This last year, I was on an airplane every month from January to July, and I have but the briefest respite until I get back in the air in October. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t have to think about walking from airport security to my gate. My feet just go on their own and I follow, bleary eyed and seeking coffee. In addition to my travel schedule, I’ve been getting a new business up and running while working 2.5 other jobs, training a rescue dog, and contemplating moving to a new neighborhood to be closer to some (found) family. All of this means that life has been life-ing very hard in my direction for most of 2026, and while I’ve still found time to play in games, I haven’t hadtime to run any games. (Or write many articles for the Stew. Sorry Ang!)

What I have found time for — in airports, on planes, alone in hotel rooms, or just on the road — is reading.

I’m a firm believer that you cannot create without consuming. In particular, if you’re gonna make a good story, you need to experience good stories in return. Basically you are what you eat. So to get me back in the game (both here in the Stew and at my table) let’s look at a handful of the (non-RPG) books I’ve read this last year, and how they can make me (but more importantly YOU) a better gamer.

 For each book I’ll give you a brief pitch for what it’s about and then I’ll go into what the book can teach us about TTRPGS. 

FIRST BOOK: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Carl is taking the world by storm right now. When my 80 year-old, non-reader father recognizes the title, you know a book has gotten popular, but just in case you live on the sliver of the Venn diagram of Gnome Stew readers who haven’t heard of it, here’s the deal: aliens turn Earth into a giant dungeon crawling reality TV show, and Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat have to navigate the various levels in order to survive…and maybe start a revolution.

This book is peak LitRPG, and Dinniman uses the language of RPGs both video and tabletop to create a compelling world and even more compelling characters. Now, Matt doesn’t go into the mechanics of the systems of the game as deeply as some LitRPG authors (and that’s to his credit IMO) but there is a lot we can learn from Carl and Donut to bring to our tables.

Mostly: tone. Dungeon Crawler Carl is overtop the top banana pants ridiculous on purpose. The absurdity of goblin tanks and random loot drops is not lost on anyone. But. BUT the lesson I want to take away from Carl and bring to my table is this: the ability to be ridiculous and serious at the same time.

These books are, at their core, satire. Fun as heck satire with explosions and dirty jokes. But satire all the same. And they poke fun at some pretty serious social issues. So whether you’re reading this series for the first time, or the fifth, I challenge you to notice how the author uses fun shenanigans to make the serious commentary go down easy, and how the brutality of the characters actions undercuts the levity of their attitudes. They go hand-in-hand and enhance both.

If I can harness that wombo combo to make my players walk away from the table saying, “Damn. That was a serious session. Really made me think. Also, I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in weeks!” Then I will die a happy GM.

SECOND BOOK: When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory

What if the world was a simulation and not only did you know it for a fact, but so did everyone else? And what if this simulation had glitches that became tourist traps? And what if you decided to go on a cross-country bus tour of all of the great North American Glitches with your best friend? Well, then you might be a character in Daryl Gregory’s When We Were Real.

The characters in this book grapple with a lot of existential questions about what it means to be real and what parts of life matter when you know it’s all made up. Which is, as Marty McFly might say, “pretty heavy.”

As a roleplayer, this book helped me connect with my silly little blorbos on a whole new level. Even the shenanigan-prone doofus I play in the beer pretzels game is real if I invest real emotions into him, and there’s value in living a pretend life for a few hours every weekend. Like Kurt Vonnegut said, “We are what we pretend to be” and even simulated lives can improve our real ones.

Read this book if you want to find ways to up the emotional bleed between your players and their blorbos.

THIRD BOOK: The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

Okay, enough philosophy. Let’s talk romance.

S.A. Chakraborty’s The City of Brass is the first book in an action romance series set in a magical Middle Eastern kingdom of Daevabad. Street rat Nari thinks she’s a human with a few unusual gifts, but when she gets swept up into a world of dangerous ifrit and conniving djinn, she finds out all of her assumptions are very wrong. If you’re a fan of Brandon Sanderson, I think you’ll dig this series. The action scenes are amazing and the magic is very impressive.

BUT, I didn’t add this book to the list to talk about action. At least not the fighting kind. I added it because The City of Brass did something I haven’t experienced in a book in a long time: it made me cheer for both sides of the love triangle*.

(*Caveat: yes, I know, technically speaking it’s not really a “triangle” if points A, B, and C don’t all have romantic feels for each other. It’s actually a Love “V,” but I digress.)

Both love interests work because both and neither side are the right choice for Nari. We know (most of) the motivations of her potential suitors, and the few motivations we aren’t privy to are closely guarded (and very suspicious) secrets. And that knowledge makes all of their choices hurt oh so good.

If you want to understand how grand conflicts can develop from seemingly innocuous moments, then get ye to a library and find a copy of this book right now.

FOURTH BOOK: Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey

A lonely woman travels to a secluded island community in an attempt to fill a hole in her life. What she finds is belonging and the promise of a life lived without grief…as long as she’s willing to give up everything she is.

Make Me Better examines the horror of high control groups (aka cults) in a way that shows you what it’s like from the inside.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I love adding a cult into my TTRPGs, but the problem I have running cultists is one of reason. I.E. when presented with an ounce of it, their motivations tend to crumble into dust. My fallback choices are to either to make the villainous cultists incredibly fanatical zealots or ridiculous caricatures. Both are easy for the players to write off as stock bad guys. Not so after this book.

Gailey takes you inside the mind of the people in this community in a way that makes their choices (all of them, even the horrific ones) seem reasonable. The entire time I was reading this book, I knew that the people on the island were cultists. I knew that nothing was going to end well. I knew the main character, Celia, should run for the hills! But also, I couldn’t fault her for wanting to stay.

Now What?

If any of these books sound interesting to you, I highly recommend you check them out. And if you want to try to include their aspects in your own games, I recommend you check out my article on stealing stories for use in your campaigns.

But in the meantime, what’s a non-RPG book that inspired the way you run or play in a game? Let us know in the comments! Maybe I’ll add it to my TBR for the next time I’m on a plane.