The once-great country into which I'd been born now resembled its former self in name only. It didn't matter who was in charge. Those people were rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and everyone knew it.
Catalog
Book
Ready Player One: A Novel
The worldwide bestseller—now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg. 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 OAS
Characters
Talking to girls was out of the question. To me, they were like some exotic alien species, both beautiful and terrifying.
Anyone smart enough to accomplish what they have should know better than to risk everything by talking to the vultures in the media.
In real life, I was nothing but an antisocial hermit. A recluse. A pale-skinned pop culture–obsessed geek.
So I'm supposed to believe you're one of those mythical guys who only cares about a woman's personality, and not about the package it comes in?
I understood her, trusted her, and loved her as a dear friend. None of that had changed, or could be changed by anything as inconsequential as her gender, or skin color, or sexual orientation.
I would argue that masturbation is the human animal's most important adaptation. The very cornerstone of our technological civilization. Our hands evolved to grip tools, all right—including our own. You see, thinkers, inventors, and scientists are usually geeks, and geeks have a harder time getting…
You were born at a pretty crappy time in history. And it looks like things are only gonna get worse from here on out.
That story you heard? About how we were all created by a super-powerful dude named God who lives up in the sky? Total bullshit. The whole God thing is actually an ancient fairy tale that people have been telling one another for thousands of years. We made it all up. Like Santa Claus and the Easter B…
You're probably wondering what's going to happen to you. That's easy. The same thing is going to happen to you that has happened to every other human being who has ever lived. You're going to die. We all die. That's just how it is.
One person can keep a secret, but not two.
I never felt at home in the real world. I didn't know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all of my life, right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also the only place where you can find true happiness. Becaus…
Whenever I saw the sun, I reminded myself that I was looking at a star. One of over a hundred billion in our galaxy. A galaxy that was just one of billions of other galaxies in the observable universe. This helped me keep things in perspective.
You'd be amazed how much research you can get done when you have no life whatsoever.
No one in the world gets what they want and that is beautiful.
Going outside is highly overrated.
I would argue that masturbation is the human animal's most important adaptation. The very cornerstone of our technological civilization. Our hands evolved to grip tools, all right—including our own. You see, thinkers, inventors, and scientists are usually geeks, and geeks have a harder time getting…
For a bunch of hairless apes, we've actually managed to invent some pretty incredible things.
Everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about the contest.