A-Town's Bookshelf: The Year in Books, 2024

We've reached a new year, and with it another annual recap of books read and listened to (but mostly listened to). As I mentioned last year, I'm well aware that my measly little statistics are nothing compared to those who (allegedly) read (but probably listen to - on 2x speed) over a hundred books a year without breaking a sweat. I'm not here to compare. In fact, I know that probably less than a dozen people will ever even look at this post. So I'm mainly just posting this as a way to track my reading habits, year over year. With this being the second year of my annual "A-Town's Bookshelf" recap, we'll start to see a bit more clearly whether I'm actually doing anything impressive or not.

I somehow made it through 68 books this year, which is insane. That's probably about how many books I had completed in my entire life, prior to, like, 2015. As I looked back on this list over the past few days, I was shocked to see and remember some of the stuff I'd finished. Overall, I'd say that most of it was pretty good stuff. From science fiction and fantasy to celebrity memoirs and the rabbit hole of American history, I listened to (and occasionally physically read) some pretty fun literature during 2024.

One fun thing that I've been doing as I've been crushing audiobooks since the birth of my second son in 2023 is keeping track of how much money I'm saving by using Libby and maintaining an Audible subscription, as opposed to buying books or audiobooks at full price. I thought I could crack it by New Year's Eve (and probably could have - I've got two unused credits on Audible right now), but I'm sitting about $100 short of the $2,000 mark, which is absolutely crazy. Two thousand dollars in books?? Sheesh.

I do have to give a few shoutouts quickly, before I get going - because I'm going to try not to ramble on too much, once we get into the actual statistics of it all.

If you're kind of a nerd and into pop culture like me, I would highly, highly recommend the "Magic 2.0" series by Scott Meyer. These were my favorite books of the year. I wouldn't say they were the best books of the year, necessarily, because there were some really, really good books out there, but this was definitely the most fun I had, and I do occasionally look back and miss the series. It's just so silly and fun and doesn't have a lot of swearing, which was really nice. If you're down for a laugh about a bunch of computer nerds who decide to become wizards in the Dark Ages, you've got to check these books out. The audiobook narration was tremendous, as well, and I was constantly cracking up at some of the voices of the characters. Cannot suggest these books to you more highly.

I finally took the plunge into Bill O'Reilly's "Killing" series, which I had seen on bookshelves but had always kind of scared me because of titles like, say, "Killing Jesus" (which I haven't listened to yet, but want to). I know that O'Reilly is a bit of a star in the conservative political sphere, but I try not to get myself too involved in that stuff, so I didn't really have any preconceived notions about his work. Surprisingly, the books stay almost completely apolitical, so he pretty much just presents the facts without giving his opinion on anything, which I appreciated. His books gave me a great look into the lives of Elvis, John Lennon, Muhammad Ali, John F. Kennedy and even the Salem witches, and I was so fascinated the entire time. If you're wanting to delve into the depths of American history, these books were great.

I didn't know anything about "Project Hail Mary," other than that they're making a movie with Ryan Gosling and that it was written by the same guy who did "The Martian." With that little context heading in, I absolutely loved the book. I gifted it to my wife for Christmas, and she's right in the middle of it as we speak. Recommend.

And finally, my wife and I started listening to the "Harry Potter" series again in 2024. We started Book 4 on New Year's Day, so we're still chugging along, but man, what I wouldn't give to be able to go back and read this series for the first time. I don't think we had any idea how world-changing that little wizard boy was going to become. Great, great books, no matter your stance on public restrooms.

Also, ENORMOUS thanks to Goodreads, the site that made this entire post possible.

All right, here you go. Take a gander at which books I finished in 2024. Maybe you'll find something that you're curious about. I'd love to chat with you about any of these books or any recommendations you have for me!

Thanks for reading.

Books Read

Here is a list of all of the books I completed in 2023, along with my star rating:

1. Firefight (The Reckoners #2) by Brandon Sanderson, 4/5 stars
2. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, 5/5 stars
3. Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono, 4/5 stars
4. Starter Villain by John Scalzi, 3/5 stars
5. The Mark of Zorro (Zorro # 1) by Johnston McCulley, 4/5 stars
6. None of This is True by Lisa Jewell, 5/5 stars
7. The Giver (The Giver # 1) by Lois Lowry, 4/5 stars
8. I Found You by Lisa Jewell, 3/5 stars
9. Gathering Blue (The Giver # 2) by Lois Lowry, 2/5 stars
10. The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, 3/5 stars
11. A Deadly Education (The Scholomance # 1) by Naomi Novik, 1/5 stars
12. Atlantis (Jack Howard # 1) by David Gibbins, 3/5 stars
13. Making It So by Patrick Stewart, 4/5 stars
14. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians # 1) by Rick Riordan, 3/5 stars
15. Star Wars: Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade by Delilah S. Dawson, 3/5 stars
16. Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life by Arnold Schwarzenneger, 3/5 stars
17. Off to Be the Wizard (Magic 2.0 # 1) by Scott Meyer, 4/5 stars
18. When I Was Your Age: Life Lessons, Funny Stories & Questionable Parenting Advice from a Professional Clown by Kenan Thompson, 4/5 stars
19. The Downloaded by Robert J. Sawyer, 3/5 stars
20. Marvel's Midnight Suns: Infernal Rising by S.D. Perry, 2/5 stars
21. Star Wars: The Eye of Darkness by George Mann, 4/5 stars
22. Spell or High Water (Magic 2.0 #2) by Scott Meyer, 4/5 stars
23. The Horse and His Boy (Chronicles of Narnia # 5) by C.S. Lewis, 2/5 stars
24. The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings # 3) by J.R.R. Tolkien, 4/5 stars
25. Recursion by Blake Crouch, 5/5 stars
26. Calamity (The Reckoners, # 3) by Brandon Sanderson, 2/5 stars
27. An Unwelcome Quest (Magic 2.0 # 3) by Scott Meyer, 3/5 stars
28. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, 3/5 stars
29. Dune (Dune # 1) by Frank Herbert, 3/5 stars
30. Fight and Flight (Magic 2.0 # 4) by Scott Meyer, 4/5 stars
31. The Singularity Trap by Dennis E. Taylor, 3/5 stars
32. Star Wars: Jedi: Battle Scars by Sam Maggs, 1/5 stars
33. Out of Spite, Out of Mind (Magic 2.0 #5) by Scott Meyer, 3/5 stars
34. The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson, 3/5 stars
35. Killing the Legends: The Lethal Danger of Celebrity by Bill O'Reilly, 5/5 stars
36. The Vexed Generation (Magic 2.0 #6) by Scott Meyer, 4/5 stars
37. And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham, 5/5 stars
38. Star Wars: Defy the Storm by Tessa Gratton, 2/5 stars
39. Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger, 3/5 stars
40. Will Save the Galaxy for Food (Jacques McKeown # 1) by Yahtzee Crowshaw, 3/5 stars
41. The Chase (Isaac Bell # 1) by Clive Cussler, 5/5 stars
42. House of Blades (Traveler's Gate # 1) by Will Wight, 3/5 stars
43. Star Wars: The Living Force by John Jackson Miller, 3/5 stars
44. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy # 1) by Douglas Adams, 2/5 stars
45. The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks, 3/5 stars
46. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, 5/5 stars
47. The Magician’s Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia # 6) by C.S. Lewis, 4/5 stars
48. Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts by Bill O'Reilly, 4/5 stars
49. The Last Battle (Chronicles of Narnia # 7) by C.S. Lewis, 4/5 stars
50. The Chronicles of Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia # 1-7) by C.S. Lewis, 4/5 stars
51. Raising Good Humans: A Mindful Guide to Breaking the Cycle of Reactive Parenting and Raising Kind, Confident Kids by Hunter Clarke-Fields, 3/5 stars
52. The Wrecker (Isaac Bell # 2) by Clive Cussler, 3/5 stars
53. Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner, 2/5 stars
54. The Last Outlaws: The Desperate Final Days of the Dalton Gang by Tom Clavin, 3/5 stars
55. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter # 1) by J.K. Rowling, 5/5 stars
56. The Crimson Vault (Traveler's Gate # 2) by Will Wight, 2/5 stars
57. The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill, 3/5 stars
58. Feel-Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You by Ali Abdaal, 5/5 stars
59. City of Light (Traveler's Gate # 3) by Will Wight, 2/5 stars
60. Casino Royale (James Bond # 1) by Ian Fleming, 4/5 stars
61. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, 3/5 stars
62. Outland (Quantum Earth # 1) by Dennis E. Taylor, 3/5 stars
63. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter # 2) by J.K. Rowling, 5/5 stars
64. The Search for WondLa (The Search for WondLa # 1) by Tony DiTerlizzi, 4/5 stars
65. Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot by Bill O'Reilly, 5/5 stars
66. Ready Player One (Ready Player One # 1) by Ernest Cline, 4/5 stars
67. A Hero for WondLa (The Search for WondLa # 2) by Tony DiTerlizzi, 3/5 stars
68. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter # 3) by J.K. Rowling, 4/5 stars

Other Stats

The A-Town Awards

Best Book of the Year: Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer

Honorable Mention: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir; Killing the Legends by Bill O'Reilly; Killing Kennedy by Bill O'Reilly; Recursion by Blake Crouch

Worst Book of the Year: Star Wars: Jedi: Battle Scars by Sam Maggs

Honorable Mention: Marvel's Midnight Suns: Infernal Rising by S.D. Perry; A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Best Audiobook Narration: Luke Daniels (Magic 2.0 series)

Honorable Mention: Ray Porter (Project Hail Mary, several others)

Yearly Comparison

2024: 68 books read

2023: 48 books read

*****

There you go! Did you discover anything new? Find anything you want to check out? Do you either strongly agree or disagree with me about anything? Do you have a book in mind that you think I'd love? I'm always down for suggestions. Let me know in the comments below, on Twitter (here and here) or on Facebook.

Until next time.

Ready Player Two: An Underground Review

 

The year was 2015, I think. I had signed up for this pop culture subscription service called Loot Crate. Essentially, they send you a grab-bag of pop culture stuff once a month. You don't know what you're getting until you open it, generally. Although my membership was short-lived, they did send me a couple good things - most notably a Batman/Joker Funko Pop and the book Ready Player One, which I had heard was basically the end-all, be-all of pop culture literature.

On the public's recommendation alone, I gave the book a try and largely enjoyed it. The book pays homage to movies and TV shows galore with non-stop tributes to the 1980s, from start to finish. The main thing I had a problem with as I read was that there were a lot of extended references to things that I wasn't familiar with, such as a prolonged quest where a Willy Wonka-esque Easter egg hunt sends Wade Watts, the main character, into a Matthew Broderick movie that I've never seen (but I've recently added "War Games" to my Netflix list, so maybe I'll get around to it one day). There are also a plethora of nods to Dungeons & Dragons in the book, a corner of geekdom into which I've never so much as stepped a foot, so some of that stuff was a bit hard to digest. Overall, though, it was a pretty good book that I would say that I enjoyed.

After what seemed like years of "will they/won't they" rumors on the Internet, they finally produced a "Ready Player One" film adaptation in 2018 - directed by Steven Spielberg, no less! If nothing else, the fact that they were granted the rights to use so many iconic characters, locations and vehicles in the same movie was truly a marvel, and I applaud them for that. I really enjoyed the movie, which I was able to see in a theater full of nerds, as a member of the FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention staff. Watching that movie with so many people who genuinely appreciated the tiny references to movies we loved was a blast. They did change several aspects of the book (for instance, "The Shining" quest was new for the big screen, and there was a major character death that was omitted, as well), so it was a little different than what I was expecting, but I thought they did a solid job. I'll also say this: I liked the movie more than the book.

I had hoped for a sequel to the story. With so much entertainment history out there, particularly for my generation of '80s and '90s kids, certainly, author Ernest Cline would have a million ways he could go with it if he ever chose to do so. Last year, in 2020 (it's still hard to believe that was only a year ago!), I saw a news headline on Facebook that mentioned that there actually was going to be a sequel. Ready Player Two. Awesome. And it was coming out around my birthday. Even better! The release date couldn't come soon enough. I wanted to get my hands on that thing and hop back into the OASIS.

The time came, and I did read it. For those of you who, like I was, are curious as to what the see what a sequel might look like or whether or not it would be any good, I'm here to give you a good, old-fashioned book report, just like I did in school. And, like I'm sure I tried to do in school, I'll try to keep it brief and relatively spoiler-free. I won't give away any of the juicy stuff, anyway. I'll just give you a little rundown of the plot, then tell you whether I thought it was worth my time.

Just in case, here's this:

What's it about?

Ready Player Two picks up shortly after Wade Watts, the nostalgia-obsessed protagonist of Ready Player One, won the massive Easter egg hunt in the first book, granting him ownership of Gregarioius Simulation Systems - the virtual reality mega-corporation previously owned by the now-deceased billionaire James Halliday - and its limitless VR playground, the OASIS. Winning that contest was, literally, Wade's life's work, and now he and his friends, Art3mis, Aech and Shoto (with whom Wade decided to share ownership of his new company) have a whole lot more to worry about than memorizing every line of classic '80s movies.

Early on in the book, Watts and the remaining members of his "High Five" gamer clan buy out their competition and funnel their resources into the development of new and more advanced technology -- namely, the OASIS Neural Interface - a state-of-the-art virtual reality headset that provides an experience so realistic for their users that they can now feel everything they see on screen.

These new "ONI" headsets provide such an enthralling new adventure for gamers that a new fad emerges: people begin to record and upload their day-to-day experiences to the cloud for other users to download. Say you wanted to know what it was like for George Clooney to eat breakfast? No problem. It's just a click away. Never been to Disneyland? Download another ONI user's recording and you'll be there in an instant. Want to be a woman? Want to be a man? Want to relive the moment you were, um, conceived by your parents - or the moment your mother gave birth to you... as your mother?? The ONI has got you covered! Needless to say, the ONI can get a little freaky, and its hyper-addictive nature raises quite a few moral and ethical dilemmas for those living in this dystopian view of the future.

When Wade and his friends are forced to crack down on what, exactly, is ok and what isn't, what's safe and what shouldn't be allowed, it causes a rift between the newly rich and famous "High Five," particularly between Wade and his (now ex-) girlfriend Art3mis, to the point that their relationship may not be salvageable.

But bigger problems arise when the ONI gets so big and so populated that a brand new Easter egg hunt is automatically triggered by the late Halliday. A new riddle appears for all OASIS users, sending the gamers into a frenzy, searching for seven shards of the "Siren's Soul" - a reference, quite possibly, to a controversial person from Halliday's past.

As the heir to Halliday's fortune and the winner of the previous contest, Wade immediately takes center stage in this book, as his insatiable appetite for victory consumes his every waking moment. What ensues is another whirlwind quest to track down these mysterious shards and, simultaneously, decide the fate of the OASIS itself.

How mature is the content?

I couldn't quite remember the specifics about how family-friendly the first book was, but I learned early on in Player Two that this was not a book for children. Cline is not shy about his use of the F-word in this installment, so think twice before you go, "Hey, 10-year-old son, you like video games, you'll probably love this book!" Profanity is typically, in my opinion, a sign of unintelligence, so the way Wade and his counterparts express their frustration in the face of intense challenges was a bother for me.

Another thing that stuck out to me as, probably, the worst part of the book was that Cline several times expounds upon the dark, dark stuff that people could do on the ONI. Specifically, he mentions that some of the most popular downloads from the cloud are sexual in nature, going so far as to say that, if that's what you're into, you can do it as any gender with as many people as you want, with no consequences. I get it. People are into that stuff. But Cline really spells it out - and he does it more than once, almost to the letter. It's as if the editor didn't catch the fact that there are nearly identical paragraphs in it during two separate parts of the book. I almost thought about going back to see if some of the sentences were duplicated but didn't care enough to go through with it.

On a somewhat similar note, there are some liberal social commentaries about gender identity and gender and race equality that Cline uses to bash the reader over the head a few times. For instance, one minor character is sort of inexplicably transgender. In another portion of the book, Aech (a Black lesbian) takes the time to comment on how there are no characters of color in The Lord of the Rings. I won't get on my soapbox about that stuff, but that stuff came off as pushy, pandering and, at times, a bit cringe-worthy, in my opinion. Trying too hard. That's all.

Is the book any good?

Not unlike the first book, readers who enjoyed Ready Player One will be happy to know that pop culture references are practically dripping off the pages, which is fun for fans of movies, music, television and retro video games. However, this does come with somewhat of a price, as it occasionally feels like good dialogue is sacrificed for the sake of having a character quote an obscure song lyric. It sometimes gets a little silly, and it probably got more than a couple eye-rolls out of me as I read.

Despite there being a bit less of a focus on Dungeons & Dragons in the second book, the running presence of old school tabletop campaigns still prevails, which is a bit polarizing. If you're into D&D (and there's nothing wrong with that), you'll love that stuff, but if Dungeon Masters and the like aren't up your alley, a lot of that stuff will be way over your head.

As I mentioned earlier about the first book, several large chunks of Ready Player One weren't home runs for me because of my unfamiliarity with the subject material, and that's still a bit of an issue in the sequel. I won't completely ruin the surprises here, but there were chapters that got a bit tedious for me because I didn't care to know every single detail of some of the characters they encountered.

Granted, if Cline, who is a big fan of the Back to the Future movies, did a quest about Marty McFly and the Flux Capacitor, or if there was a mission about Weezer's Green Album, I'd eat that stuff up! Unfortunately, there were just three or four of the main quests in Wade's second treasure hunt that didn't quite hit my pop culture sweet spot. But if you're into John Hughes' complete filmography, early-early-early Sega Genesis and obscure J.R.R. Tolkien, you're in for a treat.

Another thing about the main quests in Player Two is that they sometimes seem dragged out. For instance, Cline might take one chapter to explain how Wade discovers where to go next, one chapter to describe what the destination is like once he gets there, the next 20 pages to plot out Wade's plan, then another chapter to take the reader step-by-step through the "boss battle." In several parts of this book, it felt like process that was about two chapters too long.

Something else to keep in mind is that Google is not always your friend. Because these books have so many specific references to actual characters or places from pop culture, I was curious to find out if one particular character was lifted from a movie or something that I hadn't seen yet. It turns out, he wasn't - and I accidentally found a somewhat important spoiler for Googling his name. Whoops. Thankfully, that revelation was made probably a third of the way into the book, so it's not like I unintentionally ruined the ending prematurely.

After I finished the book last night, I looked up a review from another website (which I will purposely leave unattributed). Their review was not very favorable, and one of the things they mentioned was that Wade Watts is not a very likable character in his second go-around. I think that's a pretty valid argument to be made. He's often not a very good friend, his fortune has sort of made him an elitist jerk and he frequently comes off, in the second book, as really "emo" and moody. A crybaby, at times. It's not that I was rooting against him, but it just kind of feels like saying, "I hope Bill Gates wins the lottery." I don't know.

Conclusion

In the end, I did enjoy Ready Player Two, as a fan of the first book and the movie adaptation. I would say that it's probably not as fun as the first book, though. The first book and the movie were all about the freedom and exploration of the OASIS - how cool it would be to live in a virtual world where you could literally do whatever you wanted - but the second book takes on a more serious tone. Player Two is more about the immense responsibility and burden that Wade has to shoulder with this new form of technology. Technology can be a very powerful, scary thing. I told my wife early on, "This is not going to end well." The sequel asks the questions: What would happen if this power fell into the wrong hands, and what would the consequences be if such capabilities were misused by those who controlled it?

It's certainly a thought-provoking concept, and there are some really fun highlights along the way for those who grew up with the reference material; the book just might be hard to digest for those who fall outside of the target demographic.

Rating

3 out of 5 stars

*****

There you have it! Have you read Ready Player Two? If so, we'd love to chat with you about it. If you haven't picked it up yet, we hope this review will leave you more well-informed about whether you'd like it! Either way, let us know what you think! Leave your thoughts in the comments section below, follow us on Twitter (here and here) or reach out through Facebook.

Until next time.

Ready Player One: analysis and perspective

I attended a screening of the new movie Ready Player One on Wednesday, thanks to FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention (weird to have to type that, BTW). The movie is an adaptation of Ernest Cline's ultra-nerdy book of the same title, referred to by some as "the holy grail of pop culture." Having read the book and, now, seen the movie, I have a few thoughts and figured it would be a good excuse to dust off the ol' keyboard and whip together a blog.

Ready Player One is set in a dystopian, technology-obsessed United States, in the year 2045, where there is little left for the youth of America to do but go to online school and play with their virtual reality simulators. The main character, Wade Watts, is a teenage kid without much good going on in his life. He, as all of his peers, spends nearly all of his time enveloped in a virtual world called the "OASIS." The program was developed by a video game pioneer named James Halliday. To make a long story short (too late), Halliday is dead. When he died, Halliday released a recording with his will that announced to all OASIS users that he had left an "Easter egg" inside the programming. The first player to solve his riddles and find the egg would inherit his fortune and company, not to mention gaining control over the entire OASIS.

Thus, Wade and countless numbers of VR gamers would embark on a quest to find the egg. This venture begins to consume every waking moment of Wade's life. Wade gains notoriety in the OASIS by becoming the first person to solve one of Halliday's riddles. Despite becoming a hero to many, Wade quickly becomes Public Enemy No. 1 in the eyes of a nefarious corporation called IOI, whose singular aim is to obtain control over the OASIS by any means necessary.   While Wade gets closer to the deciphering Halliday's technological teasers, the stakes are raised and the danger hits closer to home, as Wade's online success may lead to catastrophic real-world consequences.

Cline's novel was originally released in 2011. I read it in 2014 or '15, around the time that the book got its first wave of  maintstream popularity. I was working for Comic Con at the time, so, naturally, some of the people that recommended it to me were hardcore nerds (and I say that in the nicest way possible). I liked the book. I wouldn't say it was my favorite book or the best thing I've ever read, but I appreciated all the pop culture references and thought that aspect was fun. In the story, Halliday was obsessed with '80s pop culture, so many parts of the OASIS were based on movies, TV shows and video games that I grew up enjoying. I like the concept of this virtual world where you can go anywhere and do anything. (I wish there was something like that in real life. I'd play it, for sure.) The concept is just so cool, introducing a world that literally knows no bounds but those of our imagination.

I was a bit hesitant to get excited about this movie. Because I am still so largely involved with Comic Con culture, this movie brought with it a ton of hype, so I wanted to keep my expectations tempered. I'm glad I did. I went in excited, but cautious, and ended up pleasantly surprised with how Steven Spielberg brought the story to life. The movie captured a lot of the excitement I experienced when reading the book and reminded me why so many people have become fans of the story in the first place.

It's a totally awesome concept, overall, but one thing that I had a hard time with while reading the book was the sheer enormity of the universe. There were so many pop culture references - and so many that were based on such old-school arcade games or movies - that I felt like some of it went over my head because I just wasn't familiar with a good chunk of what was being described to me (the video game "Joust" is a focal point in the book; I'd never previously heard of such a thing). It was still a fun read, but some parts were just a little too nerdy for me.

The movie is a bit the same way during some stretches, featuring a 15-minute scene that is based on a movie that I have never seen. However, I feel like the movie did focus more on movies and modern video games, which was a nice change, and made things more enjoyable for me. There are a lot of aspects of the book that just wouldn't translate well to the big screen (like one of the tests in the book, where Wade has to re-enact a scene from a Matthew Broderick movie, word-for-word). I felt like the film did a good job of telling a story that was similar to the book, but different enough to keep audiences engaged.

Speaking of changes, the movie actually makes some major departures from the book. The car race showcased in the trailer and commercials and the Back to the Future DeLorean aren't in the book, the second major challenge in the movie is new, and several character arcs are altered significantly. So, if you're hoping or expecting the movie to be a direct translation of the book, think again. I'm ok with it, though. In fact, I think this is one instance where the movie is better than the book it's based on.

An important thing to keep in mind is that this is a story that is very dependent on a particular demographic. The story was literally born in the 1980s and, as such, was written for readers of that era. If you were born in the year 2005, you have no business reading the book. Don't pick it up. Just don't. You won't get it. Similarly, the movie is targeting the same audience. There are wall-to-wall '80s references, from Atari to the Battletoads to (my personal favorite) the Goldie Wilson mayoral poster from Back to the Future that can be seen in the background of one scene. That's straight-up nostalgia and it's a fun trip down memory lane for people who grew up in the '80s and early '90s. With that in mind, I don't think this is a movie for children. They might be able to go and have a good time, but they won't get it. I am also not sure how much my parents would enjoy it. They love movies (and raised me right by introducing me to movies like Indiana Jones), but because the story is so centralized around video games (which my parents aren't interested in), I think that the virtual reality aspect of the story would not be appealing to them.

It may be of note that there is also quite a bit of typical teenage profanity (including one use of the F-word, used rather successfully for laughs) and a smattering of mild sexual innuendo, so keep that in mind when considering taking your kids or parents along to the theater.

If you are a product of the '80s, this is a movie you owe yourself to see. This is arguably the greatest mash-up of pop culture ever to hit the big screen and it really is a blast. I plan on seeing it again at least once (thanks, MoviePass!) and it's definitely a movie I'll be adding to my vast Blu-ray library when it comes out. I'd give it 4 stars out of 5 and a hearty recommendation for those old enough to appreciate it.

Have you seen and/or read Ready Player One? If so, what did you think? Did you like the movie or book better? What was your favorite Easter egg? Join the conversation and let us know in the comments below.