February Book Club: Ready Player One

Discussion in 'Reading Pad' started by crystalbella77, Jan 30, 2016.

  1. tinkerbell1112

    tinkerbell1112 Offical Ambassador of the Magic Kingdom

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    Yes, I agree. and because I "knew" how it was going to end it was almost like a bad movie to me. Just get through the middle in order to find out you were right on the end. hahahaha:whoopdedoo
     
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  2. tinkerbell1112

    tinkerbell1112 Offical Ambassador of the Magic Kingdom

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    I do think it's interesting my husband said he loved the book. Just goes to show how diverse it is. I think he was shocked when I said I wasn't a huge fan and it was hard to get through it. He really thought I'd love all the "geekiness". But while I love "geekiness", I can only read so many references to the 80s in one sentence. :)
     
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  3. Tree City

    Tree City Get a stepladder, I'm busy

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    ^^^THIS^^^ I didn't mind that a high schooler basically lived (online) in a van, and that he only mourned one night for his aunt and everyone else who died (cuz, again, he's a high schooler and is only gonna think of himself anyway), and I didn't mind that he easily got into IOI headquarters and then escaped etc etc, but COME ON. Morrow is basically their fairy godmother--er, godfather! It's like "Oh, hey, I have everything you need! Right here! But I'm only telling you now, after I've been eavesdropping forever!" (Though I thought IOI was eavesdropping on Aech's chat room. I didn't think it was Morrow, though I did think he and (previous to his death) Halliday had special powers in the Oasis simply cuz they were its creators--like how he had that light that killed the Sixers in his clubhouse? I knew he'd be important somehow, but I do wish it wasn't in such a "yea, he saved us!" miracle way.
     
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  4. bestcee

    bestcee In love with places I've never been to

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    That's cool you were able to have a conversation with your son!

    The indentured servitude was sad because to me, it's all too real. It's probably the most real moment in the book for me. I'm not sure what you mean about "cattle moving" though?

    This book didn't bring me down, but "All the Light" totally did. I still haven't been able to finish that one. It makes me sad.
     
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  5. bellbird

    bellbird Pollywog

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    the indentured servitude struck me more as the extreme future equivalent of not being able to pay a food bill at the pub and having to wash the dishes in their kitchen to work off the debt, or owing money to a loan shark and having the debts called in, and it was about as plausible to me as living in a tower of trailers containing, what, 4-5 families each like in his aunt's case... so it didn't really effect me much emotionally, maybe my life is too privilleged here to be affected by that aspect of the book.

    i know he went thru the exercise bike phase but figured he was so used to being plugged in to the oasis all the time that the overnite time at IOI in that sleeping bag sized pod (or that's how i imagined it - like a crypt or morgue style hole in the wall) was not really 'downsizing' much for him...
     
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  6. bellbird

    bellbird Pollywog

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    i have 15% left of that - it only got easier to read in some repescts for me at about 60% but still feeling mostly down, i'm hoping i'm not in the calm before the storm stage but i'm not holding out hope for everyone having happily ever after endings...
     
  7. tinkerbell1112

    tinkerbell1112 Offical Ambassador of the Magic Kingdom

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    @bestcee cattle moving: probably wasn't my best choice in words, but I meant like everyone follows everyone else and therefore everyone is shoved into one place to basically live the rest of their life shoved together like cattle. again, probably could have come up with a better analogy. LOL

    @Tree City - agree about Morrow. I felt like it was a way to have a quick ending - give them everything they need rather than make them figure out how to get everything they need. I would think the press would have had a field day with the fact that Morrow had all 4 of them housed in his estate; except they were too busy arresting people for murder.
     
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  8. Tree City

    Tree City Get a stepladder, I'm busy

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    RE indentured servitude: I see that happening in the future, if only because it happened in the past (debtors' prison in the UK, for example). What really struck me is how Wade mentions people wanting to be indentured because it meant a roof over their heads and food in their belly. I'm sure my life is privileged so I'm not going to pretend that the idea of living in a 6-foot-long tomb isn't shocking to me--plus I'm over 6' tall so the idea of my "room" being less wide than I am long makes me shudder.
     
  9. berniek

    berniek I have a girl crush on the Naming Fairy

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    But in our real world there are homeless people committing small crimes just so that they will be put into jail for a few nights! They actively choose to do these things, just so they will have a roof over their head and so they're fed. The book takes it to an extreme but I can totally imagine people choosing that life...
     
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  10. berniek

    berniek I have a girl crush on the Naming Fairy

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    So I just finished it today. I have difficulty forming an opinion because there were parts about the book that I loved and parts that weren't for me much. Being born in 1986, I missed most of the references. So those parts were a bit too wordy for me but yet also not illustrated enough: I still couldn't see it.

    I gave it 4 stars. The ending was a bit anti-climaxing for my taste. This book wasn't about love but yet it had to end with it? nah. Show me how the world is freaking out. Show me the reaction of all the other gunters and the sixers. Show me all that craziness that is happening RIGHT NOW instead of sitting in a maze with some girl. It would have been fine to show how they met and some of the romance, but not right then and there. idk. My thought.

    Oh and about the coin: cool. I liked that part. But there must have been more people then just Parzival that had played that game and got the coin. The area where he got it had before been a populair place for the gunters. So there should have been more people around that got another live. Maybe not sixers that had keys, but at least a couple of gunters that were there, outside of the castle fighting along!
     
  11. Nemla

    Nemla Stretching my skill set

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    ..About the servitude. It was around for generations , Tied Cottages, debtors prisons, poor houses, bully's for money lenders , and to a different extent mill workers, lace makers , and even at the beg of the last century , shop girls ,that had to live in specific lodgings ,to make sure their "morals" were up to standard.
    So I guess when I read it ,it was just familiar stuff but in a new setting.
    I agree with most peoples view of the ending, looks like he got fed up writing the story, and had to end it quick, so he could go out have some fun LOL
    I gave it 2 stars
     
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  12. Tiff

    Tiff I don't need no stinking playlists!

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    Well, I just finished and thought I'd add my two cents, even if it is late.

    I was born in 1975, so I remember some things about the 80's, but nothing about gaming! But all the 80s detail didn't bother me. I would randomly ask my husband (who is a few years younger than me) about random games or movies or music that was mentioned in the book, and he recognized all of it. I got a kick out of that.

    Overall I thought the book was kinda amateur-ish. Like the way Og showed up, and the coin. I was happy that it didn't get too sick-o like the stuff in Hunger Games. So I guess it was a "lite" dystopia, which was about all I could handle right now. I thought there was a strange mix of omnipotence and vulnerability in Sorrento and the Sixers. They could go in and kill and do all these cover-ups, but didn't know they were getting infiltrated and hacked in a matter of days??

    I thought the part about the gun vending machine was interesting, and how the gun could only be used with his own hand. All of the technology surrounding the OASIS and the physicality of it (like removing all hair from their bodies, simulating sex) was sort of creepy but also made me wonder how far people would be willing to take virtual reality. I thought it was interesting how the school was run online, and how the teachers used technology in a really cool way for teaching. It was a really weird mix of good and bad.

    Also, I felt like the book didn't give a very complete picture of what the "real" world looked like. At the beginning it felt like the whole world had turned into the Stacks junkyard. But when he grabbed a taxi, and found a place to access the OASIS again, it didn't seem quite so bad. It all just didn't seem to add up into a coherent picture of what the world was.

    But overall, I enjoyed it.
     
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  13. aballen

    aballen Don't make me break out the milk

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    I did it!! I persevered and finished the book. The sad part is that I didn't like it. There was so much information about some things and then not enough about other things. The exciting parts were, well, not that exciting. The characters were not that interesting and I most certainly didn't buy the romance between two of them. I hope Spielberg does a better job of bringing this book to life on the big screen, maybe this way we can see/understand some things better.
     
  14. Karen

    Karen Wiggle it, just a little bit!

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    I didn't know this was going to be a movie. Fun! :)
     
  15. Lindzee

    Lindzee Aging gracefully

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    I hate to say it but all this is already available. Gun manufacturers are already able to make guns so that only the owner can fire them, they just aren't selling this. (limits market). Virtual sex is all over the place for some strange reason, and most classrooms now rely on technology and online classes for teaching.
     
  16. Vrielinkie

    Vrielinkie Rub-a-Dub-Dub

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    One of my all time faves, I read it at least a year ago I think. Curious what the movie will be like: Spielberg!
     
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