I love to be surrounded by books. I collect more than I can read, just as I collect more games than I can play. To me, books - physical books - are my mind palace. They allow me to map perspectives on what I do and keep track of voids in my knowledge. They are not necessarily proof of what I have learned. They constitute a living, growing and ever-reorganising overview of what I want to learn more about. They remind me of places, people and perspectives that have inspired me. At home, me and my wife Liza Enebeis collect rare and beautiful books on art, design and... ants. They collect dust like in a museum. But at Playspace my books serve as puzzle pieces. They are meant to be written in, spilled coffee on and - when I feel very passionate - stabbed.
Another thing I really like about books is that they tell me a lot about you. With clearly indicated categories, people that visit Playspace often start going through certain sections of my library. That way we can immediately get off on the right foot by talking about the thing we care about.
If you go through the 360-degrees image on my homepage, you will be able to see the categories and even zoom in to most of the book titles. You're welcome to come over and actually sit down for a morning or afternoon and browse through my books all you want. Good coffee or tea included. Since many people ask me to tell them what books to read when interested in game design or gamification, here's a shortlist to get you started:
Play
The Ambiguity of Play by Sutton-Smith
Play Philosophy
The Well-played Game by De Koven
Play and Ethics
The Play Ethic by Pat Kane
Free Play and Improvisation
Free Play by Nachmanovitch
Game Design
The Art of Game Design by Schell
Tabletop Game Design
Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design by Engelstein and Shalev
Gamification
The Gameful World by Walz and Deterding
Performative Games
Pervasive Games by Montola, Stenros and Waern
Games and Society
Games for Actors and Non-actors by Boal
Design Games
Gamestorming by Gray, Brown and Macanufo
Creativity Games
Thinkertoys by Michalko
Playground Design
The Playground Project by Burkhalter
Street Play
Street Play by Cooper