Among Others

Executive Summary: An interesting book, though one that just didn't resonate with me as much as it might with others.Full ReviewI think I first heard about this book when it won the Hugo last year. Probably from Sword & Laser, which selected it for the June 2013 pick.There are several things in this book I greatly identify with. There is one scene when the main character meets other people who share her interest in sci-fi and fantasy books and feels both self-conscious about that she is talking too much and yet at the same time is unable to control herself. I've been there entirely too many times in my life, especially after long periods of mostly being alone and catching up with friends.The main part that I identify with is losing yourself in books. This is something I seem to be doing more and more of lately, for several reasons. I'm thankful for good reads as an outlet to discuss them all, and to find other people who read as much as I do.So why only 3 stars? Well there were three main reasons:1) The early part felt very ramblely to me. As someone prone to rambling I can forgive this in conversation, but not really in a book. It's meant as a diary of a teenage girl, so this is probably realistic, but was too realistic for me. This leads me to my next problem:2) As the diary of the teen-aged girl, there were parts I just couldn't identify with. Having never been a girl myself, and understanding entirely too little about the female species in general some parts of this book were just awkward for me. Not a fault of the book, just something that didn't resonate with me personally.And my final drawback was:3) All the book references. I'd like to think I've read a decent number of books in my nearly 30 year reading career (I don't remember exactly what age I started reading books). I've tracked over 200 books on good reads, and I know there are books I've read missing from the list, especially if I counted all the stuff I read as a kid. There are at least 80 books referenced in this novel from the various lists I've seen. I've read less than 10 of them. That made for a lot of references I'm sure I just missed out on. This is another thing that isn't the book's fault. This book is set in 79/80. I was born in 82. I didn't really start reading a ton of sci-fi or fantasy until the early 2000s. Most of what I've read was written after I was born.I LOVED [b:Ready Player One 9969571 Ready Player One Ernest Cline http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333576871s/9969571.jpg 14863741]. It's chock full of geeky 70's and 80's nostalgia. If you took that away, the book wouldn't have been nearly as good. So that might be exactly what's happened here for me.Overall, I'm glad I read this, but I'm also glad I'm glad I opted to borrow it from the library. With inter-library loan no less! Somehow that seems fitting.