Book Review: Ready Player One

Its been awhile since I've posted a book review but after *reading* this one, I had to give it some praise out here on the interwebs. Yep, this ones' an audiobook (thus the stress on the *reading* part). I've only listened to handful of audiobooks in my time and I honestly don't know why I don't listen to more. I'm sure as life goes on, I will do plenty more!

Anyway, I've read a bunch of books since my last review posted out here (yes, physically read them). Books such as Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, The Hobbit and the Hunger Games trilogy... but whenever I can, I'll download an audiobook to listen to. Aside from the Micheal J. Fox book I reviewed many years ago, I've listened to some great ones in more recent times but simply never reviewed them on my site. For example, both Daemon and Freedom(TM) written by the tech savvy, Daniel Suarez were excellent to listen to. All these books I've mentioned are great books, but the one I am about to tell you about was SO cool I HAD to post something about it.

The book is a New York Times bestseller titled, Ready Player One written by Earnest Cline. It was released/published in June of 2012 and I first heard about it a few months after that (from one many podcasts I watch/listen to). Anyway, I picked up the audiobook version just about a month ago and loaded it in the ol' iPhone. I'd give it a listened during the commute to work or times where I'm killing time between shuffling one of my two boys around. All-in-all, I want to say it was about a 16 hour long audiobook! Maybe the most sad part is the fact that I listened to all of it in my car.

I won't dive too much into the story too much but before I do, the first really cool thing about the audiobook is that its read by the one and only, Wil Wheaton. Yeah, Gordie from the 80's classic Stand By Me and Wesley Crusher from the 90's show, Star Trek: The Next Generation. Today, in this internet world we live in, Wil Wheaton represents everything that is cool about geekdom (computers, games, beer). Having him read this book makes it that much more cool.

The story is about an impoverished teen living like most people do in his time (which is the year 2044) - spending it online inside a virtual reality world called the Oasis. In this world, people work, go to school, play and do just about everything else there. There is a whole economic ecosystem in that world; money is earned and spent there. In the story, the original developer of this world (James Haliday) had died and as part of his legacy, programmed a 'easter egg' somewhere inside the Oasis. The person who finds 3 different keys followed by 3 gates will uncover this easter egg and unlock the billions of dollars the developer has left in his will. Its basically a super hard scavenger hunt that millions of people have been attempting for over 5 years... without any luck until the main character, Wade (aka Parsifal) uncovers the 1st key.

Of course there is MUCH, much more to the story. You can read more here at Amazon.com's website. The reason I loved this story is because it brought together many of the things I grew up with - all being from the 1980's. All things 80's such as TV sitcoms, vintage Saturday morning cartoons, classic Atari 2600 video games and music from the era. Its simply a brilliantly crafted story! Before I wrap this up, I will give you a little spoiler - near the end of the book during one of the last 'Gates' the characters have to go through, they have to solve a quest which is directly based off the Canadian rock trio, Rush album, titled 2112... The way the author was able to tie this into the story was clever and cool as hell.

Bottom line: if you grew up in the 80's and have any interest in a fictional story involving video games and virtual reality, check this book out!

Wild Game 2008: Wild vs. Vancouver Canucks - 03/38/08

I know this is a few days old but I am finally getting some time to post. We took the boys out to their first NHL/MN Wild hockey game last Friday. The littlest one loves hockey so he was very excited to get their. My wife and I worked from home so we could head out a bit early to make the trek to the Xcel Energy Center to make the 7pm game. Well, little did we know we would encounter one of the biggest traffic jams on 494 eastbound that evening; it was all over the news.

We ended up taking the alternate route and made it to the game with about 15 minutes to spare. We had nose-bleed seats but were grateful as we got 4 tickets to the game, a free hockey puck for each of use asl well as field-side tickets to the MN Swarm in a few weeks. Our first grader was funny as he was pretty hesitant on going up the 2 story high escalator ride to ge to our assigned seating and was even more scared when he got there and realized he had to walk down some stairs to get to our row. (For those of you that know sitting in the nose-bleed seats, you can practically look straight down) I think he was afraid of falling. Well we got him to come down and we all enjoyed the game. We had the usual foods consisting of soda, hot dogs and ice cream which the kids enjoyed. The game itself was awesome. The boys got to witness an all-out team brawl as as well as almost-typical Derek Boogaard (aka The boogie-man) one-on-one 2 fisted throw-down. To top it off, the Wild won 4-0! I love going to Wild games, just wish tickets weren't so darn $$!

Book Review: Michael J. Fox - Lucky Man: A Memoir

So I decided to download and listen to some audiobooks. Seeing I listen to alot of podcasts and music on my ipod/Zune at work and in the car, I though an audiobook would be something to try out. The first audiobook I've sync'd up with my portable player was written and read by Michael J. Fox called Lucky Man: A Memoir. This audiobook was only about 6 hrs worth of listening and finished it in about a week (which probably would have taken me several weeks to physically read) .

This book covers everything about his life starting with him growing up in Canada (bouncing around from Military base to another due to his fathers career in the military) to his latest life struggles and challenges. The underlying subject line in this book revolves around him discovering, struggling and ultimately coming to terms with Parkinson's disease. There were times during this book that brought a tear to my eye - when he talks about the passing of his grandmother and father for instance.

I learned a few thing about Michael J. Fox. First off I didn't realize he was a big smoker and boozer during his prime. He confesses that he probably had a slight problem during the 'haydays' of the Family Ties sitcom and Back To the Future movie series (which I am watching with my 1st grader at the moment) and ultimately gave up both nearly a decade ago. Overall, this is a decent book. For me it is always interesting reading about someone else's life.

Book Review: AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll: The Ultimate Story of theWorld's Greatest Rock-and-Roll Band

Aside from this being the longest title of a blog entry, its also been a long time since I've read a book! Sad I know.

I actually started this book while on vacation to Jamaica back in December. This was a big book - 400+ pages, so thats my excuse. The book is a biography of 2003's Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame inducted band, AC/DC. The author does an excellent job detailing (almost too detailed) the history of band including the 'brainchild', Malcolm Young and his more recognizable schoolboy clothed-wearing brother, Angus. I think one of the reason it took so long was the beginnings (meaning the days before AC/DC) took along time to get through. For a die-hard AC/DC fan, this book is for you.

I could go into alot of detail here but if you're into books about bands, this would be a great one to check out. The book covers the early days as they worked through the ranks in their home country of Australia, including the acquisition and hiring of the legendary frontman, Bon Scott, who really put them on the music map. It covers all their early ups and downs - the biggest of course is the death of Bon back in 1980. From there, they go into the Brian Johnson era and the making of the 22 time platinum selling album, Back In Black. The book covers all the albums, tours and personal tribulations they endure all the way up to the late 90's. The one cool thing I liked about this is book is the fact they go through an album-by-album breakdown and some of the things the band were doing, syaing around the time of the recordings. As I was reading, I'd take a break and listen to the particular album I just read about (Yeah I have most of the AC/DC discography).

As I am typing this, I am watching the AC/DC - Plug Me In DVD set. It's kinda funny; these guys played alot of these American Bandstand type TV shows in the early days w/ Bon. You can tell they are setup and staged; some elude to the fact they are lip-syncing! Love it!

Book Review: Tommyland

So another book review eh? Yep. I like these tales of rock n' roll. These people live quite the lives, let me tell you. My latest read was a suggestion by my bud, Dave Gronquist. Dave and I used to play together in Attict back in college. Dave was is a huge Motley Crue fan. Well after my review of The Dirt, Dave told me I should check out Tommy Lee's book, Tommyland.

Tommyland is an 'unconventional' book . At first it was hard to read. There are alot of footnotes as well as commentary by his 3rd leg if you know what I mean. Again, he has some great tales as well as he stink in jail which really changed his outlook on life. It brushes up on his relationship with Pamela Anderson, other partners as well as some of the other tragedies of his life. After reading this I have a new respect for him. Although he's a pampered rock star, he stresses that fact that he is a normal human being.

If your looking for another great rock n' roll read, here you go, this ones for you. And make sure to check out Tommyland: The Ride, his latest CD, it's very good.

Book Review: Bang your Head - The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal

Yet another review for ya. This one was pretty good. This once actually touched base on several heavy influencing bands since the late 60's (such as Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper,Zeppelin, Aerosmith, etc) all the way to the 'fall' of the '80's metal' band era.

This story is pretty interesting because it touches base on the bands I grew up with and their influences. This book touches base on some of the previous books I've reviewed such as Kiss and Motley Crue but it also gives the reader a sense of what was happening with the music scene in general. I like near the end of the book when the scene takes a turn into the Seattle grunge era. Many people believe that the grunge music killed the 80's metal bands. In this book, there are many quotes stating that grunge was once piece of why that music genre disappeared for awhile. Equally important was the record companies financials and the bands mentality of 'living it up' as well as most of the bands themselves were self destructing amongst themselves.

One slight grudge: The book is kind of misleading and implies that all the bands mentioned in the book are 'metal'. Aside from a few bands, such as Metallica, Exodus, Flotsam and Jetsam, most of these bands would be considered 'rock' in my book. Also, the last chapter/section ending rather quickly.

Overall, I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone interested in 'rock' music.

Book Review: Motley Crue - The Dirt

The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band. Another typical rock n roll tale? Well I suppose it is...if you're living the sex, drugs and rock n roll life.

This story is amazing. This book follows the crazy and reckless lives of Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Vince Neil and Mick Mars. I first started listening to Motley back in grade school. I remember a friend had a copy of Theatre Of Pain... I don't recall falling in love with the album but I did evently get Shout at The Devil, Too Fast For Love as well as almost all of them since.

The book has alot small chapters consisting of various tales of sex, drugs, some more sex and drugs and oh yeah...some rock n roll. Aside from all of name dropping from almost all the members (besides Mick Mars), this was a great read as a fan of the band. It has tales from the various tours they were on, perspectives from tour managers as well as industry reps.

If you're into the Crue, I recommend this book. I can't believe these guys are still alive and rocking these days. The stories these guys have is almost unbelievable.

Book Review: KISS - Behind The Mask

Well, I just finished a book this week. I typically don't read a whole
lot of books but I have always enjoyed ones about bands, musicians and their personal stories and lives from the road. I was never a huge KISS fan growing up but had (and still have) a handful of their CD's in my collection. From this book I get a better respect for this band as I know the official story on their journey to superstardom.

The book is broken into a few different sections. The most interesting was the first sections on their journey to becoming what is now known as KISS. From the time that Gene and Paul first met (and didn't really like each other) to the street smarts of Ace and Peter, this book was a good read. The last section(s) of the book are simply short snippets of the band members, managers, producers, etc and their recollection of certain times in the KISS career as well as reviews of their own songs and the stories behind them.

For anyone that loves tales from bands and musicians, I'd recommend
this book.