Big Secrets by William Poundstone is an old book, but I still enjoy skimming through it every few years. The author did research into obscure subjects people don’t want you to know about. This is different from mysteries, which nobody knows the truth – there are no Loch Ness monster tales. This is stuff that is more on the level of urban legend or conspiracy theories, corporate secrets, and magic tricks. The easiest way to give you a glimpse of what’s inside is a quick list of the secrets plus some links if you don’t know what they refer to.

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Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot by Julian Dibbell documents a fantasy built on a fantasy: one man’s quest to earn more money in the online MMORPG Ultima Online in a year than he does as a writer for Wired magazine. Along the way we gain insight into the nature of addiction and the increasingly blurry line between work and play.

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At a recent barbecue, beers in hand, the question arose: how exactly was the frothy drink discovered? It’s a fairly disgusting concept; a vat of grains and yeast soaking in water, rotting. What was the crazy person who took the first swig thinking?

A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage makes history accessible through an entry point familiar to all – beverages. The six drinks are beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola. From that list alone, you may have a rough idea of what time periods and events this book covers.

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The book Twenty Ads That Shook The World is probably required reading for advertising majors. It’s a retrospective of the past century of advertising, and focuses on particular ads that were paradigm shifts in the way commercial messages were crafted and received by the public.

My disclaimer is that I really don’t care for advertising, as I have a slight anti-corporate streak that believes the modern world is way too commercialized and monetized beyond what is healthy. I mean, it’s to the point where some of the most television-addicted among us discuss advertising as if it were entertainment on the level of the programs themselves.

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I was directed to this dystopian sci-fi novel by two bloggers, WinExtra and Engtech. Dystopian means it’s similar to many of the strange seventies sci-fi films I got caught up in a while back. So it proved to be an entertaining read that I polished off relatively quickly.

First, it should be noted that the Brunner uses a futuristic vernacular that at first I found a bit hard to get my head around, along with jumpy, extremely brief chapters that flit from subject to subject. However, I soon grew used to the quick, jumpy pace.

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Another title I picked up at APE (Alternative Press Expo): Hot Mexican Love Comics. Here’s the website. It’s an anthology of really short works (one or two pages) from twenty four artists centered around the basic theme of… hot Mexican love? Sure. As expected, they’re rather hit and miss. For every vignette I liked, another I thought sucked poblano. But hey, since these habanero blasts are so brief, what do I care?

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A few weeks ago I went to the Alternative Press Expo which is a comic convention focused on underground and alternative comics. The simple description is “no superheroes.” I thought I’d profile some of the titles I picked up there.

First up is Hunter and Painter by Tom Gauld, an artist I’d never heard of before. It’s simple yet effective, drawn in a style reminiscent of Edward Gorey and Dan Piraro (Bizarro).

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Hungry Planet is a gorgeous photography journal from the same folks who created Material World. The idea is simple: travel the globe and photograph families in different cultures posing with piles all the food they eat over the course of a week. Besides making for nice photographs, the book acts as an informative introduction to food variety and issues of scarcity, plenty, production, and cooking from around the globe.

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Note: For this review to make more sense, please read my post on Optic Nerve #10, which was the second part of a three-issue Ben Tanaka story. This post is a review of Optic Nerve #11, the story’s conclusion.

I’m happy to read a longer-form comic story from Adrian Tomine, one of my favorite contemporary comic book artists. Three issues of Optic Nerve (#11 is the last) have been devoted to Ben Tanaka, a pathetic, selfish twenty-something loser with some stereotypical Asian-American racial hang-ups. The character may appeal to those curious about life as a minority in America and the downside of interracial, romantic relationships.

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The Number is yet another financial / retirement planning book that purports to help the reader figure out what their “Number” is: the amount of money needed to retire comfortably. It’s much less “how to” in favor of contemplating “why.” I found this approach alternately fascinating and frustrating.

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