Infendo reader Jason emailed the following question last week:

I just finished reading Super Mario by Jeff Ryan and I enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed David Sheffs’ Game Over. A few years ago ( I’m currently 37) I realized that I more of a fan of Nintendo than I am of video games. With that said, are there any other non-fiction books about the big N that you could recommend?

As for Nintendo-only books, I’ve only read Game Over (highly recommended, it’s a 4.5 star book) and have Super Mario downloaded to my Kindle for later. There’s another one called Playing to Wiin (see what they did there?), but it only has slightly better than average reviews on Amazon.

Any other recommendations, Infendo Nation?

Published August 4, 2011, authored by Jeff Ryan, that book is Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America. It contains a concise history of Nintendo’s efforts to find success in the American market. It’s a short read, and quite shallow, but it shouldn’t be missed by the hardcore Nintendo fan.

Order the book on Amazon (or step into that strange building called the library). Read the book already? Tell us what you think in the comments!

Hopefully the writing is better than this crummy cover design

When Nintendo released the Wii home console in November 2006, it changed the face of global gaming forever. Sony and Microsoft, whom many expected to dominate the market, were caught unawares by the launch of Nintendo’s revolutionary product. But rarely has the story been told of this elusive, low-profile family company. How did this struggling company, faced with an existential crisis both in leadership and product in the last decade, manage such a dramatic comeback?

Daniel Sloan uncovers its tale in the newly published, “Playing to Wiin: Nintendo and the Video Game Industry’s Greatest Comeback.” In this book, he details the key succession issue for Nintendo, the development of the DS and Wii mega-hit consoles and the creation of remarkable new gaming software – all these factors combined to expand the gaming population and propel Nintendo to the industry’s peak.

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Aspyr just sent over a copy of Fighting Fantasy The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Which is the book the upcoming DS game of the same name is based on. Fighting Fantasy is apparently a long series of choose your own adventure books that were really popular in Europe but never really caught on in the US.

The real attractive thing about this book is that you actually get to make a character. It’s like Dungeons and Dragons in a book, where you have a character sheet and skills that your make before reading the book. While this is really awesome hype of the game. I honestly can’t wait to get reading this being a Dungeons and Dragon junky.

The game is set to launch on October 12th.

[Turn to page 2 for screens of adventure or turn to page 3 for a mystical trailer.]

Spotting something Zelda related when we least expect it can expose the inner nerd in each of us.

Browsing a local book shop today, my eyes nearly popped out of my head at the mere sight of Link.

“What is this?!” I exclaimed with all the ferocity of a ten-year old.

I scrambled through Faulkner and Hemingway to grasp the Legend of Zelda manga, a Japanese graphic novel that reads from back to front.

It apparently tells a faithful version of Ocarina of Time’s timeless tale.

Published by Viz Media, the Ocarina of Time manga was written and drawn by two women who use the pen name Akira Himekawa. The first of a two-part series, it cost only $7.99 and is available now.

I haven’t had a chance to read it yet — do you really read a manga? But the anime drawings are surprisingly intense, and the opening line alone makes me want to pop in my Ocarina of Time cartridge.

“But there was one boy who, for some reason, didn’t have a fairy.”