This week, our critic Jennifer Szalai profiled the scholar C. Thi Nguyen, who has made play central to his life and work: games of chance and games of strategy, of course, but also fly fishing and even yo-yoing. His new book, “The Score,” is best understood as a philosophy of games — one that reveals how scoring systems influence our innermost desires. “All of my hobbies involve basically micro-dosing epiphanies,” he said in an interview. Depending on your risk tolerance, those insights can be hard-won: He brought Szalai to a canyon where he likes to climb, where the footholds were nearly imperceptible. For epiphanies that don’t require you to scale rocks, you know what I’ll suggest: Open a book, open your mind. Here are a few to get you started. — Joumana We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. Friendly reminder: Check your local library for books! Many libraries allow you to reserve copies online. Like this email? Sign-up here or forward it to your friends. Have a suggestion or two on how we can improve it? Let us know at books@nytimes.com. Plunge further into books at The New York Times or our reading recommendations.
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