This is how Peter Barrett and Conor Broughan of Columbia University Press spent much of their BookExpo Saturday: playing Guitar Hero in their company’s booth. They even roped me into playing two rounds—because I was so disastrously inept in “battle” mode that I was blown off the stage in 30 seconds that they let me try again at the wimpiest basic level. I still suck pretty bad. Then again, I haven’t really played video games without the cheat codes since, I dunno, Metroid.