Lately, I’ve noticed some interest in crossover titles for video game players who are looking for good fiction reads. I know I’m not the first person to think of this. Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a good, if somewhat obvious, example. Here’s a list of some other titles that may not immediately spring to mind.

In many video games, food increases health and fights illness. Use some of the Library’s cookbooks for teens to make something healthy, or, perhaps, a Portal cake. The Fables series boasts of the Normanomicon, "also known as the Book of the Extremely Dead, [...] a book, [...] full of evil incantations and spells and a extremely vicious rhubarb stew recipe." While I haven't played Fables myself, I assume this is inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon and the Evil Dead movie titles. Jules Verne's underwater monstrosities have inspired many a comic book and videogame title, such as Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure for the Nintendo Wii, as has H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. While not technically a sea monster, most Cthulhu references include some aspect of squid or octopus physiology. More recently, Kraken by China Miéville, explores giant sea monsters. For more classic book suggestions from a gamer's perspective, check out the opinionated blog Gamer Lit.

Often, video games inspire films that may have little or nothing to do with the original title, as with The Birds of Anger from the popular game Angry Birds. Or, in the case of the Dante's Inferno video game, this extremely loosely based interpretation was meant, in part, to encourage players to read the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translation of the poem.

Younger readers may enjoy reading about characters and plotlines from their favorite games from the following titles:

• Lego Star Wars
• Pokemon
• Prince of Persia
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Super Mario
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Older audiences may enjoy reading about characters and plotlines from their favorite games from the following titles:

• Halo
• Call of Duty
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
• Robert Ludlum's Bourne Identity

Fans of Resident Evil may enjoy books from the imprint Quirk Classics, as well as Night of the Living Trekkies.