“READY PLAYER ONE” by Ernest Cline

This was one of my boys’ favorite book when they were younger.
I was the first one in our family to read it and when I told them the story, they instantly wanted to read it by themselves. This was due to the fact I was not doing justice to the book because of my lack of understanding when it came to games’ terminology.
For the new generation of youth who have become accustomed to playing games on different devices, the story written in this specific language is perfect for them, and they will be able to relate easily to it.

I found the subject of this book to be very interesting. The action takes place in the year 2044; the creator of a famous virtual universe had recently passed away and left his entire fortune to the winner of the game he designed himself according to his will.
What I liked the most: in the future, the children would not go to school, but instead they would send their own AVATAR !!!
Unfortunately for them, however, this does not mean that they would not have to learn or do their homework.

“I powered the console and initiated the log-in sequence. I saw a brief flash of red as the visor scanned my retinas. Then I cleared my throat and said my log-in phrase. My phrase was also verified, along with my voice pattern, and then I was logged in.
My avatar materialized in front of my locker on the second floor of my high school- the exact spot where I’d been standing when I logged out the night before.
I touched my locker door and it popped open with a soft metallic click. The inside was sparsely decorated. A picture of Princess Leia posing with a blaster pistol. I reached up and tapped the stack of textbooks on the locker’s top shelf and they vanished, then reappeared in my avatar’s item inventory.
A small mirror was mounted inside my locker door, and I caught a glimpse of my virtual self as I closed it.
I’d designed my avatar’s face and body to look, more or less, like my own. My avatar had a slightly smaller nose than me, and he was taller. And thinner. And more muscular. And he didn’t have any teenage acne. 😉 
The school’s strictly enforced dress code required that all students avatars be human, and of the same gender and age as the student.”

Fun fact: Steven Spielberg is set to direct a movie based on this book, and the release date is set for 2018.

Kindle, 2011