Book Review: ANESthetized

  Unfortunately an unfortunate work demonstrating that playing video games does not magically give you the ability to write.
   I am not trying to declare myself as some brilliant writer by any means.  I have trouble with the editing process.  I can see other writer's mistakes fairly easily, such as comma splice and the lot.  But asked to see the same in my own writing and it is like a wall goes up that I can't see past, even though I have the ability to do so.
 I feel like the same thing happened with this book for author Doug McCoy.  The saying 'can't see the forest through the trees' applies to how this book was written.  McCoy spends a fair amount of time discussing the who, when and where of his playing video games, but forgets to discuss the how and why...he forgets, at least for the most part, the feeling of growing up with the NES.  Yes he mentions 'Nintendo thumb' and ripping off the wrapping paper of his first NES console, but that is the problem; McCoy only seems to mention them, he fails to draw the reader into the world of video games, he fails to draw them into his personal story of the NES and thus fails to engage his niche readership.
  This book is deemed an 'autobiography' of McCoy's growing up in the Nintendo era.  It is true that I have not read a lot of autobiographies, but I am sure they are not supposed to read like a technical manual written for preteens.
  There is some good that comes out of this book, but it is very niche specific.  I say that because I am obsessed with the NES, thus I find his reviews, his many many many reviews, which make up the bulk of his book, to be interesting and fun.  Most of them are still not very well written and the only reason I could look past that is that I have played the games he mentions, I collect the games he mentions, and I like to know any details I can find about the games he mentions, even if those details are formatted into a poorly written review.  This being enough of a draw in for me is fine, but for a regular or less devoted to the NES readership, McCoy is going to have a hard time keeping an audience.
 The few times that McCoy's writing gets good, and quite good I might add, the reader can tell that he has forgotten that he is writing a book.  Those times McCoy is speaking from the heart about his experiences with these NES games and how they made him feel and react to the world around him.  These pages were great and are worth the read, unfortunately it is only perhaps 5 pages out of the hundred or so (Kindle Edition so not sure how many pages it actually is).
 The best thing Doug McCoy can do is to write and forget that he is writing.  I spent too much time with this book saying to myself 'McCoy should have done this' or 'That is poorly written' or 'Make your readers want to read dammit!'.  A book should not make me want to stop to make notes or critique it, it should draw me in and keep me engaged, like a video game.
 I think you can see where this is going.  This is not a book I recommend picking up, even if you are hardcore into collecting like I am, as this book only has maybe 10 pages worth your time.  Keep in mind this book is very very cheap and I still don't recommend spending the time with it.  Buy an old Nintendo Power magazine instead...you'll still get the game reviews and it will be written by people who love games (like Doug McCoy), but are able to write well about it (Unlike McCoy).