My friend Simon Parkin has been working long and hard on Death by Video Game, an amazing book of journalism on some of our stranger obsessions with the form. I've been really enjoying it so far and do recommend—it's a candid and humane look at what video games mean to people, with all the attendant beauty and weirdness that suggests.
I think it's a great read for serious fans of games, but also for people who don't really play them—it tackles, through its storytelling, the questions everyone always asks, like "are games too violent" or "are they our fantasies", and offers complicated answers. Read an excerpt of the book here.
Death by Video Game: Tales of obsession from the virtual frontline is now available.