Reading List is Taking Over!

My reading list has taken over a little, lately, care of some birthday presents.

I have found that, indeed, I can enjoy books on my new iPad, so I have bought two, and they are both based off of video games.  From Dragon Age, a prequel about the birth of King Marric (whose son is a featured character in Dragon Age: Origins) called Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne and from Bioshock, another prequel about the founding and downfall of the underwater city, Rapture, called simply BioShock: Rapture.

Since both books had Samples available on iBooks, I was able to get a feel before committing to purchasing.  I've never tried an e-Reader before, but have been surprised at how well the iPad serves in that aspect (as well as having some game, which I'll do a feature on soon).

Also, some nice solid down to earth books, namely Dead Until Dark: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel.  It's much much campier than its television inspired series (HBO's True Blood) - up to being laugh out loud funny, the kind I haven't had sine One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, No. 1) or Grift Sense series (both campy murder mystery types).

Civilization V

The Civilization series of games has been around since 1991, and are loosely related to a board game of the same name.  In the game, the player is one of several world leaders at the dawn of history.  With only a settler and an accompanying unit, the player settles their first city and begins to develop their nation.  Because of the intense variability in the games, the Civ series is remember as engaging and often addictive ("just... one... more... turn...").

Civ V is the latest iteration of the series which has seen itself develop in new and interesting ways.  Civ IV in particular introduced the notion of religion as a gameplay mechanic that - while, at times, unrealistic - added depth into gameplay.  The fourth game also introduced culture as a methodology of expanding ones' borders and influencing a neighboring city to join your robust country than another leader's lackluster one.

The full review is after the jump...