The references weren't even interesting either. It'll just be something like, "Then, I traveled to planet Bueller, where I played through the plot of Ferris Bueller's Day Off--", and then a page and a half literally describing various scenes from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. That's it. It adds nothing. Unless the idea of scenes from 80s movies and TV shows and video games that you are familiar with being described back to you is inherently amusing, you will probably find that this gets old very fast.

Then again - this might translate much better to the screen, in a way it didn't to the page, because A) film is a much better medium, I think, to delight the audience with familiarity than writing, and B) from the trailer it looks like the film will expand beyond just 80s pop culture, and intermix the references a little better than "I went to planet Star Wars and here are some scenes from Star Wars I played through". With Spielberg at the helm, I have pretty high hopes. Just don't expect, if you like the movie, to read the book and like it even more. If the film succeeds, this will be one of those very rare instances in which it's better than the material it's adapted from.

If you want to read a good novel about VR, pick up Snow Crash instead.