Episode 9 – Season 2: Armada

We’re back with a new season!  Join us as we read Ernest Cline’s followup to RP1, Armada. We’re extremely excited to read what is widely regarded as Cline’s bad novel.

We’ll talk about our expectations, see if we can guess whether a critic was reviewing RP1 or Armada, and play a quick round of Real or Fanfic.

If you choose to read along, your first assignment is to read up to Chapter 4, that’s page 47 in our edition. Thanks for listening!

Episode 8 – 1980s Reference

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Get the book here

We’re done!!! After one last robot fight, video game speedrun, and  rote recitation of a popular “geek” movie, we’ve finally reached the titular 372nd page.

Tune in for the Dumb Sentence of the Book, one last Fan-Fic or Real, Great Moments in Villains with Tiny Robots, and some extremely creative listener emails. Nathan’s alternate ending skit is available here and Taylor’s song is available here.

We are auctioning off the copies of RP1 we read to make this podcast with all proceeds going to charity. Check them out here, please, we want them out of our houses.

Thank you for joining us on this journey! We’ll maybe be back with another title, after we take in some creative work that is actually good.

Episode 7 – 1973 Was My Favorite Year in the 80s

Support the podcast on Patreon to get every episode a week early, and a ton of other exclusive content: patreon.com/372pages

Get the book here

In this episode, Wade Watts faces the possibility of a lifetime of slavery! But then he gets out of it easily thanks to his hacking prowess, which he totally has had all along but forgot to mention.

We’ll talk the unceasing cultural relevance of the “hang in there baby” motivational poster, the concept of Performative Niceness, and revisit some of Wade and Aech’s most meaningful conversations, where they connected on a purely mental level in the most intimate way possible.

Your assignment for next week: finish the damn book!

Episode 6 – Rush for a Change of Atmosphere

Support the podcast on Patreon to get every episode a week early, and a ton of other exclusive content: patreon.com/372pages

Get the book here

Join us in our detailed recreation of the living room from Family Ties for Episode 6! The gunt is in it’s homestretch, so what better time to pause your novel for a detailed description of the plot of Blade Runner. We’ll also play Black Tiger, but not the version you’re familiar with! (Get this: it’s slightly different.)

We’ll also test Mike’s ability to spot fake Rush lyrics, and listen to another EXCLUSIVE excerpt of a leaked scene from the Ready Player One movie!

This episode covers chapters 25 thru 29 of Ready Player One. For next week, read thru Chapter 33, page 326 in our edition.

This is a book club, so get in touch!  We’re on twitter and facebook, our personal twitters are @clastowka and @michaeljnelson or send us an email 372pages@gmail.com

Episode 5 – Several Discreet Openings

Support the podcast on Patreon to get every episode a week early, and a ton of other exclusive content: patreon.com/372pages

Get the book here

This week we’re talking Wade’s Rig. And folks — it is a hell of a rig. We’ll also discuss the seemingly booming post-apocalyptic economy that makes all this gunting possible, venture into the immersive world of text adventure games, and visit several game rooms, bowling alleys and pizza joints. It’s all very classic.

All this plus… Well, if you’re read chapter 19, you know what we have to talk about.

This episode covers chapters 19 thru 24 of Ready Player One. For next time, read thru chapter 29, page 282 in our edition.

This is a book club, so get in touch!  We’re on twitter and facebook, our personal twitters are @clastowka and @michaeljnelson or send us an email 372pages@gmail.com

Episode 4 – Delightful 80’s References and Several Hundred Dead Children!

Support the podcast on Patreon to get every episode a week early, and a ton of other exclusive content: patreon.com/372pages

Get the book here

We’ll discuss whether eating rotted Greenland shark meat is better than Ready Player One, take a thrilling look at server redundancy and connection lag, analyze various rigs, and examine what has to be one of the top three most romantic chat logs we’ve ever read.

PLUS, Mike has gunted deep into the dark web to track down audio of an EXCLUSIVE scene from the upcoming RP1 movie! All this plus Fanfic or Real and the Dumb Sentence of the Week!

This episode covers chapters 14 thru 18 of Ready Player One. For next time, read thru chapter 24, page 240 in our edition.

This is a book club, so get in touch!  We’re on twitter and facebook, our personal twitters are @clastowka and @michaeljnelson or send us an email 372pages@gmail.com

Episode 3 – Ducks and Hairy Knuckled Chucks

Support the podcast on Patreon to get every episode a week early, and a ton of other exclusive content: patreon.com/372pages

Get the book here

It’s another classic episode of 372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back!

We’ll guess whether passages came from RP1 Fan Fiction or the novel itself, break down our hero’s obsession with the definitely-a-sexy-lady Art3mis, guess what’s in James Halliday’s bedroom, and check in with Edgar Nash: Gunter Expert! Then we’ll read some listener mail and nominate the Dumb Sentence of the Week.

This episode covers chapters 9 thru 13 of Ready Player One. For next time, read thru chapter 18, page 189 in our edition.

This is a book club, so get in touch!  We’re on twitter and facebook, our personal twitters are @clastowka and @michaeljnelson or send us an email 372pages@gmail.com

Episode 2 – A List and a Lich

Support the podcast on Patreon to get every episode a week early, and a ton of other exclusive content: patreon.com/372pages

Get the book here

Update your Gunter Wiki, crapburgers, it’s time for a new episode! This week we calibrate our tastes with Mike’s, delve into the delightful parenthetical autistism of James Halliday, take a closer look at the infamous “List” that initially caught our attention, discuss the danger of taking the advice to “write what you know”, and crown our Dumbest Sentence of the Week!

This episode covers chapters 4 thru 8 of Ready Player One. For next time, read thru chapter 13, page 133 in our edition.

Send us your Dumb Sentence of the Week!  We’re on twitter and facebook, our personal twitters are @clastowka and @michaeljnelson or send us an email 372pages@gmail.com

#372pages

Episode 1 – A Miniseries About a Housecoat

Support the podcast on Patreon to get every episode a week early, and a ton of other exclusive content: patreon.com/372pages

Get the book here

In this episode, we’ll learn how calibrated your tastes are with Conor’s, meet our Rubenesque main characters, discuss the book’s generously amorphous definition of 80s pop culture,  examine how hard it is to pull of convincing computer operating systems in entertainment, and wonder what possible role the undercurrent of atheism could possibly play in the book about Atari games.

This episode covers the introduction and first three chapters of Ready Player One. For next time, read thru Chapter 8, page 86 in our edition.

Want something good to read? Get Conor’s book, The Pole Vault Championship of the Entire Universe!

Episode 0 – A Book We’re Probably Going to Hate

Support the podcast on Patreon to get every episode a week early, and a ton of other exclusive content: patreon.com/372pages

Get the book here

Welcome to 372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back! This is a podcast book club where we are reading the bestselling novel Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. In this episode, Mike and Conor lay out their expectations, examine some of the critical praise for the book, and take a quiz to see which great works of literature they will not be reading at the expense of Ready Player One.

Your reading assignment before the next episode: the Introduction and Chapters 1-3 (this is 46 pages in our edition.)

If you have any questions or ideas as you read along please send them our way! We’re on twitter and facebook, our personal twitters are @clastowka and @michaeljnelson or send us an email 372pages@gmail.com