Hal O'Brien

The cover of a novel. The image reminds me more than a little of Gualala, Calif., which as any trufan knows is the home of R. Twidner.

I remember going into the Huntley Bookstore at the Claremont Colleges, and seeing this face-out on the fiction shelves. The drawing was so appealing I reached right for it -- proof I will buy a book for the cover, if done well.

Minkin's novel is a mix of Northern California in the 1970s and his own term "ludics." That is, the study of games, not just for their own sake (though that too) but also as an element in culture and civilization more broadly. It's inspired by Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens (that is, "Man the Player" - and wipe that smirk off your face).

There are illustrations of games at the start of each chapter. There are quotations running by along the bottom edge of the pages. (One time, when I spoke to Minkin, I mentioned that turning the novel into HTML would provide one of the few justifications I know for the MARQUEE tag.)

Here are my previous quotes of Minkin, and I tweeted a quote of his earlier today.

...which will probably lead to another post about "influential" books, eventually, but for now, this:

"On to the library. And all through his time at the card catalog, combing the shelves, filling out the request cards, he danced a silent, flirtatious minuet of the eyes with a rosy-cheeked redhead in the biology section, pages of notes spread before her. All his life, he had had a yen for women in libraries. In a cerebral setting, the physical becomes irresistible. Also, he figured he was really more likely to meet a better or at least more compatible woman in a library than in a saloon. Ought to have singles libraries, with soups and salads, Bach and Mozart, Montaignes bound in morocco; place to sip, smoke, and seduce in a classical setting, noon to midnight. Chaucer's Salons, call them, franchise chain."