HOL

Title of the book: Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Series: not yet
Genres: young adult / fantasy / science fiction
Short summary of the story: Starting in the year 2044, Wade Watts partakes in a game of adventure in a virtual society called OASIS. A quest to find the Easter Egg inside OASIS becomes dangerous and deadly, to Wade and to those he knows, after he finds one of the three Keys which lead to the Easter Egg.
Good points / bad points: This book was recommended to me by another HOLer. Right now, I don't think of any bad points. It's all good. No, wait. I found a bad point. I was up until 1:30 am reading it, even though I knew I had to get up around 6 am.... I really really wanted to finish it! Another bad point is that I need it for my library and I've no room in the book shelves anymore which means I'm going to have to rearrange (again).
As for Good points -- I'm not a game geek, but I found out I'm more of a general purpose geek than I realized, when I recognized so much trivia throughout the book. I liked how it was written, I was immediately involved in the story and found it totally 'real' and would I want to live there? Oh yes. Except for the folks killing each other and stuff. But OASIS? OH YES.

I finally finished this book, and I think what I liked the most was the trivia aspect of it. I love scavenger hunts. In fact, most activities that I create have some sort of scavenger hunt attached to them. In this case, it's a treasure hunt. The set up really reminded me of an anime a friend made me watch when I was staying with her a while back called .Hack//Sign. It takes place in a world similar to OASIS. It also reminded me a lot of Caprica, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica remake. There is another world on there where humans tend to live and just like in .Hack//, all three of these worlds are immersive. The person goes completely into the world and lives it. There was also an anime movie that I saw a few years ago called Summer Wars that has the same set up of the OASIS where people are paid in game currency for work, do business transactions, have relationships. Their entire lives, and even the real world, is based inside this video game, and if something would happen to the game, the real world would actually shut down because of their dependence.

I have always like the idea and discussion of technology and how it is overtaking our lives. I think another part I really liked about this book is how in the end, the importance of real face-to-face, real life human interaction is stressed. Halliday even says, "I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world. I didn't know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all of my life. Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real...Don't make the same mistake I did. Don't hide in here forever."

That quote speaks volumes. I, too, find it easier to function online. Being bullied my entire life at school, I isolated myself from everyone, even at the academy until my last year. That's one reason I like HOL. I have found that I make friends easily here unlike in real life where I am extremely socially awkward and often times have no idea what to say or say the wrong things or speak so strangely people think I may be on something. But online, I can be me and it's okay. However, it also takes away so many experiences I could be having in the real world, the only place I can truly find happiness, as Halliday says, and lately, I've been trying to do more with real world interaction and the more I practice, the easier it gets. Sometimes, a person has to step offline, because the real world can be beautiful if we just open our eyes to it.