Saturday Summary (2) & Mini Review/Recommendation
This week has been pretty killer. Between my 5am shifts and the continuing job search, I am pretty exhausted and ready for the weekend! I have very few plans for the weekend other than sleeping and vegging on television and books. Oh, and maybe studying for the GRE. I guess that's important too.
Something today made me remember this book that I read in February when I was procrastinating on writing my thesis. I didn't write a review for it because I was in the middle of school and I'm lazy as all getout during school, but I wish I had now. It's called Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I wanted to throw it out as a recommendation because it was one of those rare five-star books, in my opinion.
Goodreads says this about it:
It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune -- and remarkable power -- to whoever can unlock them.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved -- that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.
And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.
Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt -- among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life -- and love -- in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.
A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?
And these are my notes on my Goodreads rating:
I really am not a fan of video games or 80s music and movies or whatever else this book's random trivia was centered on. But, the magnificent thing was that Ernest Cline made me care about all that and I couldn't put the book down. By the end I was cheering, I was laughing and it astounded me that I was that emotionally invested in a book about things that I wouldn't normally be interested in. That's quality writing.
So if the fact that this book had me absolutely entranced, astounded, blown away and unable to put it down when it's based on cultures and interests that I know nothing about and truly, care little about, has you intrigued, pick up Ready Player One!
Something today made me remember this book that I read in February when I was procrastinating on writing my thesis. I didn't write a review for it because I was in the middle of school and I'm lazy as all getout during school, but I wish I had now. It's called Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I wanted to throw it out as a recommendation because it was one of those rare five-star books, in my opinion.
Goodreads says this about it:
It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune -- and remarkable power -- to whoever can unlock them.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved -- that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.
And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.
Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt -- among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life -- and love -- in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.
A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?
And these are my notes on my Goodreads rating:
I really am not a fan of video games or 80s music and movies or whatever else this book's random trivia was centered on. But, the magnificent thing was that Ernest Cline made me care about all that and I couldn't put the book down. By the end I was cheering, I was laughing and it astounded me that I was that emotionally invested in a book about things that I wouldn't normally be interested in. That's quality writing.
So if the fact that this book had me absolutely entranced, astounded, blown away and unable to put it down when it's based on cultures and interests that I know nothing about and truly, care little about, has you intrigued, pick up Ready Player One!
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