In the Time of the Nations
Emmanuel Levinas and Michael B. Smith
Book
In this major collection of essays, Emmanuel Levinas, a leading philosopher of the 20th century,...
Salsiology: Afro-Cuban Music and the Evolution of Salsa in New York City
Book
Boggs presents a readable, even exciting, history of Salsa, showing how Afro-Cuban music was...
David McK (3505 KP) rated Ready Player One in Books
Sep 19, 2021
Have also seen the movie mentioned below. It was just OK; not great.
<original 2016 review>
Prior to reading this, I'd heard good things about it, and was aware that - like seemingly nearly all of the current Young Adult Dystopian novels - there was a movie for it in the pipeline, by none other than Spielberg himself.
Set in the near-future, I found this to be like a cross between the Bruce Willis movie Surrogates (in that nearly everybody seems to live their life vicariously through other means), The Matrix (cyber reality) and maybe even a bit of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the MacGuffin that gets the plot rolling). it probably helps that - unlike the characters - I actually *was* a kid in the 80s, and so get plenty of the various pop-culture references made.
Plenty, but not all - this, remember, is set in America, so leans more towards the American or Japanese spectrum of popular culture than European.
Science in Print: Essays on the History of Science and the Culture of Print
Rima Apple, Gregory Downey and Stephen Vaughn
Book
Ever since the threads of seventeenth-century natural philosophy began to coalesce into an...
Real Men Don't Sing: Crooning in American Culture
Book
The crooner Rudy Vallee's soft, intimate, and sensual vocal delivery simultaneously captivated...
Writing the Record: The Village Voice and the Birth of Rock Criticism
Book
During the mid-1960s, a small group of young journalists made it their mission to write about...
An Edo Anthology: Literature from Japan's Mega-City, 1750-1850
Sumie Jones and Kenji Watanabe
Book
During the eighteenth century, Edo (today's Tokyo) became the world's largest city, quickly...
The Life, Music and Thought of Woody Guthrie: A Critical Appraisal
Book
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (1912-67) has had an immense impact on popular culture throughout the world....
The Legacy of Johann Strauss: Political Influence and Twentieth-Century Identity
Book
To this day, Johann Strauss, Jr remains one of the most popular composers in his native city of...
Ezra Pound's and Olga Rudge's the Blue Spill: A Manuscript
Ezra Pound, Olga Rudge, Mark Byron and Sophia Barnes
Book
Written during the Italian winter of 1930, The Blue Spill is an unfinished detective novel written...