Books are a magical

con; a transmission from

another mind intent on
changing who you are.
Quick, before this one

If the book gets good enough that you forget who you’re playing, please write the author a little note or a review to let them know what it means to you. Don’t- uh, don’t mention playing this game.
gets you, transform your-
self. You are (flip a coin or
just choose):

-a character in the book

(decide which one in the
first chapter) who knows
how it all really happened.

As you read, ask yourself:

How does this make me
look worse than I am?
How is this sensational-
ized? How can I correct
the record?

-Page 21, always ready for

your moment in the sun
and constantly think-
ing about how all these
other pages relate to your
contents.

As you read, ask yourself:

What page is this? If it’s
not 21, how does it relate
to the themes and charac-
ters on 21? If it is 21, how
does it explain the rest of
the book? What is hidden
between its lines?
If the book gets good enough that you forget who you’re playing, please write the author a little note or a review to let them know what it means to you. Don’t- uh, don’t mention playing this game.

Books are a devil’s bar-

gain, knowledge at a price
that forever changes you.
Quick, before this one
gets you, transform your-
self. You are (flip a coin or
just choose):

-yourself, but convinced

that this book was written
by you, ten years in the
future, baffled by how
you became the kind of
person who would write
this specific book.

As you read, ask yourself:

What happened to me
that would cause me to
write like this? What do
I believe now and why?
How can I prevent myself
becoming this? Should I?

- a fringe scientist trying

to prove that aliens
invented, planted, and
briefly monitored the
game of chess because
they needed an intelligent
being who could commit
their entire life to a truly
boring activity.

As you read, ask yourself:

How does this connect to
chess? How does this con-
nect to boredom? What
are they preparing us for?
Books are abominable
beasts, eating trees and
minds alike. Quick, before
this one gets you, trans-
form yourself. You are

If the book gets good enough that you forget who you’re playing, please write the author a little note or a review to let them know what it means to you. Don’t- uh, don’t mention playing this game.
(flip a coin or just choose):

- the author’s child, trying

to connect to your now-
dead parent through the
work you had no interest
in when they were alive.

As you read, ask yourself:

Does this reveal any-
thing I didn’t understand
about them? Does it echo
a specific memory? Is
this character like me or
someone else in our life?
How does it reveal what
they thought of me?

- a banana who has

spontaneously learned to
read and this is the first
book you’ve ever read
and, judging by how those
brown spots are spread-
ing, maybe the last.

As you read, ask yourself:

Do any of these characters
need potassium? How do
their experiences relate to
my life on the tree, being
picked and processed and
transported, being here
now?