Ready for Ready Player One

If you have teenagers you can commiserate with how difficult it can be to get some of them to read for pleasure. My fourteen year old son does enjoy reading, but he is incredibly picky. I don't think that I could even count the number of books that he has started and abandoned midway claiming that they "got boring".  Being his mother and a librarian I get super geeked whenever he actually shows some enthusiasm for a book. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is one of the few books that my son has read multiple times (six times, at last count, to be exact)!


The year is 2044 and global warming and depletion of fossil fuels have resulted in widespread economic hardship. Nearly everyone, including impoverished teenager, Wade Watts, escapes into the virtual reality known as the Oasis.  When the enigmatic creator of the Oasis, James Halliday, died five years ago he announced in his will that he had left an Easter Egg in the virtual world and that whoever finds it will inherit his substantial fortune. Now gunters (egg hunters) like Wade spend every spare moment logged into the Oasis tracking down clues that will hopefully lead them to the elusive treasure.

Kids obsessed with gaming will not be able to resist this virtual Treasure Island meets Charlie and the Chocolate factory and parents will moon over all of the nostalgic pop culture references (War Games, Pac-Man, DeLoreans,  Max Headroom, The Goonies, and the list goes on and on). What was like totally awesome was how much both of my teenagers wanted to learn about all of the movies, tv shows, musicians, etc. mentioned in Ready Player One. We watched War Games, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and more together and my husband even managed to unearth his old Atari for the kids to try their hand at Pong, Centipede and Space Invaders.

If you do not have time to read Ready Player One check out the audiobook that is read by none other than Will Wheaton. Who could be more suited to read a geeky fairy tale laced with oodles of 80s references?

Speaking of being perfect for the job, the one and only Steven Spielberg is the director of the movie adaptation of Ready Player One which is set to be released this March!!!! Of course, whether or not the movie will live up to the book has been a huge debate in my house. My son still complains about how horrible the film adaptation of The Lightning Thief was so he is worried that movie will butcher his favorite book and don't even get my kids started on Ender's Game. I am with them on that one since I have read Ender's Game about 20 times and that movie was atrocious. I am feeling hopeful for Spielberg's version of Ready Player One, though. After all, Jaws was an amazing movie. However the movie turns out make sure you take the time to read (or listen) to Ready Player One. Even if you are not a gamer you are sure to enjoy this wild and nostalgic ride.