. I love music as much as I love books, and for years kept my CDs displayed in racks in the living room. But the switch to digital meant they just took up a lot of space without contributing anything, so I boxed them up. Now, signalling about music tastes is done through direct conversation — “Heard any good music lately?” — and through browsing through someone else’s iPod.
• I’m not too worried about losing my whole book library to some technological malfunction. The Kindle, at least, backs up your purchases in Amazon’s cloud, so you can re-download any book you’ve bought at any time. And since an EMP powerful enough to fry Amazon’s databases could really only be caused by a nuclear device, I think there will be other things to worry about if that scenario comes to pass.
• As to the Big Brother aspect of e-books, like we saw with Amazon’s bumbled handling of the unauthorized George Orwell books a few months back, I think e-book distributors will very quickly find what is and isn’t accepted by their customers. No one can afford the bad publicity that comes with careless treatment of people’s beloved books. Also, and this may sound naive, but I do think that Jeff Bezos is at heart a book guy and an idealist. He wants to revolutionize the world. He wants to make money, yes, but he’s a long-term thinker who knows that doing what’s right for customers is the best path to success.

Better Late Than Never: My Favorite Games of 2009

Let’s face it, 2009 was a ho-hum year for video games. Granted, it was hard to follow 2008, the year that brought us Grand Theft Auto IV, Dead Space, Metal Gear Solid 4, Mirror’s Edge, Rock Band 2, Fable 2, No More Heroes, Battlefield: Bad Company, Mario Kart Wii/Super Smash Bros. Brawl/Wii Fit, Fallout 3, LittleBigPlanet, and Gears of War 2. Whew. That’s a pretty high bar to set. Still, 2009 did give us two Halo titles, a bevy of new music games, a handful of interesting new properties, and several worthy sequels that built on the stories, gameplay and presentation of their predecessors.

In all, I played a total of 22 games last year, and I managed to finish eight of them, a number that will increase to nine as soon as I polish off the last couple levels of Assassin’s Creed 2. Here’s the full list, which covers only retail console games, not downloadable games, PC games or handheld games (games in green are the ones I finished):

Xbox 360: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Assassin’s Creed 2, The Beatles: Rock Band, Borderlands, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, DJ Hero, Forza Motorsport 3, Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero: Metallica, Halo 3: ODST, Halo Wars, Left 4 Dead 2, Lips Number One Hits, and Madden NFL 10.

PlayStation 3: Killzone 2, MLB 09: The Show, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Wii: Dangerous Creatures, Mad World, Pikmin: New Play Controls, Wii Sports Resort.

Obviously, there are quite a few games I didn’t even get around to acquiring. Among the most glaring omissions are Dragon Age: Origins, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6, Demon’s Souls, Ratchet & Clank Future: Crack in Time, Brutal Legend, and Little King’s Story.

So what was my favorite game of the year? Was it Uncharted 2, the PS3′s thrilling adventure title that is soaking up “Best of” awards right and left? Perhaps Batman: Arkham Asylum, the sleeper hit that was also the rarest of gems: a licensed property that actually expanded the canon of the source material? Or could it be Modern Warfare 2, the best-selling game of the year that did $310 million in sales in its first 24 hours? Read on to see my Top Five…

5. Assassin’s Creed 2. The sequel to Ubisoft’s 2007 hit takes place in 15th century Renaissance Italy, with a cast of historical characters spanning from Leonardo Da Vinci to Machiavelli. Cities like Florence and Venice are recreated with exquisite detail, complete with markets, brothels, canals, and catacombs. Your character is nurtured throughout the course of the entire game, gaining abilities and weapons at a steady pace. It avoids the trap some games fall into of making you too powerful too quickly, and there’s cool new stuff even in the final levels. Apart from the main story, there are side quests aplenty: treasure chests to track down, an ancestral villa to restore, mysterious codex pages to decipher, and many others. My main complaint is that I’ve long lost track of the storyline, and at about 20+ hours so far, with another couple to go, it strikes me as about 25 percent too long. The controls are still not very precise, and I’ve had too many times where my guy frustratingly leaps into empty space or suddenly runs up a ladder instead of giving chase to an opponent.

4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Activision’s juggernaut is a gorgeous, rewarding, ridiculous masterpiece of interactive military fiction. The climactic showdown is a pure gem of interactive storytelling, and the multiplayer modes are a thing of wonder, juicing up online gunfights with perks, accolades and awards so plentiful as to make the experience rewarding for even the slowest and clumsiest of triggermen. But in an apparent quest to out-do the first Modern Warfare, developers Infinity Ward made an unbelievable and hackneyed hash-job of the story. Here’s the first line of dialog delivered in the most anticipated game of the year: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Compare that with one of the many sparklers heard in Uncharted 2 that is an example of how to turn a cliche on its head.

Chloe (tossing a grenade in the air): Desperate times, right?

Nathan: What does that even mean?!?

Modern Warfare 2 is also starting to show its age a little bit, much like discovering crow’s feet on the face of your favorite starlet. It doesn’t really diminish your enjoyment of the product, but you make a mental note that things aren’t as fresh as they once were. This was most glaring in the lack of a cover mechanic. Nonetheless, MW2 is undeniably an outstanding game.

3. Batman: Arkham Asylum. Not only one of the best-looking games of the year, it is another example of perfect pacing, where your abilities and equipment improve just enough to take on the next challenge. It seamlessly combined several gameplay mechanics: Splinter Cell-style stealth, God of War-style brawling, and a cool “bat sense” detection system for discovering clues and monitoring enemies. The story is gloriously pulpy comic fare in which Joker takes over Gotham’s mental hospital and lures Batman in for a protracted game of cat-and-mouse that plays out on the physical and psychological planes. The wonderful voice acting of Joker by Mark Hamill is just icing on this already deliciously twisted cake.

2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Having uncovered the lost fortune of his ancestor Sir Francis in the first game, Nathan Drake is back for a romp through the Himalayas in search of the fabled paradise of Shangri-la. The game begins in spectacular fashion with a breathtaking sequence in which Nathan emerges from unconsciousness only to find himself dangling off a mountain cliff in a derailed train car. From there, the story moves backwards and forwards through betrayal, conflicting love interests, and enough hair-raising action to fill a dozen Indiana Jones movies. Indeed, voice actor Nolan North has so completely perfected the “lovable rogue” that Nathan Drake is emerging as the most interesting and enjoyable swashbuckler of this generation.

1. The Beatles: Rock Band. I haven’t seen a single list that put this game at the top, but for sheer enjoyment and bang for the buck, nothing satisfied me last year like this loving tribute to the greatest rock band of all time. Like Guitar Hero 2 and Rock Band before it, TB:RB redefined how we enjoy music. Rare are the games that inspire people to research their subject matter while away from the console. For all the praise heaped on Assassin’s Creed 2 for its attention to historical detail, it was TB:RB that had me constantly checking Wikipedia, Google and Amazon for more information about the band and their music. I’ve had Beatles records in my collection for 20 years now, but it wasn’t until I played the game that I truly appreciated Paul’s intricate bass playing, the three-part harmonies and, yes, even Ringo’s signature drum work.  This was the game I turned to for comfort after losing my job at Microsoft, taking solace in repeated play-throughs of “Here Comes the Sun.” There are nice twists to the traditional gameplay, too. In addition to playing the songs straight through in story mode, there are also chapter challenges that push you to score higher and unlock new photos of the band. A particularly nice touch is that when in quick play mode, a leaderboard of your friends’ scores is displayed alongside each song. If you have any competitive streak at all, you’ll be replaying each song to make sure you claim the top spot. Finally, the achievements are creative and challenging, such as, playing a perfect solo in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps’”, or, nailing all the hammer-ons and pull-offs in “Octopus’s Garden”. It’s astonishing how appealing and universal the songs are, even after 40 years. When I drive my son somewhere, he asks, “Dad, can we listen to some Beatles?” And more often than not, when a Beatles song comes on, he knows what it is and can sing along. How cool will it be when, in 15 years he hears a Beatles song at a party and says, “Wow, I remember playing that song with my dad as a kid.” Perhaps The New York Times wasn’t too far off the mark after all when they said TB:RB may be the most important video game ever made, in the context of bridging the gaps between generations and between games and non-gamers. Congratulations, The Beatles: Rock Band, you were my favorite game of 2009.

The Most-Loved Car, Bikini Baristas Put On Notice, and Some Bitch-Slapping

1. What car delivered the most satisfaction this year? Probably a Lexus, or a Prius, right? The answer may surprise you.

2. Snohomish County, just north of Seattle, takes aim at the latest menace to society: bikini baristas.

3. Papa John’s, which is donating all profits from pizzas sold yesterday and today to the families of the four police officers who were gunned down near Tacoma last month, is so overwhelmed with business that all but three of its 20 Seattle-area stores have stopped taking orders. I love the community response, but this left us scrambling for other dinner plans.

4. Perez Hilton gets bitch-slapped.

5. Speaking of bitch-slapping, have you been weighing the Barnes & Noble Nook versus Amazon’s Kindle? The New York Times’ tech maven David Pogue opines: “Every one of the Nook’s vaunted distinctions comes fraught with buzz kill footnotes.”

UPDATE: Other reviewers pile on:

Here’s The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg: “My recommendation on the Nook is to wait, even if you prefer its features to the Kindle’s. It’s not fully baked yet.”

Here’s the AP: “I’ve been trying Barnes & Noble Inc.’s $259 Nook for a few days, and I’m not eager to prolong the acquaintance.”