Undead & UnRead Book Club - Frisco Public Library discussion

I ordered the book yesterday afternoon and received it today. I will start it tonight.

Now on page 122. I have enjoyed the book but the last 50 pahes or so have been really gripping. Stopping only because I cannot keep my eyes open anymore.

Well I just finished ready player one. I got in trouble several times today for reading at what I wad told were inappropriate times. I drove better than most of the others on 121..... ;)

Wow! I thought I read that one fast but you left me in the dust! I thought it was a lot of fun to read and also found myself reading it at times other than my normal allotted reading times. I was, however, able to restrain myself from doing so while driving. Haha!

That's where the audiobook comes in handy! I'm switching between the two formats - that way I don't have to stop reading. ;)

If it's something I'm really enjoying, I like to actually read it. Kind of like savoring a fine wine. If it's something I'm trying to "get through" I like to use the audiobook. That's why I was thinking of doing that on that part of the Game of Thrones series that I am stuck on.

I read at lunch and dinner. It was a very fun read.

I've read this one a few months ago and I loved it! It's an awesome book if you are into video games or you are just a nerd in general like me!

One of the things I'm really loving about this book is all of the references to the 80s (finally some references I know :D). What about the rest of you? Did you hate it, love it, neither or both?

Now I'm reminded of the critiics from "In Living Color"
"Hated it." is running through my mind. Absolutely loved the book, your question just put a funny image in my head.....

Loved it, it felt very nostalgic! :)

I really enjoyed this book. I'm really glad that y'all picked it for the book club. I am not a big reader but I seriously could not put this down. Did anyone find any parts of the book that they didn't like? Also I was born in 86 so I don't know the 80's from first hand knowledge only what I know from movies and TV, was the book true the time period?

I wouldn't say that the movies and TV shows from the 80s are an accurate representation of that time period any more than media created today is. Even when people can create their own media using YouTube and the like, the situations or personalities seem to be exaggerated.

I think there are bits and pieces you can take from movies, TV shows, books, music, etc. of a time period and have a general feeling for that period, but it's not the same as actually living it. If anything you might get an idealized or overblown version of it.

However, I think there are classic 80s movies, music, video games, etc. that resonates with people now just as much as when they were first released. The Breakfast Club is a great example of this. My teenage cousins love this movie and identify with these characters. I think it’s because John Hughes did a great job of choosing universal themes that teens, and even adults, can relate to.

I think Ready Player One did a good job of tapping into some of these themes with the main character, Wade Watts. He might be a teenager in a broken world, but he’s still looking for acceptance and a place to belong. This is pretty much a theme in every John Hughes film I've ever seen.

I loved this book and it's an instant addition to my favorite’s shelf.

reminded me a lot of vh1's I love the 80's. a lot of stuff quickly referenced but not really explained.

Did anyone else find themselves playing more video games after they read this or watching some of the movies or TV shows mentioned in the book? I found myself doing both.

Jim wrote: "reminded me a lot of vh1's I love the 80's. a lot of stuff quickly referenced but not really explained."

I agree. It was more of a tribute to the 80s as opposed to any sort of representation.

I watched the first two evil dead movies...I can't bring myself to spend money on the third one....

I love Evil Dead 2! I've watched Heathers, Breakfast Club and Valley Girl and keep finding myself playing more Sims 3.

This book resonated with me on many levels. I grew up in the 80's - graduated from HS in 1986, in fact. So I can definitely give a firsthand account of what it was like.

The part in the book where he returns to Halliday's room and finds the old homemade computer rig brought back memories of when I was a tween in the early 80's. My parents sent me to "computer camp" where we were supposed to be learning how to program in BASIC and the computers there all were hooked up to tape recorders to save the data. I never did get too interested in the programming but it was fun playing the little games on it. There was one called Lemonade Stand where you had to adapt your lemonade stand to market factors to make money. Very simple, only text, but it was addictive at the time!

My BFF's brother had an early PC that had a text game on it called Zyll, which was a lot like the game Wade visits for the first key. We tried and tried on that one, but even though we got out paper and made maps we always ended up in the basement/dungeon and no matter which direction we went in, it always said "You are searching in the dark for a candle." So, my BFF and I concluded that Zyll was for people with better orienteering skills than ourselves (boys).

My parents got me an Atari when they came out and I played the hell out of that. I loved Asteroids and Space Invaders. Once there were graphics I got more into the games. I think this is one reason I became a graphic designer and love games so much even now. I really love computer graphics and am amazed at how far they have progressed!

Soon, though, my BFFs and I discovered new toys: makeup, hairspray, etc. All inspired by the styles we were seeing on MTV. I loved MTV and all the wacked out performers that they had in the 80s. Boy George, Adam Ant, Madonna. The videos were really creative and fun to watch, giving you a sense of "coolness" that you never knew existed.

At the ripe age of 15 I got my first car. (Driving age in LA was 15 at the time) so I pretty much began to spend all of my time away from home at that point. Drinking age in LA at that time was 18. With all the 80s hairspray and makeup it's pretty easy for a girl of 15 to pass as 18. You do the math! My posse spent most of its waking hours trying to obtain alcohol and sneaking into nightclubs. I know it sounds terrible but it was SO MUCH FUN. I don't think a person ever recovers from being that young and having that much freedom.

In college I had a rudimentary computer with a rudimentary word processor and a rudimentary dot-matrix printer. I was probably the only person I knew who had one so everyone was always coming over to borrow it for papers and whatnot. That's all I used it for. It was really just a typewriter with a backspace button and the ability to save. The whole computer probably didn't have 1MB worth of memory!

Flash forward to the 90s. I had gotten married and my husband (now ex) was always traveling. We had a PC and, hoping to pass the time because I was always by myself at home, I got a wild hair to find a game to play on it. At the game store I was turned on to Ultima Online, which had just come out. I had no idea what to expect. Apparently, you were able to play with other people over the internet?

I got totally addicted to UO during this time when I was escaping from my sad life. This is the part of the book that I felt most emotionally in tune with. What's fun about role-playing games is to lose yourself in another world. And to really do that effectively, you have to be pretty dissatisfied with your real world. I played games off and on for the next 10 years constantly, as I was not very happy in real life.

One of the games I played was a text-based MUD called Avalon. That was interesting, but ultimately I still really needed visuals. The text based stuff seems really dull to me, as a visual person. (However, I did read that the author of RP1 has put together a MUD that is based on the OASIS, so I thought I might check that out at some point, just out of curiosity.)

At some point, I started investing more time into improving my real life and it became more compelling than games. Now I hardly ever play anymore, though I do keep a neighborhood running in Sims 2. Mainly I love to build Sim houses and decorate them. Satisfies my artsy side I guess. I also love games like Civilization and Sim City.

So yeah, like that was the longest post ever! I loved the book as it seemed like a page out of my own life. At the end, I thought of how much Wade had immersed himself into the OASIS, and how thrilled the Wade at the beginning of the book would have been to actually OWN and control the OASIS. Then at the end when he actually does achieve that, it seems more like a side note, compared with his real life desire to get to know Art3mis. Now he'll be like "Yeah, I log into it a couple times a month, check my mailbox..."

Denise wrote: "This book resonated with me on many levels. I grew up in the 80's - graduated from HS in 1986, in fact. So I can definitely give a firsthand account of what it was like.

The part in the book wher..."

I loved your post! Especially the part "I don't think a person ever recovers from being that young and having that much freedom." I've never felt as free, even as an adult, as I did during the mid 90s when I was sophomore in High School driving for the first time and hanging out with my friends.

Wade is one of those characters I found easy to empathize with. I've been the awkward kid in public school more interested in fantasy, my books, than real life, so I found it easy to slip into Wade’s mind set right from the start. One of my favorite parts of the book is watching Wade slowly start to engage more with reality. I agree with you that in the future the OASIS is seeing less of him Art3mis is seeing more of him IRL.

I was late to the table with the fantasy genre. I vaguely knew people who were into that kind of thing, but it was mainly on the periphery of my awareness. There was a story that went around about a dad and his son who played D&D together and the boy killed himself IRL because his elf character got killed in the game. Supposedly his father came to the funeral in full elf regalia. It was something people would kind of joke about but I'm not sure how true it was or if it was just an urban legend. At any rate, it didn't sound like something I wanted to be a part of.

But in truth, I always felt like an outsider and all the hairspray and makeup and partying were just a form of escapism for me. I was creating an alternate world and an alternate me that I could focus on because the real world was too painful/boring/frightening.

That's why Wade was so special to me, as well as Mori in Among Others. The creation and immersion of oneself into a fantasy world is a very creative way of coping, and can be extremely fun and exhilarating as well.

The game, Ultima Online, was my real introduction to the genre of "swords and sorcery" and I grew to love it and began to realize that it wasn't all about people dressing up as elves (though I'd probably do that too at this point under certain circumstances).

It was bittersweet when I began to realize that my real life had begun to become interesting to me, because it grew harder and harder to feel interested in games. I kept buying different games. "What is the problem?!! Why do games suck so bad now?!!" Then I realized it wasn't the games, it was me. So I was both happy and sad about that.

I think one reason why my real life has become acceptable to me is that I found a husband who is also into the genre of sf/fantasy. He is the one who actually introduced it to me. He is an aspiring voice actor and when we were dating he read the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy to me AND THE HOBBIT! He introduced me to Star Trek and he and I are major trekkies now. And now I've found my Karass with the book club. Finding others to share escapism with makes real life more bearable!

Maybe Wade and Art3mis will enjoy geeking out together in the OASIS and finding new ways to escape as a couple. It can't all be about paying bills.

Denise I love your last two posts, I can relate to many of your past experiences, just in a different time. I have early memories of playing games such as "Oregon Trail" on the old Apple 2 in my elementary class room. It was also very easy for me to relatet to Wade, I have always been a nerd and played way more video games than sports and the like. My friends and I did play outside for hours on end without a care in the world, sometimes I wish that I could go back and experience those moments again.

I am reminded of a principal teaching from the Great Sage "Yesterdays are over my shoulder, so I can't look back for too long. There's just to much to see waiting in front of me and I have to go on with those changes in lattitudes, changes in attitudes. Good times and riches and son of a bitches I've seen more than I can recall.

There is no reason you can't go outside with some friends now and play. Paintballing reminds me a lot if the games I played as a kid except the guns really shoot.

If there is something you're nostalgic for there is usually some way to experience it again or find something new.

I have never limited myself to any one era. Even as a young child I was very eclectic in my tasted of movies music books and so on.

I know Adam Ant from VH1's Celebrity Fit Club. I have no memory of him from the 80's

True, but there are some moments that are so perfect that you'll never be able to recreate them. I'm not saying I necessarily want to. It's more wishing I had fully appreciated that moment as it happened. When you're young a lot of those moments are taken for granted and those are the moments that I look back on with nostalgia.

Even now only sometimes am I able to fully revel in a perfect moment, like last night when I saw Star Trek Into Darkness with some friends, while other times there is so much going on I lose focus and don't recognize that moment until afterwards. In the end I'm just grateful to have moments like these and do my best to appreciate them as they occur.

It looks like a movie might be in the works for Ready Player One. I will totally go see this if it is made.
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