inputs/outputs

I was probably five or six years old, scanning the book shelves of the junior kids section at Crown Books (a store which doesn’t exist anymore).  I came across a book titled Megaman 2 in what seemed to be a series called Worlds of Power.  It wasn’t just a book of tips on how to beat the popular nintendo game – it was a complete novelization of the game.

If I would have seen this type of thing today, I probably would have laughed it off.  Kids play video games.  Reading about them, especially after you know the ending, seems silly.  As a 6 year old, though, it was the greatest possible discovery.  I took the book home and finished it the same day.  I re-read it a good number of times until it finally got lost somewhere in the clutter.

Excited by the release of Megaman 9 on WiiWare, I started googling info about the Megaman series to create a sense of nostalgia.  And I remembered the book and googled it.  The author is FX Nine, and after some googling, I discovered that FX Nine is actually a pseudeonym for Seth Godin, the popular marketing/business writer.  He used “Nine” as a surname so that we’d find him in the NINeTENDO section.  Clever.

I read Seth’s blog religiously and I’ve bought most of his books.  He’s always coming up with interesting ideas and isn’t afraid to take chances.  I wonder if writing a book based on an 8bit video game falls into the category of “taking a chance.”  Probably.

Thanks for providing excellent reading material, Seth.