I started reading "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline and am about a third into it. I really like it — thanks again E&M for the birthday gift!
As I was never that much into gaming, I only recognize about every fifth title mentioned in the book (and I have played at most two in total of all of them), but a lot of the other 80's references I'm of course familiar with, and it's a funny and very "consumable" story for a slightly nerdy person like me. I guess it's rather lame for the real nerds, though.
But I like it on an additional level: while reading about the OASIS and all the virtual reality stuff, you create another layer of simulated reality, because you read it and imagine all the things the author wrote, as with every decent fiction text.
So all this virtual reality about a poor kid logging into OASIS and playing an avatar playing a simulated videogame against a simulation of an undead sorcerer, or a simulation of the film "War Games" with a simulated Matthew Broderick playing the hero of the movie playing a videogame, actually is kind of a single player role playing game programmed by the author and executed by the brain of the reader while reading the book. And your brain (after the work of the author's brain) is doing all this and even enjoys this stacking of virtual realities. Doesn't plain text have amazing powers?
Just give me a console!
PS: While the hero seems to have a crush on Art3mis, I got to know my first real girlfriend through a text chat at the end of the 90's. I doubt she'll ever read it, but just in case: Hi there, Iphigenie! ^-^
.:.