Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A love letter to video games

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

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Ready Player One by Ernest Cline was a more recent CBR9 book exchange gift. The backlash for the book was pretty intense, but with the recent film adaptation, I was curious to read it for myself. Thus, I was glad my Mocha Girls Read book club picked it for our white male author theme. I ended up finishing it over 4th of July and surprisingly enjoyed the pop culture filled story. The story follows Wade on an epic quest to essentially save the internet from a fascist capitalist demise. A genius programmer, Halliday created The Oasis, a virtual world so amazing […]

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12/29/2018 's CBR10 Review No:16 |

Comfort re-read #1.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

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Comfort re-read this over the weekend when The Dark Tower was kicking my ass. It did its job admirably. Well, actually, I will confess that the bleak atmosphere of Cline’s 2045 wasn’t as comforting as it usually is because all the bleakness and decay felt a lot less imaginary and removed than it has in the past. But the gamified storyline and the sheer pleasure of solving puzzles and having adventures and beating the corrupt bad guy in order to win the day was still really fucking appealing. And go ahead, call me naïve, but I really appreciate the underlying message here […]

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12/28/2017 's CBR9 Review No:107 |

Hooray for the CBR9 Book Exchange

March Book One by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin

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Thank you, CoffeeShopReader! I’ve been meaning to read March ever since I saw John Lewis speak at LA Review of Books in the spring. And I will be able to get all the NightVale references once I read that one. I love tea too and excited to try them all. 🙂

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12/21/2017 's CBR9 Review No:0 |

Is this as good as The Martian?

Artemis by Andy Weir

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I read Ready Player One in pretty close proximity to The Martian (read before I joined CBR), and they were two of the more entertaining reads of the last few years. When Ernest Cline published Armada, I was out of my mind with anticipation. While I didn’t expect it to be another Ready Player One, I did get my hopes up. And, like a lot of people, was let down. So, since The Martian is so indelibly connected to Ready Player One, in my mind, I couldn’t help but worry that Andy Weir would also whiff on his follow up. […]

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11/19/2017 's CBR9 Review No:72 |

Into the OASIS

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

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I actually first read this book, Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline, a couple of years ago. And, at that time, I only gave it four stars.  I thought it was good, and sometimes even great, but uneven. Although I was familiar with a lot of the RPG gaming references and 80s movie references, the arcade and video game references were, for the most part, completely over my head. And the references to Japanese cartoon and robots were on a different planet. So, I didn’t really enjoy the book as much as I could/should have the first time around. This […]

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9/25/2017 's CBR9 Review No:29 |

Time to get your 80’s on in a nerdy, techie way

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

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Here’s a bit of 80’s pop culture/classic gamer porn for those of you who are into that kind of thing. It’s a bit over the top complicated but fun nonetheless. The year is 2044 and the internet has evolved into the OASIS. This is basically where everyone goes when they go online, and depending on your gear, you’ll wear wear haptic gloves, a head visor, and maybe even a haptic suit. While the OASIS was originally created as a gaming environment, it evolved into meeting places (or planets) for any interest you may have. Kids can even attend school on […]

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9/26/2016 's CBR8 Review No:6 |

“It was the dawn of new era, one where most of the human race now spent all of their free time inside a videogame.”

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

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Our adventure takes place in the near future (about 30 years from now).  Most people spend most of their time online (wait…) only online is way cooler.  They have the OASIS, which is kind of like a holodeck.  You put on a visor and haptic gloves and interact with your online world via your avatar.  (Kind of like the movie Avatar.)  And as the real world has gone to shit, being in the OASIS is way better than real life. The creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, has died.  In his will, he has left his entire fortune to whoever […]

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9/17/2016 's CBR8 Review No:20 |

Eighties Nostalgia Overload

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

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“Being human totally sucks most of the time. Videogames are the only thing that make life bearable.” Ready Player One has been on my TBR list for a while now but the upcoming Spielberg movie adaptation raced it to the top of the pile- I could see my husband wanting to see the movie and I wanted to read it first. This is pretty heavily reviewed already on CBR so most people probably know the gist but here goes..: In the not to distant future, year 2044, reality is bleak. The virtual utopia OASIS has replaced the real world for most people, […]

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7/8/2016 's CBR8 Review No:57 |


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