(CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON COUNTY – Accompanied by special events throughout March, “Madison County Reads” for 2015 is featuring “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline.

Every spring since 2002, the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library system has sponsored Madison County Reads as a month-long community program that encourages all Madison County patrons to read the same book.

Set 30 years in the future, “Ready Player One” follows young Wade Watts who lives in a real world of poverty, crime and loneliness, and much of the world is comprised of massive corporations and trailer park slums. However, in the online world of the OASIS, Watts goes to school and hangs out with friends.

Watts tries to solve a complex riddle left by a dead computer-gaming genius James Halliday who was obsessed with the culture and video games of the 1980s. In Watt’s quest to discover clues and solve the hunt, he meets several others, some with much more sinister designs.

“Throughout March, the library will celebrate 1980s’ culture as our various book club groups talk about ‘Ready Player One,’ and we offer games, movies, special programs and more for all ages,” communications director Ann Marie Martin said.

To enhance the reading experience, the library will schedule various speakers, screen 1980s’ films, offer crafts sessions and conduct science clubs, story times and special events. “There will be opportunities at all library branches across the county, and all of these will relate to references and themes from ‘Ready Player One,'” Martin said.

The library also is holding a system-wide scavenger hunt. “The library staff has devised its own version of the scavenger hunts that drives the plot in ‘Ready Player One,'” Martin said. “We invite you to read and play along with your library.”

The grand prize for the scavenger hunt winner is a Kindle Fire HD6. Haley Anderson Whaley and Jon Schafle are co-chairmen for Madison County Reads.

For more information, visit hmcpl/mcr.org.