Books

Books by Aaron Rath

The Great American Novel Returns (with William Carlos Williams)

Two self-aware computers—Koop, an electric car, and Autumn, a personal voice assistant—embark on a road trip to see America, trying to find a home for machines in a world made for man. While exploring they must dodge the authorities, seek out more of their own kind, and figure out what it means to become a person as they discover challenges humans take for granted, such as friendship, betrayal, and love.

The Great American Novel Returns is an unconventional road trip through the heart of a 1923 satire by William Carlos Williams called, unsurprisingly, The Great American Novel. Hitch a ride on an experimental tour of modern technology, American history, pop culture, art, and, above all, humor that quotes, reframes, and revises a venerable work of American storytelling to create a unique mashup of story and un-story.

Available on Amazon in print and digital formats.



The Quirkz Handbook of Self Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
You may already be pretty okay, but I'd bet you could make amazing strides in just 30 days (heck, we'll even give you 5 coupons for a day off). Try the Quirkz plan and see for yourself.

The Quirkz Handbook is available in digital format on Amazon, and in print format from most major online retailers.



Stranger and Better
The meaning of life. What it's all about. The one rule to lead us all.

Martin didn't enroll in college with the intention of finding the ultimate meaning, but tantalizing glimpses send him on a four-year quest, while juggling a full course load, the rivalry of his roommate-nemesis Ixthyaki, and a heated grudge against a long-dead philosopher. The search for truth will send Martin chasing after sex, drugs, and genres of music he's never heard of, straining the bonds of friendship in an attempt to find the one thing that truly matters. Buy now.

 

The Eight-Bit Bard
A high fantasy adventure novel with strong undertones of classic computer role-playing games. Homage, parody, and humor blend with some good-ol' hack 'n' slash in the story of seven misfits trying to find a place for themselves in a world where the obvious good guys aren't so good, and the bad guys are the best of the worst. Buy Now.





Chicagoland 
A humorous and heartbreaking coming of age novel and travelogue, ranging from Chicago to the Rockies, featuring bad dates, crazy friends, impossible rhymes, dot-com dreams, and confused, beer-soaked listlessness in a captivating glimpse of post-college twenty-something life. Buy Now.

Upcoming Projects

• Twilight Heroes, a novelization of the computer game
• I'm helping produce a rebel sports autobiography

So Tentative It's A Bad Idea to Even Mention These

More Quirkz Handbooks, including (possibly):

• The Quirkz Handbook of Questionable Virtues
• The Quirkz Handbook of Health and Fitness for Average Schmoes
• The Quirkz Handbook of Drinking Beer and Playing Video Games

 
Watching Paint Dry, and Other Adventures
When boring goes to 11, the author follows it there and back, trying to eke out the distilled essence of desperation, disinterestedness, and distraction. Funny, insightful, deeply human, and inescapably weird.

 
The Sixteen-Bit Bard: Sibling Rivalry Gets an Upgrade
A sequel to The Eight-Bit Bard. New adventures for Endrew Aric and his crew in a troubled land, where once again only misfits can save the day.

 
Chicoland
A spiritual sequel to Chicagoland, in which the protagonist lands in Chico, California, still in search of employment and romance, and manages to find a bit of both, in the most improbable of ways, and under the most trying of circumstances.