50 books to read before you die discussion

Ready Player One is our group read for December 2016 from open nominations.

I enjoyed Ready Player One. Here is my review from August 2015:

Ready Player One I'm sure has great appeal to avid gamers of the 1980s, everything from Dungeons and Dragons to Pacman. I guess everybody has played a little Pacman, right? But I wasn't a gamer and don't even know anybody who was nearly as avid about 1980s video games as the characters in this book, except maybe it's author, but that really doesn't affect the reader's enjoyment. It's a fast paced fun read chock full of pop culture references. Even if you don't get them, many are explained in context, and they really don't get in the way of the story.

As an example, science fiction and fantasy authors mentioned in the book include:
Anne McCaffrey
Frank Herbert
Philip Jose Farmer
Larry Niven
Douglas Adams
Kurt Vonnegut
Neal Stephenson
Richard K. Morgan
Stephen King
Orson Scott Card
Terry Pratchett
Terry Brooks
Ray Bradbury
Joe Haldeman
Robert Heinlein
J.R.R. Tolkien
Jack Vance
William Gibson
Neil Gaiman
Bruce Sterling
Michael Moorcock
John Scalzi
Roger Zelazny
Cory Doctorow
Philip K Dick

Ready Player One reminds me of Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. It is teenage hackers thwarting the forces of evil, except that in Ready Player One, evil is in the form of an uber-corporation rather than government, and the story takes place three decades in the future, mostly in the virtual reality of a simulated universe game. Cory Doctorow is mentioned as an elected official in the virtual reality world, along with Wil Wheaton, who read the audiobook I heard.

I'm just gonna go all out and say that I absolutely LOVED this book, it was right up my street.
As a result I have now become slightly obsessed with the 80's, me and my other half are now making our way through all of the movies referenced, and some of the TV shows.

Just in case anybody else is interested here is a link to all the references made in the book

Ready Player One, reference list

I would also absolutely love to hear the audiobook read by Wil Wheaton, that is definitely a must, I can just imagine how amazing that would be.

Great reference list, thanks!

I didn't enjoy the book so much though I did like the story line. Maybe because the future it depicts feels so dismal and it just felt sad that the youngsters live continually in a virtual world and immersed in the 80s rather then their present.
I have played some of the games mentioned as a child and the book title is cool.
Did wish some of the other characters (esp the female ones) had a bigger role in the book. I had high hopes for both Art3mis and Aech...

I fell behind with my TBR over the holidays. I just finished Ready Player One and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I was an 80's kid. As such this book brought back many good memories. Makes me want to go out and buy one of the retro Atari 2600 game consoles.

I have just finished this and really loved it. A David and Goliath story set within a virtual reality game. Great stuff.

I listened to this in January, Will Weaton was the narrator, he was perfect for the book.

I really enjoyed the concept of the book; living in a cyber generated alternate reality and needing to play a very elaborate game to change your destiny. The pop culture really appealed to me as a nerd, With a love of video games, RPGs, comics, Sci-Fi and fantasy novels and having grown up in the 80s.

Really fun read

If any of our UK group members are thinking about reading this, and have a Kindle. It’s currently on Amazon for 99p.