One day I was whining on the internet about how no books were holding my attention this summer. (I know, you can’t imagine me whining, right? But it’s true sweet blog, it’s true.) Luckily, instead of telling me to stfu, judahthor came to the rescue. He sent me a whole slew of book ideas.
The one that has really caught my attention so far is Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. For some reason I got super caught up in it. Even though I don’t share the same obsessions as Cline, I still got wound up in thinking about obsessions. I wrote about his book on my goodreads if you’re interested. But! What’s more interesting is that thanks to judahthor’s quick recommendation, I was able to see Ernest Cline here in Columbus doing a book signing. Eeeee!
He answered questions and got very animated with the hand gestures. He definitely struck me as the type of guy who would get really excited about finding some lost episode of an 80′s cartoon.
At one point he said that when he was describing the evil corporate headquarters that are in the middle of Columbus (in his book) he was totally thinking about Nationwide. I found this even more funny since I was sitting in a ‘dudes who work at Nationwide’ sandwich at the time. Mostly because I think they’d agree- giant buildings that dominate downtown and they sell insurance? I’ll bet they have a department that’s completely just guys with mustaches tying ladies to train tracks.
But yeah, I’m recommending this book to everyone and their mother. Because even though I didn’t really care about some of the main 80′s things he focused on (I want to stress this- I really don’t give two shits about Rush), I still loved the book.
Plus…
Ernest Cline also collects 80′s memorabilia, which he is taking with him on his book tour and he totally lets people play with it. There was even a proton pack from the Ghostbusters just chilling in his passenger seat. The passenger seat of what else–
But a ghostbusting knight riding back to the future DeLorean.
Which I totally sat in but man, that thing is low to the ground and small. I didn’t want to sit all the way in it for two reasons. One- I might never get out of the thing, it’s like a pit. Two- he left it on and playing Huey Lewis and the News and I thought… if I really sit in this I’d definitely feel the need to look at John and say “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.” Then you’d all see me on the evening news being pulled over in what would seriously be the most stupid car heist in history. Because it’s not a Honda Civic, stealing a DeLorean means the police are actually obligated to throw your ass in jail.
