Honestly, I was sucked into this book from the first chapter.
There was just something about the description on the book flap that left a dark cloud hovering over me the whole time while reading that made me restrain myself from shouting out to everyone that they should read it. Because what if I got to the end and it ended up being a total suck fest?

It was pretty sweet though. A super fun read, just right for summer. My summer ADD for movies and books flared up this year something awful. I was looking for some fun fluff to read and Jamil suggested this. While I definitely agree with him in that a lot of the references were sometimes too forced and the dialog is pretty bad in places, something about this book was just too addictive to me to really care- although I did still notice it sometimes...

One thing that I noticed was how at one point he was saying that he needed to be in school every day or he would get kicked out because he'd racked up a ton of unexcused absences. But then later, to serve the plot, he already had enough credits to graduate so it wasn't a big deal what he did. At the beginning he said that there had been a ton of books/movies/comics made about him but that they got it all wrong. Then half way through when book deals started pouring in he was like, I'll do them but only if I get the egg. So I thought, oh, did that just tell me the end of the book or is it another continuity issue, you know?

While I did a lot of eye rolling at the super forced boy-meets-girl-they-fall-in-love-but-there-are-complications part, I did like the girl. It was nice to get a girls perspective on this boys game. Usually in science fiction they leave it out entirely. I still like (okay, love) science fiction but that is one of my problems with it. Especially when it's like, oh hey but my main character is a woman! I mean, she's a woman who thinks and acts like a man but look- breasts on the front cover! This girl was a cool laid back geeky chick who was realistic but also idealistic in some ways.

Mostly this book enabled me to think back on my own obsessions. I'm not into the 80's nearly as much as the author and that's okay. That's what made me want to get all of my friends/acquaintances/family reading this book- so maybe they could explain some of the stuff to me. I read one of the riddles to John and he went on some wild Dire Straits tangent that sent my head reeling. Mostly I was confused that he knew anything about Dire Straits, let alone enough to go on a full on tangent. (It wasn't relevant in the end but it was seriously entertaining.)

But yeah, I thought a lot about growing up here in the Midwest and getting super obsessed with things. At some parts it felt like the book knew me. It’s like it was there watching me when I was a creepily focused adolescent on x-files websites (uh, not reading x-file fan fic because that isn’t cool- or is it?!??!). Or while I was in a huge AIM chat room talking with people and picking apart the new Alias episode while it was on, trying to be the first to unriddle Rambaldi’s secret. Or while I was on twitter, tweeting to friends about what was happening during Lost and what did it all mean?? Maybe what this book was really missing were all the question marks to express the anxiety I was constantly feeling about these questions.

The last book I got this hyped over was probably The Hunger Games. Which, if you think about it, THG is a great book/alright series but there were also a lot of "oh hey, here's a thing that saved us in the nick of time, shhhh don't pay attention to all of these serendipitous events really" moments. Most of these books have that. It's an action movie but dressed up in literatures' big time business suit.

In a weird way, thinking about some of the stuff in the book, I probably shouldn't have been so enthralled by it all. A lot of the stuff that the author/character really liked (Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Rush) I have experienced and can appreciate but don't get the hyped mythology behind it. Still, it's funny to me because that didn't matter. Even if I didn't feel that way about those particular things, I have felt that way before about other things that most people don't get. (Barenaked Ladies, collecting all the stars in Mario64, David Duchovny circa 1996, etc.)

Let's be honest, the real reason I loved this book so much is that I'm secretly hoping some Howard Hughes/Willy Wonka/Sam Westing batshit insane bajillionaire is out there making up a treasure-hunt-pop-culture-contest surrounding 90's Nickelodeon shows/teen girl dramas/all the shit I've loved and have invested serious time and brain real estate in. If you happen to be that person, I can send you my contact information so we can get this wild goose chase party started. This is how we do it, it's Friday night and I feel alright...