I value playing rpgs over reading rpgs, and that’s partly because I have very limited interest in doing the latter — reading most rpg books doesn’t feel like something that’s worth my time. Recently I’ve been thinking about why? Why don’t I enjoy this?

Primarily, it’s because I don’t have that much time I want to spend on reading. So I don’t need volume; I want impact. And by going to wider-interest books I can get:

• Fiction that’s much better written (recent example — Gabrielle Squailia’s Viscera)
• Non-fiction that’s of much greater value because it tells me about the real world (current example — Abulafia’s The Great Sea)

I.e. the payoffs are just much higher.