Curated Pairings

This is probably of interest only to me, but while I know nothing about and don't intend to learn about wine and food pairings (I like food but don't care much for wine and figure a good hard cider goes with everything), I really enjoy appropriate book and video game pairings. 

For instance, Life Between the Tides, which broadened its scope from the tidepool to the hardships of historical Scottish life inspired another visit to the game Clanfolk, in which you help a fledgling Scottish clan get itself established and on good terms with the neighbors. (I've seen it criticized as basically being a simplified Rimworld. This I concur is true but not a criticism from me. I tend to enjoy simpler games with fewer options and a more focused scope. I do enjoy Rimworld as well, though.) Life is hard in survival games, but not nearly as hard as real life surviving has been for most people in most times.  

Then polar exploration in general such as In the Kingdom of Ice of course pairs well with Frostpunk and the recently released Frostpunk 2, in which you are trying to manage a Victorian-era city coping with a new Ice Age. They're gritty (though not as gritty as the over-18 rating would lead you to believe) and require careful planning and hard choices but it's very satisfying to stay alive in the cold. 

This is less of a book pairing but Stardew Valley, which the descendants have not entirely outgrown and we sometimes still co-op, always inspires me to get out gardening. Rocketboy set us up with potatoes in individual pots with individual sprinklers this year which was both highly manageable with my limited time and energy for gardening and felt exactly like Stardew Valley.  Brother Cadfael mysteries also always make me want to garden and that reminds me that I should hunt up A Morbid Taste for Bones for Dame who is (semi-permanently) on a medieval kick. 

The ultimate game for book lovers in general, though, has got to be Book of Hours in which you are a librarian of esoteric knowledge refurbishing the ancient halls, reading arcane books, learning new languages and cultivating strange acquaintances. It's particularly inspiring for language study, as the librarian is, of course, already fluent in several real (mostly dead) languages and learns several imaginary ones as the game progresses.