Ever read a book that felt like it was written just for you?

[dantheman23.livejournal.com]

I just finished Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and that's how it felt to me. It was like, "Hey Dan, here's a book we wrote for you to enjoy, please give it a gander." It takes place in 2044, where everyone spends all their time in OASIS, a huge full virtual reality, internet-based simulation where anyone can basically do anything. The creator died 5 years previous, and left his massive fortune to whomever finds the Easter egg he left behind in the simulation. The story follows Wade, a 17 year old "gunter" (egg hunter) obsessed with the creator and the prize. The creator was born in June 1972 (3 months before me) and was totally into fantasy, sci-fi, video games, tabletop RPGs, anime, computer games, etc., along with the entire decade of the 80's (when he and I both grew up). The first video game they mention is Adventure, which is one of the most nostalgic games I can think of; my dad and I played that together and had hours of fun killing duck-looking dragons and of course hunting down the very first Easter egg. The second one is Robotron, another of my old-time favorites. And it just kept going from there, with tons of geeky references thrown in as the story progressed. The story itself was somewhere between Dystopian, modern-day, and hopeful. It was just a really really fun ride. A must-read if you're into sci-fi, fantasy, gaming, video games, classic geek movies, or anything of that sort.