I recently had the pleasure to speak with the book's author, Ernest Cline. We chatted about Ready Player One, Atari 2600 games, DeLoreans, and Fanboys.
I loved Ready Player One. Are you surprised with the response it's received?Yeah, I'm kind of flipping out over it. I really thought the whole time I was working on this book—which was a long time—that I was just writing something for myself and something that would just appeal to me and maybe ten of my geeky friends. I never imagined that it would sell to Random House or that it would become this big bestselling book. It's crazy.
There are tons of references to '80s music, movies, television, and video games throughout the book. Are there particular references you feel no one's noticed yet?
Actually, there was a marketing person at Random House who got paid to go through the entire book and make an Excel spreadsheet of everything that I had referenced and she missed a few things, but even just seeing the list that she made was kind of disturbing. I was like, "Really? I put that many references in there?" There's a few on almost every page, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. But I don't know that any one person other than me would get everything, just because the references are so specific to me.
Some people find things they think are references, things I didn't even intend, in there and I try not to correct anybody because I don't want to hurt their enjoyment of the book. There's definitely stuff hidden in there that I know no one's found yet. Or that no one has mentioned to me anyway.
