Carrie

As someone born in the early 80's, I feel like I should have enjoyed this more. The premise sounds fun - in the near future, James Halliday (expy Steve Jobs) creates the OASIS, which is basically “what if the Matrix was an MMORPG?”. When he dies, he leaves the keys to his fortune and ownership of OASIS to whomever can solve his scavenger hunt made up of 80's nerd and pop culture references. As such, nerd and pop culture of the late 20th century is having a bit of a renaissance. Anyone who hopes to have even the slightest chance of winning is completely immersing themselves in the music, movies, television and games from the late 1970's to the 1990's.

So why didn't I like it more? Honestly, most of the 80's references felt like they served no purpose. At one point, the main character Wade (alias Parzival in the OASIS) drives a Delorean, with the voice and red light of Kitt, and the logos and license plate of the Ectomobile. It exists to be the most over the top 80's reference possible, and is never mentioned again. 80's allusion are name dropped left and right, and most of them are never referenced again. Many references just feel like they were shoehorned in, copied and pasted from Wikipedia.

My husband loves Terry Pratchett, so he suggested that I read some of his books, starting with the Discworld series. He warned me before I started reading that The Color of Magic was probably the roughest of the series, and having read it, I would have to agree. At least twice I started reading, got maybe a third of the way through the book, and lost interest, only to restart it a few weeks later. Finally I forced myself past the point I was losing interest in, because I hate abandoning books. It's not to say I didn't like the book - I thought the wordplay was funny, and the differences between magic in the Discworld and magic in just about any other series was very interesting. I even liked the interludes with the Gods and their game of dice. My main problems were the jumpy plotline, and some of the characterizations. From the little diversion to our plane of reality, to just dumping Rincewind & Twoflower at the Rimbow, I thought the jumps in plotline were rather jarring. Worst of all, though, is that while I found the characters interesting, I didn't really care about them. Twoflower and Rincewind are both ultimately protected by the Lady Luck, so whatever mess they end up in,we know they'll manage to bumble their way out. Since I've been told that The Color of Magic is the roughest of the series, I'm going to try and make it through [b:The Light Fantastic 34506 The Light Fantastic (Discworld, #2) Terry Pratchett http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168566177s/34506.jpg 592532] before I decide if I'll give up on the Discworld series.

I suppose I should start by saying that this isn't even a book I purchased for myself, as religious non-fiction doesn't tend to be my genre of choice. I picked this up for my husband a few months ago, and after he finished it, twice over, he asked me to read it so that we could discuss it. I wasn't really sure what to expect from a book named “Sex God,” but I figured it couldn't be bad - the author is Rob Bell, pastor at Mars Hill, which is the church I attend (irregularly). I enjoy his sermons, and hoped his writing style would be similar.

To start off, the title is a bit misleading; attention grabbing, but just slightly misleading. The focus of the book, as the full title suggests, is the connections between sexuality and spirituality. The definition of “sexuality” isn't the conventional one, though; Bell's definition of sexuality is a bit broader, more like the connection with others that we are all in search of. Not what I was expecting, but it was interesting. Rather than sexuality, I would say this book is more about personal relationships, marriage and love, and how they relate to and are paralleled in our relationship with God. The book also manages to be religious, without being terribly preachy; most points and messages are delivered via anecdotes and short stories, including pop culture references.

While the book wasn't what I was expecting, it was a good read. I found it insightful, and thought provoking. My only real beef with the book is that it doesn't seem to focus on any one topic, which is likely due to the anecdotal, slightly meandering style of writing. You'll start at one point, and sort of wander around a bit, and eventually come full circle; while there are some thought provoking points made, I just wish that he could have gone into more depth. My other minor quibble is how he does his footnotes. All of his footnotes are at the back of the book; you'll read a passage, see the number for the footnote, flip to the back of the book, and find out exactly which passage of the Bible he's referencing. That's it. Not even the text of the passage, just the book, chapter and verse number. If I had to flip all the way to the back of the book, I want it to be for more than just 2 words. Shorter footnotes, like references to Bible verses, could have easily been placed at the bottom of the page, or even in-line with the text. All in all, though, I would definitely consider this to be a worthwhile read.

I thought the first portion (the “how”) was helpful. The “why” portion felt like a bit of a slog. Carroll's videos on YouTube seemed just as helpful.

Characters are dropping like flies!