Goodreads Book Review: Ready Player One

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I loved this book. There is no doubt about that. What is up for debate, though, is whether I loved it because it was well-written, or whether I loved it because I'm a pop culture expert who loves just about everything about the 80's and I'm a gamer who has in the past spent plenty of hours wandering Azeroth and so the book spoke to me because of that regardless of how well-written it might have been. Seriously, I got just about every pop culture reference made in the book... and that's saying something, since there are easily a few thousand. For the most part, the book is really good, and it pulled me along page after page; however, when our hero, Parzival, logs out of the OASIS to deal with things in the real world, the book kind of drags. On the one hand, that isn't a big deal, because it happens pretty rarely. On the other hand, considering one of the main messages of the book is that the real world is the only reality worth living in... well, there's a serious case of burying the lead here. However, the book is still a good read, the characters are all pretty damn lovable, the love story is cute enough, and playing "catch the reference" is a boatload of fun. So, in short, I loved it, and you should read it.



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The twenty-first book in the Recommended Reading Challenge is only the second one that I can honestly say has become a favorite book of mine. I'm about to embark on the twenty-second, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. It seems to have some heavy religious undertones, so I'm kind of wary about it, but we'll see what happens. In any case, keep those recommendations coming, folks!