Joel Couture

The book is excellent at outline the struggles of being self-aware enough that you are bad at something, but not confident enough to improve. Or maybe you just lack the skills in general and things aren't approachable for you.

As a kid, I had sub-par reading comprehension skills. Not learning disability level, just underperforming. This affected my performance and I've never really been the biggest fan of reading unless pictures (i.e. comics) were included. This book captures that feeling, but also with video games and anecdotes about team sports. As a five year old in my brother's shadow, I was terrible at everything compared to him, and shared almost identical feelings to Joel.

However, Joel makes the same points several times and it become repetitive. Fortunately, the book is fairly short, I just wish it had been edited down a bit more or included more about the actual development of the game.

Would I recommend this book to people who loved Kirby for the GameBoy? Yes.
Would I recommend it to a gamer who didn't grow up on it? Probably not.
Did I enjoy it? Definitely, but it may have been less about the game and more about acknowledging that I probably bullied myself more than others bullied me.… (mehr)