Just ask anyone close to me, like my bride, my kids, my pastor. They will tell you that I am a geek. But in the
loving sense of the word. Like the word “nerd”, geek can be defined as someone heavily interested in a hobby, or technology. There are book geeks, train model geeks, music geeks, even gardening geeks. But you usually don’t find many folks who are geeks of multiple persuasions. that would be me. You also are hard pressed to find any fictional books that appeal to someone of this persuasion until now.

Anyone who’s been around me in the last few weeks will have heard me jabbering in praise-worthy tones about a book I’ve been reading. (It’s actually an audio book I’ve been listening to.) Well I finally finished it. The book is “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline. I discovered this book after reading a reading list posting from a blog site that I frequent called “The Blazing Center“. This blogger is somewhat of a multiple geek as well, and I highly recommend you bookmark his blog.

“Ready Player One” appeals to my geekdom on many levels. First of all it’s setting is futuristic. It is centered around technology, in particular, computer technology. It is about gaming, 80’s culture, 80’s music, early computer game consoles, and Rush. Yes, Rush the rock trio from the “great white North”. and in my humble opinion, the greatest rock band in history. All of which I know much about. The characters in the book, like me can not only quote the lyrics from any rock band from the 80’s, but give you album release name, band member names, publisher, and year of release. They can also quote verbatim all the lines from staple geek movies like “Monty Python and the Holy Grail“, “Weird Science“, “Short Circuit“, and “War Games“.

I totally recommend this book for anyone who has the slightest bit of geek in them. If you lived through the eighties, and survived it, this will bring back such memories that you will think you are back among the big hair, 8 bit video games, and Rubik’s Cube junkies of the past. I just can’t help myself. Below is a Rush video that is mentioned in the book. Enjoy!