I feel like monkey island one and two was basically a very advanced "book" with basic animated illustrations. But you could still fill in a lot with your own imagination with the graphics of that time. Skip forward to any of todays games and they are way way closer to a movie then a book. Just like when any book is made into a movie there is a lot of hardcore fans that have a different mental model of their book and don't want it overshadowed by a movie. It is easy to avoid and not watch the "movie". I will be very happy to see a new game by Ron based on what he feels is his vision and not what the public wants.
Liftoff by Eric Berger. SpaceX early days from more of the perspective of the employees. Really entertaining, well written and learned a lot about rocketry. Highly recommend
My 2 cents: Exercise = hard. I hate exercising but love doing almost any sport. Many Sports have side effect of good exercise. I think it triggers my instinct to keep it up when I am tired. Chasing a soccer ball similar stimulus to run and catch prey, or run away from danger. Find a sport you like. Even if your terrible at it, you will get better at it. Both physically and skill wise.