READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline (is my Boyfriend
Posted: January 15, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized 8 Comments »Big News Before We Boyfriend It Up Today:
START HERE, Book Riot’s first book is out. It’s only 3 bucks for a digital copy and it’s a great resource for reading through famous classic, contemporary, and cult authors. I penned essays about Stephen King and Italo Calvino (which demonstrates the range of the book). Lots of Book Rioters and famous authors and reviewers also contributed their smart-as-heck thoughts. We did an ab-fab job with this one, and I really hope you check it out!!
What the Book is About:
You guys, I’m really mad at you right now.
Why didn’t any of you SHOVE THIS BOOK DOWN MY THROAT when it came out A YEAR AND A HALF AGO? I’ve been walking around all year without the shape of a 384 page book cartoonishly bulging out from my neck. You guys. I thought we were friends. You guys.
I was looking for a good Audible book last week (having some couple hour drives looming in my future) and I remembered that this was all over Audible about a year ago, and I pulled the trigger and used my credit.
You guys. Why did no one tell me that this book was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets The Matrix? You guys! That’s the best A meets B combination since someone told me that Bone was Charlie Brown meets Lord of the Rings. YOU GUYS!
Ready Player One takes place in 2044 in a collapsing world where people spend the bulk of their time away from reality in a virtual universe called the OASIS. When the OASIS creator James Halliday dies, he sets up an elaborate virtual scavenger hunt that leads to an Easter egg that will name the winner of the hunt the heir to Halliday’s 200-something billion dollar fortune. The story opens as poor as shenanigans Oklahoma teenager Wade Watts finds the first clue to the puzzle. Wade’s avatar Parzival becomes a global celebrity, his competitors become both his most loathed enemies and closest friends, and as his virtual adventures bleed into his actual life, he finds that he can no longer avoid the real world and everything that is so wonderful and terrible about it.
This is a chunky motherf—er. There’s a LOT of exposition and a LOT of nerd references (Halliday, who came of age in the 1980′s, makes his entire scavenger hunt 80′s nerd trivia based). The exposition and nerd-insideriness should weigh the book down, but it doesn’t, it buoys the story up, giving the world such wonderful specificity. This novel reads like a sci-fi Harry Potter. I absolutely could not put it down. I listened on audiobook (nerd icon Wil Wheaton does an A+ job narrating) and found myself listening long after car rides were over. I was listening to this book late into the night like a kid with a book and a flashlight under his covers.
I’m so pissed at everyone who didn’t shove this book down my throat so I’m shoving it down yours. READ AND LOVE.
(No pictures today because I read on audiobook. I’m reading lots of library books so lots of book dates caught on camera in weeks to come!!)
This sounds amazing! But do you think someone who did not come of age in the ’80s (or, erm, who wasn’t yet born in the ’80s) would get the references? Would they have trouble getting some things, or would some of the meaning be lost on them?
Little Youngun! I’m just teasing, I was born in 1986, it’s not like I remember much either. Everything is very well explained, you should be fine! Actually, if you read this book you will be more than fine, you will be amaaaaaaazing!
Okay, thanks! It’s on my list!
This is one boyfriend I may just fight you for. I loved this book!
We can share! RP1 for everyone!
I read your Stephen King introduction last night and pretty much agreed with you. I mean it’s hard when the man has published some 60+ books! I chatted with my King-loving friend who said that he would have liked to see some contemporary King on it – I asked him what he wanted to take off the list and what he wanted to put on and he didn’t answer. I guess because it’s darn hard to take one of those 4 off the list! I like that you put On Writing on because it’s amazing. I think my list would have been exactly the same – although if he hadn’t messed up in the ending of Rose Madder, I might put that on the list.
And I so want to read Ready Player One – it sounds so cool. It’s been on my wishlist for a while but I haven’t gotten around to getting it yet …
I didn’t get around to reading this last year, either, but it’s on my list for this year.
Well this is an awkward moment. *Looks around shifty* We would have told you about it, but we were all in a geek-dom high looking up obscure references for the next three days that we completely forgot…. Erm. Sorry?
I absolutely loved loved loved the book as well and think it’s the best bridging geeks and books, erm, bridge I have found. So glad you loved it!! I got off public transport and refused to stop reading and so walked to work while reading. I understand the nerve…