1) Welcome back. You've been missed.

2) If it helps, Ready Player One is regarded in the entertainment industry as one of those books that nobody likes, everyone had to read, and we all agree was destined for development as a film the minute someone shat out the idea.

3) I have not read Ready Player One. I hadn't really intended to. I suspect it owes much of its existence to the 1979 classic On the Shadow of a Phosphor Screen by William F. Wu, about the future e-sports industry, its 12-year-old titans, and how one is saved from death by the singularity. In 1979. When the Atari 2600 was cutting edge. It's in this collection as well as this out-of-print book.

4) Sol Stein, whom you should read, by the way, makes the point that the majority of fiction is referential, short-lived and filled with expiring cultural references. This fiction composes the lions' share of what's available, but also generally goes through few printings. He points out that a better strategy to employ as a writer is to create objects of lasting craft because you will continue to sell books for decades. An example would be 50 Shades of Grey which everyone is buying now, but five years from now will be just another Danielle Steele novel. Harry Potter, on the other hand, is likely to be read by kids for the next 30 years or more. It's not that books now are more shallow and meme-filled, it's that the shallow, meme-filled books of yesterday have already been forgotten.

5) If Ready Player One had you coughing up a hairball, avoid Ramez Naam at all costs. Also Daniel Suarez. I could have written this very review about Nexus or Daemon. Did, in fact, to my agent, who told me to read them. We're still friends.

6) Stein agrees with you on characters, by the way - he observed that the difference between "fiction" and "literature" is the presence of strong, relatable, memorable characters. He further observed that the more "genre" a work, the worse its characters tend to be. This is why Margaret Atwood and Cormac McCarthy can write post-apocalyptic extravaganzas without being confined to the sci fi ghetto - they populate their stories with real people that you are interested in and that you remember. I didn't much care for Oryx & Crake but I could draw you a goddamn picture of Snowman and guess what he wants for breakfast.

7) Welcome back. You have been missed.