From Goodreads,"In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape."
Goodreads - Ready Player One
Awards:
- Prometheus Award for Best Novel (2012)
- ALA Alex Award (2012)
- Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work (2016)
This isn't a book I would typically pick up and read. My boyfriend and I had a conversation about our favorite books. He's more of a gamer than a reader, so it definitely surprised me when he informed me he had a couple favorite books. One was 1984, which I have yet to read, and the other was Ready Player One. I picked up 1984 at Target because the book was on sale, but I was having trouble finding Ready Player One. I ended up going to Austin, Texas to visit my best friend. We went to a bookstore called The Book People and it was absolutely heaven for a book nerd like me. I ended up finding the book. It was the last copy. And it was signed. The author, Ernest Cline, lives in Austin and often frequents the bookstore. I was ecstatic. I texted him once I had checked out and he was pretty jealous of the fact that I found a signed edition of the book. As I read the book I kept my boyfriend well updated on where I was at in the book and my overall thoughts. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.
Ready Player One follows Wade Watts, also known as Parzival in the OASIS, as he journeys to find the ultimate prize. The creator of the OASIS has passed away and has released a video stating that he has hidden clues in the OASIS that will lead to the egg that holds all the power. The ultimate prize is ownership of the OASIS and all of his wealth. Wade/Parzival decides to try to figure it out and ends up being the first to find the first clue. From there Wade/Parzival must fight to find the rest of the clues and find the prize and he must fight to survive.
In the book, Wade/Parzival attended school through the OASIS. Of course he was also trying to find the ultimate prize of Halliday's Easter Egg Hunt. One of the things that I loved about this book was how it was centered around the virtual reality technology. I think that Cline did an excellent job of describing the technology and how this virtual reality was utilized. His inclusion of this advanced technology made the book even more realistic because this kind of technology is becoming more and more advanced and becoming more accessible to people. The school that I work at received two virtual reality systems and they ended up purchasing two more. I underwent training so that I would be able to utilize these in my classroom and it was absolutely amazing. There are so many teaching opportunities with the virtual reality systems. We can virtually explore different locations or things that will help further aid my student's understanding of the concept being taught. The possibilities are endless with virtual reality being in a classroom. I feel like our world is moving closer and closer to a world that Wade/Parzival lives in. And while it is exciting to see where this technology can take us, it's also a little scary to think that I could one day be replaced by a virtual teacher.
I had only two downfalls for this book. One of the downfalls was the amount of references that were made to games, movies, songs, quotes, etc. and the obscurity of some of those things. A lot of the references would be considered obscure to normal folks like myself. I'm not a gamer and I'm not nearly as familiar with gaming as my boyfriend is. He warned me ahead of time that I might not understand all of the references and that it may affect how I interpreted the book. I did not understand all of the references and that bothered me. If I'm reading a book I want to at least somewhat understand what I'm reading or be able to visualize it in my head. Some of the things referenced in the book were obscure enough that I had to choose to not understand it or to go look it up. For me it was a pain to have to stop reading just to research what the characters were talking about in the book. There was one incident near the end of the book where a game was being played and they were describing what it was like. I could not, for the life of me, visualize this game. I ended up having to stop reading and go research the game just so I could understand what they were talking about. For me, it's okay to have to do this for a word or two in a book, but when it's a lot that you're stopping to Google, then it becomes a hassle. I definitely didn't have to look up all the references, but I think overall it helped me better understand and enjoy the book even more.
The other thing that I wasn't happy about in this book was content at a very specific point in the book. Parzival ends up with some money, finds that he is lonely, and purchases a brand new set up along with an adult doll that can be used for adult things. When I got to this point in the book I was highly disappointed. As I was reading I was excited to buy another copy of the book to put into my classroom library. There were kids that I knew would love this book because of the gaming aspect. But unfortunately, due to content, I didn't feel comfortable putting this in my library and definitely not comfortable recommending this to a student.
Overall, I have to give this book 5 stars even though I had to research some of the references and I wasn't happy with the adult content. I highly recommend this book to any gamers and definitely think that high school students would enjoy this. I'm looking forward to the release of the movie in March 2018. Once I've seen it I'll come back and post my thoughts on how the movie compares with the book.
Ready Player One follows Wade Watts, also known as Parzival in the OASIS, as he journeys to find the ultimate prize. The creator of the OASIS has passed away and has released a video stating that he has hidden clues in the OASIS that will lead to the egg that holds all the power. The ultimate prize is ownership of the OASIS and all of his wealth. Wade/Parzival decides to try to figure it out and ends up being the first to find the first clue. From there Wade/Parzival must fight to find the rest of the clues and find the prize and he must fight to survive.
In the book, Wade/Parzival attended school through the OASIS. Of course he was also trying to find the ultimate prize of Halliday's Easter Egg Hunt. One of the things that I loved about this book was how it was centered around the virtual reality technology. I think that Cline did an excellent job of describing the technology and how this virtual reality was utilized. His inclusion of this advanced technology made the book even more realistic because this kind of technology is becoming more and more advanced and becoming more accessible to people. The school that I work at received two virtual reality systems and they ended up purchasing two more. I underwent training so that I would be able to utilize these in my classroom and it was absolutely amazing. There are so many teaching opportunities with the virtual reality systems. We can virtually explore different locations or things that will help further aid my student's understanding of the concept being taught. The possibilities are endless with virtual reality being in a classroom. I feel like our world is moving closer and closer to a world that Wade/Parzival lives in. And while it is exciting to see where this technology can take us, it's also a little scary to think that I could one day be replaced by a virtual teacher.
I had only two downfalls for this book. One of the downfalls was the amount of references that were made to games, movies, songs, quotes, etc. and the obscurity of some of those things. A lot of the references would be considered obscure to normal folks like myself. I'm not a gamer and I'm not nearly as familiar with gaming as my boyfriend is. He warned me ahead of time that I might not understand all of the references and that it may affect how I interpreted the book. I did not understand all of the references and that bothered me. If I'm reading a book I want to at least somewhat understand what I'm reading or be able to visualize it in my head. Some of the things referenced in the book were obscure enough that I had to choose to not understand it or to go look it up. For me it was a pain to have to stop reading just to research what the characters were talking about in the book. There was one incident near the end of the book where a game was being played and they were describing what it was like. I could not, for the life of me, visualize this game. I ended up having to stop reading and go research the game just so I could understand what they were talking about. For me, it's okay to have to do this for a word or two in a book, but when it's a lot that you're stopping to Google, then it becomes a hassle. I definitely didn't have to look up all the references, but I think overall it helped me better understand and enjoy the book even more.
The other thing that I wasn't happy about in this book was content at a very specific point in the book. Parzival ends up with some money, finds that he is lonely, and purchases a brand new set up along with an adult doll that can be used for adult things. When I got to this point in the book I was highly disappointed. As I was reading I was excited to buy another copy of the book to put into my classroom library. There were kids that I knew would love this book because of the gaming aspect. But unfortunately, due to content, I didn't feel comfortable putting this in my library and definitely not comfortable recommending this to a student.
Overall, I have to give this book 5 stars even though I had to research some of the references and I wasn't happy with the adult content. I highly recommend this book to any gamers and definitely think that high school students would enjoy this. I'm looking forward to the release of the movie in March 2018. Once I've seen it I'll come back and post my thoughts on how the movie compares with the book.
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