About & Scoring System

Six years an ER nurse, the last three on permanent night shift (7p-7a) at a Level II trauma center outside the city. I read and play in short interrupted windows, sometimes six minutes at a stretch before a call bell or a rig comes in, so anything that punishes you for stopping doesn't survive on my shelf. I came to reading through the ER's break-room paperback swap, and to games through a co-worker who wouldn't stop bringing Pandemic to the nurses' station on slow nights.

I work nights in the ER at a hospital outside Pittsburgh, and most of what I read or play happens in the gaps between codes, not on some tidy schedule off the clock. I got into board games because a slow Tuesday overnight is a real thing and someone left a copy of Pandemic in the break room. I keep notes on everything the same way I chart everything else. Habit, not hobby.

The scoring system

Charts. They're a pretty inescapable part of a night shift, in my experience — so here's the key, same as I'd hand off at report.

• 1/5 — Didn't survive a shift. Broken, or a genuine miss. I don't finish these, and I say so.
• 2/5 — Fine for a slow night. Passed the time. Wouldn't reach for it again on purpose.
• 3/5 — Solid, no complaints. Did what it said it would. Most things land here.
• 4/5 — Survives an interrupted shift. Punishes you for stopping less than most, and I noticed.
• 5/5 — Still thinking about it at 7am. Rare. The drive home was different because of it.

What this is

I chart things for a living, so I chart things off the clock too. Every entry gets a rating, but the rating comes last, after the actual notes, not before. If I can't tell you why something got a 3 instead of a 4, it doesn't get posted yet.

Nothing here was comped. I don't take review copies from publishers or game companies, and I don't post about things I bailed on partway through. If I stopped reading something at page sixty, that's a fact about my week, not a review.

Every so often something in the feed isn't a review at all, just a note about a shift, a coworker, the drive home at 7am when the sun's already up and you haven't slept. It's here because it actually happened and I wanted somewhere to put it down, same as the charts.

No newsletter, no affiliate links, nothing tracking what you click. I built this to have a record for myself, and other people reading it is a side effect, not the point.

Get in touch

Found something wrong, or have a book or a game you think would survive a night shift? Email me at [email protected]. I don't check it constantly, but I do check it.