Category: Books

Ready Player One, is a technology infused 80s pop culture movie about a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMO or MMORPG).  You follow a number of characters in their journey for an Easter Egg placed inside of a game that would lead to riches beyond riches.  The 80s references come again and again, and for someone that know’s about 80s movies, music, and video games it is fun to catch them as they are snuck in.  Ernest Cline did an excellent job of roping me in, and from the beginning I was wishing that it was a trilogy of books instead of a single novel.  If you are a geek at all you will enjoy Ready Player One.

Well Audible has continued to make it possible for me to “read” books. It feels like cheating, but my morning commute has definitely become more enjoyable.  After finishing the Dragon Tattoo series, I started in on a recommendation of my sister-in-law.  The Hunger Games is a trilogy of books set in the future where a more controlling “capital” forces the cities known as districts into submission be forcing them to send two 12-18 years old to a televised fight to the death between the contestants from the other 11 districts.  The book’s story is centered around a girl named Katniss Everdeen who is from a district who’s industry is mining.  The story centers around the action of the Hunger Games themselves, love, and the struggle of Katniss dealing with the emotion of participating.  It is hard to add much more because it was enjoyable enough to not want to reveal anything that occurs in the books.  I would recommend it as a casual read or listen.

Book/s – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest

Author – Stieg Larsson

This trilogy was originally written in Sweden, and has been translated into English.  it is currently being made into movies both in Sweden and in the USA.  It surrounds the abuse of women in Sweden (which I didn’t know when I began the series).  I found the books to be an engaging listen, and only slow at a few points.  There are a few graphically described scenes that I wouldn’t recommend listening to say with your wife on a long trip.  Halfway through the second book the books changes back to more of an action/problem solving book, but I had already lost Amanda at that point.

The books follow two characters: Lisbeth, a computer hacker and Mikael, a Journalist.  Throughout the books they unravel a thick and twisted plot and intertwines into their own lives.  I would consider it a techno-thriller similar to the writing of Michael Chricton whom I also very much enjoyed reading throughout high school.  The books mesh together well, while the second and third book do a much better job at it.  It almost appears the first book was written, and when it turned out to be a success the next two books were written.  I understand the ending, but if left me wanting another book or another chapter to know where things would go from there.

All in all, they were a good series of books, and I would recommend with the disclaimer of the five or six graphic sexual encounters that do occur during the trilogy.  Again, after halfway through the second book it appears the author has either made his point or gotten over it, and moves on to advancing the plot.

I’ve been wanting to read, but cannot find the time so we decided to try Audible since we both have commutes to work and smart phones.  We started with The Count of Monte Cristo, but both fell off a different parts because it is a daunting 50 hours and 47 minutes long.  After a few months I decided to try it again.  I had purchased the Kindle version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on my iPad, but again couldn’t find the time to get much farther past a third of the way through it.  It had been a good book so far so I signed up for the Monthly Platinum membership so I would get two credits per month.  It would be fair to say that I have gotten hooked.  Once I got into the book, I was listening to it much more than just for my commute.  I burned through the entire Trilogy as quickly as I could get credits to get the remaining books in the trilogy.  It has helped keep my brain going and engaged during some of the most mundane tasks.  Since we have listened to Marley and Me, and Amanda purchased one of the Bourne books, and I’ve started the Hunger Games.  I started it two days ago, and I’m going to finish the first book in the series if I can help it.

What should I “read” next?  Anyone up for an online book club?