Here's the thing. I'm not a gamer because my mom wouldn't let us play video games when we were kids. (I know.) So my video game skills are squat. But here's the other thing. I totally get gamer culture to the point where I even have a certain level of respect for it, even if it's not my thing. And it's for the best that it's not my thing given my history of obsession and fanaticism. So that respect, combined with my deep, deep love for all things related to geek culture, meant that Ready Player One is a book that is written for people like me. 
 Let's get something else out of the way. This is really a four-star book. The writing's not THAT great or anything; it's basically a glorified, geektastic Da Vinci Code. But I had so much fun while I was reading it that I couldn't bear to give it anything less than five. Ernest Cline invoked pretty much every single little thing that I have obsessed over in my life. That will endear me to somebody forever. Forrr-evvvv-errrr. I mean, when it got to the part about WarGames, I was sold. I don't think you guys know how much I love that movie. 
 Wade Watts, our anti-hero, is the most adorkable futuristic protagonist. The book is set in 2045, which is the best way to do certain kinds of sci-fi...keep in far enough in the future that it's not an imminent threat, but close enough that people can project ahead to that time. It's fun to see what Cline deemed fit to survive the next three decades. Things like YouTube, Big Gulps, and Visa are still in full force. (And I got a major kick out of the elected President and VP of the Oasis User Council. It's a small, insignificant detail, but I don't want to spoil the moment for you.) 
 As an added bonus, Ernest Cline lives in my city, which means I'm tempted to pull a "David Lightman visits Professor Falken" so I can shake his hand and make him sign my copy of the book. 
 And while I know the movie rights are currently being worked out, somebody needs to make this into a graphic novel STAT. (Stat means now.)