Imagine if in baseball you could just keep batting and batting until someone got you out, and the innings didn’t end until your entire team got out, and there were no strikes or balls when a pitch goes unhit. And instead of running around three bases you just had to run back and forth between two wickets, and if you…

The Indian subcontinent alone has 1.7bn people so to reiterate, cricket is not a niche sport.

He can throw himself on the ground, but only before the boundary line. If he goes over the line with the ball in his hand its 6 runs. If he throws it back and the other guy doesn’t catch it (or drops it before going over the line), its in play and the batter can score as many runs as he can manage before he stops at a…

A catch is only a catch if the player stays in bounds. If he steps out, its the same as if the ball travelled there by itself. Its why you see guys making catches near the boundary toss the ball in the air before they cross, turn around and catch the ball when they are back in bounds. Think if baseball had an out of…

For the 98% of people for whom this will be their only cricket highlight ever... he had to throw the ball back into the field of play. If he went over the rope with the ball it’s 6 runs to the batter... makes it all the more impressive.

Announcer: The best catch you’ll ever see!

If you’re unfamiliar with cricket: if the first guy had caught the ball and landed beyond the boundary rope with the ball, that would not be an out/dismissal and it would count as 6 runs.

I liked reading this. It could have easily been a thinkpiece about a hate-read, but you came around on the fact that people have genuine desires that are served by art* like this and that all culture is iterative and referential to some extent.

Plus, this is a great line:

I am 25 years old. Having not experienced the 80's and being a lover of gaming/nerd culture/history I found this book to match all criteria for the reason you read a book, including to be entertained. I liked the references I knew, I liked the references I didn’t understand because it forced me to go look them up, and…

Agreed on all point. RP1 was a super fast “beach” read that was enjoyable in the moment. And Cline’s second book “Armada” was pure crap because he clearly doesn’t know any other tricks and it had gotten old after one book.

Perhaps RP1 isn’t for everyone. I love the book and Cline’s use of nostalgia as a vehicle to tell a story. Being a child of the 80's, watching the same movie over-and-over again was what we did. Why, because we didn’t have the internet, smart phones, or 1000 cable channels.

I loved this book. I regret nothing and I will own it. It was very fun.

Can’t argue with the criticisms, but i still enjoyed it. I’m just not going to do a lot of hand-wringing over what is essentially an episode of “I love the 80s” with a plot. It’s ok to enjoy some fluffy pointless entertainment once in a while without dissecting it too much.

Because the inevitable dislocation won’t just be about a schlocky book but an entire concept of schlocky book: the aggregating of shared consumer ephemera repackaged into another artless commodity and sold-crazy to a generation reared on abusively quoting at itself online.

The angst this book produces in those that hate it is so baffling to me. As a child of the 80's I found it to be a fun, silly romp that allowed my mind to spin up memories of days gone by. Now the chic thing to do is tear it down like its Dostoyevsky.

Hollywood loves movies about making movies. Journalists love journalism about journalists. Youtube rant people love youtube rants about youtube rant people.

Ready Player One is fanfiction about fanfiction authors.

An offering from Billy Shakes, it ain’t, but it was a fun read.

I would suggest listening to the Audio Book version as read by Wil Wheaton. I’m not usually a fan of audio books, but listening to them while working is a necessity when your work could be dangerous given the distraction of holding a book or tablet. That…