I loved this book. It kept me up late last night because I couldn't put it down. I've seen it called "nostalgia porn" and I suppose for some readers that's precisely what it is. That wasn't true for me. I connected with this book in a way that had nothing to do with the 80s. Sure I knew some of the references, but I don't cherish the 80s in a way that could have saved me from hating this book if it contained nothing but 80s references. 
 I connected to this book because I am a gamer. I'm not a gamer like Wade Watts and Art3mis and Aech and Shoto and Daigo. I know I'd never have been the Gunter to find the egg. I've never been the best at any game. I've never had the most trophies or the highest gamer score. But I know that feeling. I understand how you could love a virtual world so much that you retreat from the real world for a solid 10, 12 time sucking hours. Or that you keep spiral notebooks and scribblings about that game. How you follow and absorb every last tidbit of information you can about your most cherished form of entertainment. I understood these characters and in a strange way the world they lived in so well. 
 I think the author nailed the gamer community. I can totally see how in such a shitty world people would spend much of their lives in the OASIS. I think he nailed the voice of the Gunters too. How and why they'd never join the Sixers. And I whole heartedly believe that people who were never gamers before might become 80s obsessed Gunters when billions of dollars were at stake. But I think most importantly- for a gamer, it wasn't about the money. It was about pride. It was about accomplishment. It was about competition, knowing you were the best and seeing that hard work and dedication pay off. 
 When Perzival is asked what he'd do with the money he basically says he'd never thought about it. Part of it is because he thinks that it might never happen, or it might never happen to him, but I think that the other part of it was that the money was secondary to knowing you were the first. You were the best. You had bragging rights. 
 Typing this all out I admit, I feel pretty silly. But at the heart of this book- there is a lesson to be learned here for anyone who might call themselves a gamer (and perhaps anyone who values any form of time sinking entertainment as much as I've valued games). A valuable lesson and one I've known for awhile now and always felt conflicted about. I think if any reader can look at this book in the abstract there's something they can relate to. 
 And if not there's plenty of fun to be had just going along for the ride. Wade is basically a teenage genius, his friends all felt like real people, with their own flaws and insecurities. The dystopian real-world felt real and is definitely a thought provoking revelation in itself. 
 Oh yeah- and why has no one invented a diet and exercise security lock for my PS4 yet?