Text Talk: Week 6

Well, my 80 book reading challenge for the year seems to be going down in flames. I think I've come to terms with it though. I would rather enjoy reading books than be driven by some arbitrary number that in the end won't really matter if the process wasn't fun. That being said, I've only finished two books in the last two weeks. Between work and looking into buying a house, plus my rapidly growing obsession with Law and Order: SVU reruns on Netflix, my reading time has been limited.

Here's what I've got:

Title: Delirium

Author: Lauren Oliver

Genre: YA Dystopian

Pages: 441

Reaction: I only finished this book about a week ago and it took me a little while today to remember what it was even about. Needless to say I gave this book a 3/5 stars. It was enjoyable while reading it but the story seemed similar to others I have read recently. I think I'll continue on with the series, but it won't be one that I'm rushing out to buy. 

Title: Ready Player One

Author: Ernest Cline

Genre: Dystopian/Sci-Fi

Pages: 374

Reaction: Just a fair warning, this is going to sound like a fangirl gush. I haven't read a book in recent memory that I have loved so much and devoured as quickly as I did Ready Player One. Imagine, if you will, a future where fossil fuels are nearly depleted, civilization has crumbled and every one lives in a virtual reality world. Human contact is limited to what you do online in "OASIS" through your avatar. You go to school, work, socialize, everything in a online platform. The creator of OASIS has just died and set forth a quest for anyone who can solve his clues to obtain his vast amounts of wealth and fortune (think Willy Wonka). Enter Wade Watts, a nobody with no money and born into a pretty crappy life. Through out the book, you follow him on his quest to solve the riddles and win the prize as he competes against everyone else in this virtual world. 

Okay, where I'm going to start raving is that this book centers around the 1980's geek culture. The creator of OASIS, James Halliday grew up during this time period and completely immersed himself in the 80's culture for the remainder of his life. There are so many references to some of my most favorite things: Ghostbusters, Pretty in Pink (I was raised on John Hughes movies), The Goonies, Star Wars, Pac Man, etc and so for ad infinitum. Not to mention some of the most amazing 80's songs were key highlights in this book. These were all things I grew up with too, so this was a wonderful walk through my own childhood. Also, video game consoles and the earliest versions of computers were a major component in my young life, so a lot of the early video games talked about in this book also brought back a lot of memories. I love the nerd culture, most wouldn't know this, but I do like to game every now and then. Sonic the Hedgehog, Zelda, Mario World, were all games that I loved playing growing up. Even to this day I'm a huge fan of all the Fable games, and my favorite game of all time is Kingdom Hearts. Anything that is an adventure with a good and noble storyline, I can get behind. This book was written like one of those classic games. It has everything a good adventure needs: an evil villain, a greater cause, nobility, human fault, a love story and an epic quest all mixed with the best parts of the 1980's, I mean seriously, need I say more?

For those of you who like to geek out like I do, I have a few documentary recs to go along with this book: Donkey Kong, Fist Full of Quarters and Indie Gamer. Donkey Kong Fist Full of Quarters is seriously one of the greatest documentaries I've seen. I even bought it I loved it so much. I have everyone I know watch it (if they want to remain my friend that is). I won't ruin it by even trying to explain it, just see it. And Indie Gamer is less about old school gaming, but more about independent game developers who are trying to get their games off the ground without having to go through a major corporation like Nintendo, Capcom, Atari, so on and so forth. Seriously some good stuff going on here. 

I loved this book. End of story.

Books Added to the Library This Week:

Title: Dash &Lily's Book of Dares

Author: David Levithan and Rachel Cohn 

Genre: YA Contemporary

History Behind My Choice: I've had this book on my list for a while, it's a contemporary set around Christmas. A lot of the BookTubers I watch have read this and said it was enjoyable. I'm not expecting a whole lot, but I got it from BookMooch because the same person had the next book that I was really excited to get.

Title: The Host

Author: Stephanie Meyer

Genre: YA/Science Fiction

History Behind My Choice: So after the whole Twilight craze, I had heard Stephanie Meyer had come out with another book. I didn't really pay it much attention. Don't get me wrong, I loved Twilight, but I was concerned it was going to be Bella, Jacob and Edward all over again, so I passed it up. Then, right before the movie came out, so many of my favorite BookTubers were saying they were re-reading it and that they absolutely loved it the first time around. So that intensified my need for this book. I tried mooching it from multiple people, it took about three months in total before it was available from a reputable user from which I got this and the previous book! I think I'm picking up this bad boy next. 

Title: Steve Jobs

Author: Walter Isaacson 

Genre: Biography

History Behind My Choice: This is the only book that Ryan has ever asked me to get for him. He's not much of a reader so when he requests something like this, I do whatever I can to facilitate him getting some good materials. He's got a major Apple obsession so I have a feeling he's going to nerd out on this book.