Buddy Books | Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the  OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

Before I start my review of this book it might be of interest to know that Sophie (my buddy book reader) had rather differing opinions on this so we're off to a good and rather split start!

This book is written with many, many references to nerd culture specifically from the 80's and I want to say that if you're concerned you might not really appreciate the references please do not worry! As a female who has never been huge into gaming and was born a decade after the 80's I still LOVED and understood most of the references!

I really enjoyed the story of Ready Player One, the characters were very likable, the writing was enthralling and it has lot's of plot twists that were unexpected and seriously had me wanting more.
There's humour, mystery, nerd culture and some pretty fantastical worlds to be found.

The only negative I would have is that I feel the book didn't need to be as long as it was, on a few occasions while reading I found myself willing it forward and looking for more action. These were mostly in the first half and by the time I reached the half way point I was gripped and it sped along!
I liked Ernest Clines writing style as it was technical in all it's description but without being too jargon heavy so newbies like me can get to grips with all the gaming lingo!
I was interested in reading more from him but haven't heard amazing thing about his other book Armada .... if you've read it let me know what you thought!

Over all I adored this and urge anyone that is slightly inclined to nerdy passions to give it a go - I've already passed it on to my sister.

4.5 on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/35936088-sara-johnson


The next buddy book for April will be The Dumb House by John Burnside.

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Too Many E-books!

I have a disgusting number of unread books sitting on my kindle (or ipad kindle app) and I need to do something about it.

Unlike my physical books, I don't look at them very often which means I often forget that there's books on there let alone specifically which ones I've purchased.
To force myself to rectify this and actually get through the mountain that lays before me I am setting myself the challenge of reading at least one of my e-books each month.

I'm really hoping that this will get me into the habit of at least looking through my library and actually having some awareness of what I have!

Here's to reading challenges!

Does anyone else have this problem? It can't just be me!

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Book Club.

This month me and my friend/life partner Sophie decided to start our own book club - official name to be confirmed.

If you've read any of my other posts you might have come across mentions of Sophie, but if you haven't she is an incredible book blogger and avid book reader. I lived with her at university and we've been fairly inseparable since.

I've always enjoyed reading but never did it regularly so haven't actually read that much. I don't know why I haven't as when I do pick up a book I tend to love it. So in order to try and get into the habit of reading more often we are going to choose one book a month to both read so that we have someone to discuss it with after finishing.

It won't be easy to find some that Sophie has yet to read but I'm sure we'll cope, I will be updating our progress on the blog/maybe YouTube so if you're interested in hearing opinions on books or reading along with us you can! Here's Sophies page so check that too.

The first book on the list for February was The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman so expect a review shortly.

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I'm Doing Booktober

I have always been obsessed with learning about other peoples passions, the enthusiasm that exudes from someone who is in the midst of explaining something they love is an experience I treasure.


Now for a truly ridiculous amount of time I have been meaning to read more books, this is mostly due to the fact that for three years I lived with my lovely Sophie, who is the biggest book worm I have ever had the pleasure of meeting - and she is going to make it big in the industry very soon just you watch.

I shall digress from talking about how amazingly wonderful Sophie is so that I can explain the plan I am going to put into action in order to encourage myself into the habit of regular reading.
It is inspired by the brilliant Carrie Hope Fletcher, who for those that don't know is a YouTuber, blogger, author and currently playing Eponine in the Westends Les Mis.

She is an avid reader and every October she chooses four books to read and discuss, meaning each week throughout the month she has something to talk about with other literature enthusiasts - hence the name Booktober (Video about hers is linked here). I wish to do the same this month, so below are the 4 books I have had in my "To Be Read Pile" for months and months that I hope to finally get round to reading, I will write a little about each one when I finish and will link to them all below:

- Remember me?: Sophie Kinsella
- Daughter of Smoke and Bone: Laini Taylor
- Throne of Glass: Sarah J Maas
- Pawn of Prophecy: David Eddings


Anyone that fancies giving it a go or is simply interested in reading more I encourage you to do so, let me know if you plan to get involved and what books you are going to devour.

If that isn't enough inspiration than maybe knowing that this month is also host to the Books Are My Bag campaign which is an annual drive to get people to support book shops by bringing together readers of all ages, genders and genres to remind themselves what makes book shops so magical. Find all the info you need here and get involved.

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