Ready Player One

This book perfectly predicts the world's future in 2044. Or, more precisely: assuming we're all going to be spending our waking hours plugged into a virtual reality video game solving puzzles in search of the key to control of the internet, it'll probably play out just the way this book says. Ready Player One is a fantastical trip into our collective gamer-geek future, all wrapped up in a nostalgic homage to Atari-style video games and 1980?s pop culture. (Joust anyone? Q-Bert?) It?s a grand adventure where the future of the world can only be saved by teenage avatars, who also happen to fall in love. C'mon: what's better than that?

In the year 2045, 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.

But 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.