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999 Challenge : *** I completed the ! ***		249	MarthaJeanne, Today 2:11am
Science Fiction Fans : Computer-based sci-fi?		19	ctpete, Yesterday 6:19pm
50 Book Challenge : Shinyone's 50 for 2009		88	shinyone, Saturday 8:58am
1010 Category Challenge : Paruline's 1010 challenge		40	paruline, Friday 7:59pm
75 Books Challenge for 2009 : Prop2gether's Reading, Act III		65	alcottacre, Friday 5:28pm
75 Books Challenge for 2009 : justchris 2009		232	justchris, Wednesday 10:18pm
1010 Category Challenge : katelisim's 1010(10		28	katelisim, Wednesday 1:49pm
Science Fiction Fans : Rekindle my interest in SF		87	iansales, Wednesday 3:12am
75 Books Challenge for 2009 : Part II of The Chronicles of Wunderkind Part II		110	wunderkind, November 8
75 Books Challenge for 2009 : lmichet so far		30	alcottacre, October 28
Awful Lit. : Books that could have been shorter		16	hdcclassic, October 27
Book Addicts Anonymous : What books have you bought recently?		163	LadyViolet, October 26
What Are You Reading Now? : What Are You Reading the Week of October 17, 2009?		184	PaperbackPirate, October 24
History at 30,000 feet: The Big Picture : Classical Studies		21	geneg, October 22
What Are You Reading Now? : What Are You Reading the Week of October 10, 2009?		182	teelgee, October 17
The Green Dragon : Book Discussion: To Ride Hell's Chasm - SPOILER FREE thread		76	JannyWurts, October 13
What Are You Reading Now? : What Are You Reading the Week of October 3, 2009?		227	Mr.Durick, October 10
Book talk : Choose a book that you haven't read yet. (4)		329	callmejacx, October 7
Historical Fiction : World War II fiction recommendations		181	Devodai, October 3
Science Fiction Fans : 5 most reread sci-fi books/authors		118	missmaddie, October 3
What Are You Reading Now? : What You're Reading the Week of 5 May 2007		124	usnmm2, September 27
75 Books Challenge for 2009 : Tad's Books in 2009, Part 4		237	TadAD, September 4
Reading Globally : Where in the World Are You Now? August 2009		119	teelgee, September 3
1001 Books to read before you die : What 1001 Book are You Reading: August 2009		86	klobrien2, August 31
Site talk : Inane reviews		531	Bookmarque, August 28
Literary Snobs : Why do you read in public?		58	inaudible, August 26
Science Fiction Fans : Neal Stephenson's Anathem		18	bobmcconnaughey, August 25
Science Fiction Fans : Top 100 Sci Fi Recommendations for New Readers of the Genre: Post Your List		362	RobertDay, August 17
What Are You Reading Now? : What are you reading the week of July 4, 2009?		312	simora, August 8
The Green Dragon : Reading Alphabetically		413	calm, August 8
75 Books Challenge for 2009 : AlcottAcre's 2009 Reads, Take 7		295	alcottacre, August 2
The Green Dragon : July reads, 2009		144	katttg, August 1
1001 Books to read before you die : What 1001 book are you reading: July 2009		103	susiesharp, August 1
More Power to the Date Fields! : Ideas for using the date fields		31	aethercowboy, June 30
FantasyFans : Do you read multiple series at once?		5	Shanra, June 26
Book talk : choice of tense, narrator, etc.		9	SylviaC, June 24
The Green Dragon : May Acquisitions		162	kirbyowns, June 2
The Green Dragon : Awesome sentences!		19	nhlsecord, May 29
75 Books Challenge for 2009 : AlcottAcre's 2009 Reads, Take 4		284	TadAD, May 3
Taggers! : Other people's weirdness		69	235711, April 27
The Green Dragon : Most HATED books		199	cal8769, April 19
Science Fiction Fans : Guides to SF		92	jnwelch, April 10
Book talk : International book ideas		7	thorold, April 8
1001 Books to read before you die : Really Long Books		71	Nickelini, March 31
Science Fiction Fans : Dream Writer Collaborations		25	jnwelch, February 24
The Green Dragon : A novel approach to dating...		47	GeorgiaDawn, February 9
999 Challenge : Kettricken's 999 challenge		20	Kettricken, January 12
75 Books Challenge for 2008 : MusicMom41's books for 2008		209	suslyn, January 9
999 Challenge : Kylikki's		19	kylikki, December 2008
The Green Dragon : Books to get stuck in an air port with		31	maggie1944, December 2008
Book Nudgers : 12/11: Lonely student seeks two+ willing, supple books; enjoys peppered dark chocolate, nib pens, lo		27	Booksloth, December 2008
Book Nudgers : 12/13 - Nudge Request!		24	Ambrosia4, December 2008
List Five Books Parlour Game : One word says it all...		74	vonitaburke, December 2008
Science Fiction Fans : Hugo Nominations for 2008		53	LamSon, December 2008
1001 Books to read before you die : Best 1001 Books Alphabetically		199	Nickelini, November 2008
The Green Dragon : Character-driven Fantasy and Science Fiction		12	JannyWurts, November 2008
888 Challenge : Which category have you enjoyed reading the most? And which the least?		19	cmbohn, October 2008
888 Challenge : Shinyone's		42	shinyone, October 2008
50 Book Challenge : Nagazza's Book Challenge		2	Nagazza, October 2008
The Green Dragon : Not sure what to read next.		8	hfglen, October 2008
Science Fiction Fans : Your Essential Science Fiction List		153	falkman, September 2008
Site talk : Tag Mirror		306	infiniteletters, September 2008
What Are You Reading Now? : Books with Dual Time Periods		44	Carol_M_in_NJ, September 2008
The Green Dragon : What kinds of books (if any) do remember your parents reading when you were a child?		74	Prop2gether, September 2008
What Are You Reading Now? : What books came into your home today? SEPTEMBER, 2008, Part I		244	MusicMom41, September 2008
1001 Books to read before you die : Post with touchstone for all 1001?		16	arukiyomi, September 2008
1001 Books to read before you die : August 2008: Which Book from the 1001 List are You Reading?		113	ktleyed, August 2008
What Are You Reading Now? : To reread or not to reread...		52	mikeepatrick, August 2008
Science Fiction Fans : Recomendations please.		14	spoiledfornothing, August 2008
Site talk : Enter a bookshelf, literally...		43	infiniteletters, August 2008
The Green Dragon : Books that you have enjoyed the most~ fiction		44	Severn, July 2008
The Green Dragon : How To Feel Loved - Not		50	Severn, July 2008
Little Brother: Cory Doctorow and Books on Hacking, Crypto, Etc : Cryptonomicon: Neal Stephenson		2	andrewja, July 2008
The Green Dragon : The Do Not Bother To Read Before You Die Thread		70	theduckthief, July 2008
What Are You Reading Now? : What You're Reading the Week of 14 June 2008		227	Talbin, June 2008
Book talk : Neal Stephenson		17	reademwritem, June 2008
1001 Books to read before you die : The 1001 "I've Read That" chain game		300	BKieras, June 2008
The Green Dragon : Books that make you buy more books		30	SpicyCat, June 2008
The Green Dragon : May's New Books - I Got Some!		109	clamairy, June 2008
Book talk : Could you recommend a book written with a sense of humor but not shallow?		39	valco, May 2008
Bestsellers over the Years : 1999		9	LouisBranning, April 2008
Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : What Books Came Into Your Home Today? - DECEMBER 2007		172	lynnlib, April 2008
Dormant: The Green Dragon : Tell us what you are reading now, Part IV		161	littlebookworm, March 2008
Dormant: The Green Dragon : Best books, and worst books, that you read in 2007		61	margaretplays, February 2008
Dormant: 1001 Books to read before you die : Sci-Fi / Fantasy on the 1001		16	DieFledermaus, February 2008
Dormant: Book talk : Which book did you give up reading this month? Why?		69	usnmm2, February 2008
Dormant: What did YOU buy today? : January 2008 edition		51	alaskabookworm, February 2008
Dormant: Book talk : Neal Stephenson		6	RBH228, February 2008
Dormant: 1001 Books to read before you die : What are you reading on the list for January 2008		106	notenoughbookshelves, February 2008
Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : What You're Reading the Week of 5 January 2008		170	abealy, January 2008
Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : What You're Reading the Week of 12 January 2008		172	Cariola, January 2008
Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : Reading goals for 2008		87	primlil, January 2008
Dormant: The Green Dragon : Books that begin with "Q"		36	reconditereader, December 2007
Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : What You're Reading the Week of 15 December 2007		142	alcottacre, December 2007
Dormant: Reading Resolutions : Is Anyone Still Working on Their Big Five?		13	Nickelini, December 2007
Dormant: Reading Resolutions : Five big books you will read in 2007		95	RSHabroptilus, December 2007
Dormant: The Green Dragon : NPR's Book Choices		28	mrgrooism, November 2007
Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : OK: How many serious SF readers ARE there, anyway?		73	Pawcatuck, October 2007
Dormant: The Green Dragon : Sex and sexuality in the fantasy genre *(UNDER 18, BE WARNED!)*		52	mrgrooism, October 2007
next

Neuromancer by William Gibson is a classic. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (author of Cryptonomicon is another good one.

... Hacker And The Ants Little Brother Permutation City Souls In The Great Machine uses humans instead of electrons. Cryptonomicon - even includes some perl in an appendix. Loads of short stories.

Still pushing my way through Cryptonomicon which is slow going mostly because I keep getting distracted by other things. I'm about 300 pages in and I feel like the story is finally picking up. At work I am just about finished Plato's Republic and should be able to pick up Walden by Henry Dav ...

Oh, definitely worth reading, I think, especially for anyone interested in history. Cryptonomicon mixes a wwII timeline involving among other things cryptography with a present day (read late 90's) timeline involving information security (and a lot of other things). Here we meet Alan Tur ...

Yes, the same. But this stuff is very different from Snow Crash. Not to mention the books (Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, Confusion & The System of the World /last three are the Baroque Cycle, but they are all connected/) would had benefited from an editor, to say the least. Still, I enjoyed ...

... amusing that there's another book named The Man Who Knew Too Much portraying Alan Turing. Turing features in Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, just as Hooke has a supporting role in the Baroque Cycle.)

... or almost completes the Nicholas Bracewell Elizabethan mysteries; The Woman in White for the Halloween recommendations; Cryptonomicon because I'm half-way through and it's not that difficult to get back into the plot; Madame Bovary because I'm trying to complete another of my 999 Challenge ...

...and months later... I still have not finished Cryptonomicon although I have completed one category. My reading has been so scattered the last few months that I'm anticipating that I will not finish this challenge as I set it out. However, I have read in series beyond my listed choices (l ...

8. 1001 List 1 Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson 2 Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams 3 The Wasp Factory by Iain M. Banks 4 Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice 5 Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut 6 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick ...

Still working on Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente, Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson and The Republic by Plato.

My commute/home reading is Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson with an interruption by Palimpsest by Cat Valente as it's a library book. My at work reading is Plato's Republic which is both creepy as all hell but an interesting read.

... Jack by Philip Pullman Currently finishing up Gilead by Marilynne Robinson for my RL book club; Outlander and Cryptonomicon for my 999 Challenge; and there's a couple of others thrown in for good measure.

From AHS-Wolfy's library, I chose Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. I have Anathem by him laying around the house, and I haven't read it either, but both look good.

... not the Baroque Cycle but Snow Crash and The Diamond Age would qualify by my standards. Only one tiny thread of Cryptonomicon takes it out of the truly-Hard SF category. And I would make up a new "Quantum-Hard SF" category for Anathem. (Zodiac was just a bio-thriller and I ...

... to be read. What are you reading right now? As of today, I am reading The Carbon Diaries 2015, Outlander, Cryptonomicon, Somewhere Towards the End, and Grifter’s Game. Edited to fix the way too much bold!

... pass 3- The time traveller's wife 4- The silmarillon - started Oct 8 2009 - finished Oct 18 2009 5- Cryptonomicon Edited to fix touchstones

Yeah Cryptonomicon was great and all, but four pages on breakfast ... why? I also have to admit that The Lord of the Rings could have been a bit shorter, especially the first book, even though I am a fan and kind of like the verbose style.

... of felt that way with Moby Dick. I felt like only the last twenty pages or so were pertinent. A more recent work was Cryptonomicon. I made it through that one, but the four page commentary on how the protagonist enjoyed his Captain Crunch was bit much. As it is, now I can't even pick up ...

I finally finished it! It's taken me long enough! 81. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (1130 pages) Well, what can I say about this one? It is good, if long and a bit tedious in places. There are several different stories that run together, 2 in the WWII era and one in the modern era. Othe ...

I have a friend who keeps a copy of Neal Stephenson's CRYPTONOMICON in his car, just in case he's ever away from home and doesn't have a book handy. Or maybe he's planning to jack the car up with it if he ever gets a flat...

In Bolivia hanging out with fictional hackers in Turing's Delirium and struggling not to see it as a copycat version of Cryptonomicon.

Temporarily shelved Cryptonomicon in favor of something shorter, The Child in Time. Not liking that latter nearly as much though. Also getting two new Virginia Woolfs soon: Night and Day and Jacob's Room. We'll see if I get to those this month.

... reader: "I couldn't relate to the characters and I found it book somewhat confusing." I'll admit it: In my review of Cryptonomicon I lead with the line, "It took me six attempts to finish this novel." I mean, I go on to elaborate on why, of course; but I certainly think that piece of ...

... need to focus my reading on my MLIS textbooks and YA lit for my students. It's going to be hard! I'm determined to finish Cryptonomicon!

Certainly an author I want to check out would be Neal Stephenson so I have no hesitation in selecting Cryptonomicon from KimB's library.

I'll second Cryptonomicon, long but fast-paced throughout. I'll strongly third Snow Crash, which I consider a classic of sorts. I'm not familiar with Diamond Age. I think I'll let Quicksilver linger on the book shelf a bit longer. Definitely interested in your take on Anathem.

... like after Diamond Age Stephenson was successful enough that no editor was allowed to touch his words. (I also liked Cryptonomicon good deal but the numerous puzzles were worked engagingly, for me, into the over long text. Maybe try a library copy of Anathem. I gave up half way ...

Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson ETA 2 - Damn! I'm not going to change again!

Just finished Between the Acts. Gonna be patient with Cryptonomicon and start it for now, but I'll probably be looking for something to switch off to here and there.

Aren't they all wonderful? I adore James Herriot. Yes, I'm still plodding through Cryptonomicon, but I've not finished yet. I keep taking side trips! 76. Christy Miller by Robin Jones Gunn (Volume 1) (489 pages) A dear friend has a daughter who is all excited about reading, and she ...

... Evanovitch--almost the end of Grandma Mazur adventures! Currently reading The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson; several mysteries for my RL book club; and I have two presidential biographies to finish.

... I'd say she's kind of related to Cherryh, too. #79 - I know I'm crazy - who isn't?! - but I lugged my hardback of Cryptonomicon around, reading while commuting. But even on the first read I skipped some parts. I think you'll know which one's, if you've encountered them... But if you ...

... reading It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet - wonderful, as are all of Herriot's books. I'm also reading, in fits and starts, Cryptonomicon. It's quite a book! I read a bit, read something else, read a bit more, read something else. It's a good book, but it's so darn big!

... these instead.... Helliconia Spring / Summer / Winter (Aldiss) Feersum Endjinn (Banks) Altered Carbon (Morgan) Cryptonomicon (Stephenson) The Golden Age / Phoenix Exultant / Golden Transcendence (Wright) Blindsight (Watts) Accelerando (Stross) The Star Fraction (MacLe ...

... in paperback, and listened to it again while reading along with some parts of it. Right now I'm reading (not listening to) Cryptonomicon. It's over 1100 pages, and I'm on page 295, so I don't think I'll be done this week!

... I could at least lay it down on a table to read. I've actually got a copy of Quicksilver coming too because I've enjoyed Cryptonomicon so far. I think it's just about as big. I'm a little over a third through it, just like you. Here's another quickie diversion: 72. Golden Twilight ...

I have decided to chuck the 'must-read' list. I am not getting them read and have decided a list approach is just not for me. I will eventually get to them, but probably not all this year. Prop2gether in 999 Challenge : *** I completed the 999 Challenge! *** (Jun 30, 2009, 11:30am)

LOL! I have real "chunksters" left as well--Woman in White, Hard Times, and I'm only one-third through Cryptonomicon's pages. Yet, I'm over 200 in my book count with nearly 50,000 pages thus far, and I'm still only half-way through this challenge. Oh well, this next month....

... can also mean a slower pace, but it has real heart-tugging moments. I really enjoyed this one. I'm one-third through Cryptonomicon, which a 300-plus read thus far, and have several others sitting on my table.

LOL, I, too, am reading Cryptonomicon basically in installments. One-third down (and the equivalent of another book read!) and more to go. I am enjoying the book, but the size is sometimes overwhelming.

I'm still reading this monstrous book (Cryptonomicon), but I have to take a break every now and then. Janet Evanovich is one of my little guilty pleasures. I read these two for fun: 70. Hot Stuff by Janet Evanovich and Leanne Banks (281 pages) This isn't a Stephanie Plum book, but it's ...

... Martin His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman The Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams The Marid Audran books by George Alec Effinger The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb (I'm ...

... (or something like that) and then get a plus-button so you could add more fields. This would be ideal for books like Cryptonomicon, in which half the book is WWII era, and the other half is Present-day.

... my first Pynchon. Trying to describe the plot of Lot 49 is like trying to describe the plot of Foucault's Pendulum or Cryptonomicon--suffice to say that there's a big conspiracy and a lot of made-up history. I really liked Pynchon's style, which is entertaining and intelligent without ...

After a while it blends into the background. I didn't notice that Stephenson's Cryptonomicon is in the present tense until around page 550 because it was done so unobtrusively.

Time to break up the thread again...it's getting a bit unwieldy. Part 1 can be found here. Part 2 can be found here. Part 3 can be found katelisim in Book Addicts Anonymous : What books have you bought recently? (Jun 13, 2009, 1:06pm)

I was doing really well at restraint--key word being 'was' *hangs head in shame* The relapse was bad Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephanson (now the biggest book I own) Fine Prey by Scott Westerfeld Frostbite and Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead The Green Futures of Tycho by William Sleator

... at home tonight so that I could finally finish this behemoth. Most of the time while I was reading it I was thinking that Cryptonomicon was better, but I found myself reaching the end and wanting to go grab the next volume off the shelf and dive right into it. I think I will be giving this ...

... series: City of Pearl, Crossing the Line, The World Before, Matriarch, Ally, and Judge - Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson - Keeper of Dreams by Orson Scott Card - Shadows of Death, an H. P. Lovecraft collection - In the Eye of Heaven by David Keck - T ...

#9 - While I loved Cryptonomicon (and most of his other books, too) Anathem is is first real accomplished work, imho. The first is in dire need of an editor (ie. even on first read you realise you can just skip some parts and still not miss a beat/but I do love it), while the second even has a ...

#1 - I love the idea of fussy library grapes. :o) I have had Cryptonomicon sitting here for over a year... Now you're making me think I should pick it up and put my nose into it sooner rather than later.

... plus 1001 Must Read selections and my 999 Challenge, so it was a pretty broad choice of materials. Currently reading: Cryptonomicon, Lisey's Story, The Eye in the Door, and Murder on the Marmora, plus my RL book group selection and a group read in this thread.

... reminded me of my great aunt, I had to get that edition of the many they had. Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, my husband picked this one up, it'll keep him busy for awhile. And last but not least Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley.

... your recommendation. I do not know anything about Anathem. I am reading the Baroque Cycle in preparation for reading Cryptonomicon later this year, even though I know it is not really required. I will be interested in seeing your thoughts on Independent People. Iceland's Bell was ...

... a Comedy of Justice Keeper of the Light Cultural Literacy Snow Flower and the Secret Fan A Separate Peace Cryptonomicon And the Dead Shall Rise Move Your Shadow - Read 05/17/09 Shutter Island Dog Man Peace Like a River - Read 05/2 ...

... 22. The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian 23. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson 24. Dwight D. Eisenhower by Malcolm Charles Moos

... What is your desert island book? The collected works of William Shakespeare. 32) And... what are you reading right now? Cryptonomicon, Beyond the Horizon, Two for the Dough, and The Blinding Absence of Light.

... Dark Materials (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass) and loved them. About one-third through Cryptonomicon and loving those cyphers.

#276 I also want to tackle a Neal Stephenson book, I've already got a couple of his books in anticipation but other books are taking priority at present. Villette looks to be a must read for me, I reread Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights last year.

... have not yet reached the second part of the book, though. I am reading the trilogy in preparation for reading Stephenson's Cryptonomicon later this year.

... in London soon and I'm very excited about it! I'll be interested in your thoughts on Foe (which I read last year) and Cryptonomicon (which I can't seem to get into, despite liking his other stuff)...

Cryptonomicon is on my must-read list this year, so I will be anxious to see your input on that one. Currently I am reading the first book in Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, Quicksilver, in anticipation of reading Cryptonomicon. I read The Child in Time last year and thought it was very ...

... 13. Currently listening to Joe Morton reading Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and it is a fabulous performance; reading Cryptonomicon, The Child in Time, and Bonjour Tristesse. Also trying VERY hard to stay from the $1 book store!

... books including The Sun Also Rises, Lost in a Good Book (on CD and a delight!), From the Earth to the Moon, and Cryptonomicon.

... and the way he puts things down on paper, and so I was able to forgive the occasional slowness. I felt the same about Cryptonomicon but it didn't bother me there either. However, it got too much for me in Quicksilver (which I really need to try and read again). I felt the first part ...

Gravity's Rainbow The Crying of Lot 49 A Scanner Darkly Neuromancer Cryptonomicon Imajica Those are my suggestions for genre newbies.

... their thoughts.) Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson The Postman by David Brin Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (to a computer geek) If someone insists on a book by my favorite author (Heinlein) I go with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress or a ...

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson is party set in the Philippines. Though it's rather fat if you're in a hurry to get through your list!

... Children of the Lens at a used bookseller through Amazon for $2.49 plus $3.99 shipping - a total of $6.48. Cryptonomicon, new, costs $7.99. (Both are paperback editions of the books in question).

... it. I read Stephenson's The Diamond Age earlier this year, I have Quicksilver home from the library now to read, and Cryptonomicon is on my 'must read' list for this year, so it looks like I am going to have to add Snow Crash in some time, too!

... Literacy Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Speak, Memory - Read 04/21/09 A Separate Peace Cryptonomicon And the Dead Shall Rise Move Your Shadow Shutter Island Dog Man Peace Like a River DeusExLibrus in The Green Dragon : Most HATED books (Mar 30, 2009, 2:57pm)

... particularly like something. Some examples of recent years have been Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Animal Farm, and Cryptonomicon. I wanted to like all three of these, but just couldn't get into them. Might try again sometime later in life. An author I as a buddhist avoid strictly on ...

... Eric Ambler. And Neal Stephenson!!!! Yes, there is the cyberpunky, steampunky element to some of this stuff, but Cryptonomicon is wonderful, and The Baroque Cycle is sublime! I may be biased, but they aren't too info-dumpy - well, at least not to me!! Truly wonderful, and they do ...

I haven't read Cryptonomicon but I did read Stephenson's Quicksilver and thought it was a brilliant book. Unfortunately the print in my copy was so tiny (and it's not exactly a short book, let's be honest) that I just didn't feel I could struggle through any more. I really wish I could have. ...

so Im thinking The Secret History at the moment is the one to go for.....strange that nobody has mentioned Cryptonomicon....any takers?

I think that I read Cryptonomicon a very long time ago, but not 100% sure. I'm thinking about getting some of his other books after reading Anathem though. Iain Banks - he is also on my list of people to read that I haven't gotten around to yet.

... by Wallace Stegner 8.The Brothers K by David James Duncan 9.Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns 10.Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson nudge away....... Im all ears ;)

Thank you alynnk for the recommendations. Certainly, I think Cryptonomicon is what he has received the most recognition for. I had heard of that one and not The Diamond Age when I took that on. Too true, never enough reading hours. I fondly remember my youth: no real responsibilities and I ...

>34 Playing favorites insists that I suggest that you make an attempt at Cryptonomicon first. If you make it through that -- and believe me, it may take you a couple of tries, as it took me a couple of tries (and twelve dollars in library fines, but that's another story) -- the Baroque ...

... great place to start -- thanks for the review! Also, feel free to count me among Neal Stephenson's extensive fanbase -- Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite novels ever.

... Homecoming Series (I re-read the others too but not as often) 3.) Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon 4.) Kim Stanley Robinson - Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars 5.) Isaac Asimov - Foundation Series (and others but not all) I re-read a LOT - these ...

... e. Like avaland #93, I read and enjoyed The Diamond Age and In the Beginning ... was the Command Line. I also liked Cryptonomicon, though the ratio of infodump to story was beginning to increase to dangerous levels. Quicksilver was the opposite of mercurial: I plodded, plodded, and ...

... for the rather awful books by Jack Chalker (another geographer/SF author). Stephenson IS awfully well read and up through Cryptonomicon, he avoid total info dumps (though he started wading into those murky depths in that book. The nicest bit about getting degrees in geography is that you ...

>90: Have you tried his The Diamond Age? I found it a little easier to get into than Cryptonomicon—part of it was that I liked the "past" portions of the latter, but the "present/future" parts of the story lines were a bit flat for me.

>87: I haven't read any Gibson, but I will look for that one. I really liked Cryptonomicon, but it was tough to get into--I would have to guess that, when going through such a difficult time, physically and mentally, a book like that would have been a nonstarter. Stephenson fascinates me--he ...

... While his next,Spook Country, improved on 2nd reading, it was still too techno heavy and light on humanness. I liked Cryptonomicon a great deal - but it was also the book where it became evident that his publishers were afraid to edit him. The Baroque Cycle would have been great at 2/3 ...

... Where did you think the story was going? And how did you think it would tie up loose ends.? Have you read Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon? I started it four and half years ago while I undergoing treatment for chemo. Not a good time to start a book. I had the feeling that the book would make a ...

But is Cryptonomicon really SF? I have it tagged as such, but in reality I don't think it is. It's set in present time, with two second level historical/back story-lines intermingled...

... be in there. I see reading_fox has already mentioned one Pixel Juice, but but I'd like to push Vurt by Jeff Noon Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson should at least get a nomination, IMO. Pandora in the Congo by Albert Sanchez Pinol (which will never make the list!). R.U.R by ...

... This year I'm trying to do some rereading, so I think I'll alternate between new (to me) books and rereads. The list: 1. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

... if"> The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Dwight D. Eisenhower by Malcolm Charles Moos bluesalamanders in 50 Book Challenge : bluesalamanders 2009 (Feb 5, 2009, 4:15am)

... Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link SantaThing book Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

... ever be able to decide which books to bring, either! Good thing I'm happily married ;-) Anyway, I'd probably take Cryptonomicon and Lions of Al-Rassan and Cyteen, because between them they define a kind of sphere of interest. Cryptonomicon isn't his best, but it's kind of ...

... Flower and the Secret Fan Speak, Memory A Prayer for Owen Meany - slated to read in February A Separate Peace Cryptonomicon And the Dead Shall Rise Move Your Shadow Shutter Island Dog Man The March - I promised Joyce not to read this one! Peace Like ...

>249 Certainly give Cryptonomicon a try! It's long and dense and it took me a couple of tries to work my way though (the first time I tried to read it, I borrowed a copy from the library and kept it so long that I accumulated a $12 fine) but it's become one of my favorite books. I especially ...

... Diamond Age a gem (pun intended); I hope the ending is as good as the middle! Maybe I'll see how Stasia likes Cryptonomicon--I'm interested in cryptography so that my be another one to try, after all.

Cryptonomicon is on my list to read this year, and despite reservations (I have never been a 15-year-old male, for instance) I am still going to have a go at it. I will probably struggle with the tech side of things, but I am hoping my interest in cryptography will make it worth the read.

re Cryptonomicon Thanks for the review. This book was recommended to me by my Scifi son and I was considering it. I'm about a third of the way through The Diamond Age. I found the beginning tough going because of all the techno stuff (and Bud was not my favorite character!) but now I ...

Excellent review of Cryptonomicon--I read it last year and liked it, but had the same reservations you did. I've also read Snow Crash and Quicksilver and it seems to me that enjoyment of a Neal Stephenson novel (i.e., one's ability to overlook the somewhat amateurish writing and, as you say, ...

... src="http://www.deffler.com/lt/number_2.gif"> : Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Science Fiction 1168 pages I have to say I was little disappointed in this book. I enjoyed it, but I expected to ...

... cyberpunk. Philip Pullman and Tim LaHaye, both writing about apocalypse. See which one throws the first punch. Neal Stephenson and Tad Williams because I need a new doorstop ;)

1001 books 1)Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson 2)Whatever by Michel Houellebecq 14/02/09 3) Unless by Carol Shields 29/03/09 4)Simon and the Oaks Marianne Fredriksson 3/4/9 5) Fury Salman Rushdie 1/6/9 6) how the dead live 7) the buddha of suburbia Hanif Kurseushi Aug 2009 8 ...

... to discuss. I, too, got bogged down in The Baroque Cycle Trilogy (only read the first two) after having LOVED Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, and Snow Crash. (In case anyone cares I was also not a fan of Zodiac although my spouse - who agrees with me on the others - thought ...

I think I'll keep an eye on your list of books there. Cryptonomicon is one I've heard good things about but not read yet, so be good to hear what you think when you get to it.

List 4: Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror --Duma Key by Stephen King (1/2009) --Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson --Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (1/2009) --Moonheart by Charles de Lint (11/2009) --Lisey's Story by Stephen King (May 2009) --Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne ( ...

May I? All three books of the Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, Confusion, System of the World), four if you include Cryptonomicon, may be general overload. Each of them is almost 1000 pages... Like them, though, but not everyone does. Anathem was quite good, for a different take on ...

... of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay The Butcher's Boy by Thomas Perry The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson The Double by Jose Saramago Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foe ...

... amaranthic, I will nudge My Antonia. For your brother, I might suggest something like William Gibson's Neuromancer or Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson. I do not know how your family feels about religion but I found Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett quite funny in an ...

... Fforde - The Fourth Bear 3. Mark Z. Danielewski - Het Kaartenhuis (House of Leaves) 4. Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon 5. Hal Duncan - Vellum 6. Hal Duncan - Ink 7. Italo Calvino - Als op een winternacht een reiziger **** 1/2 8. Jane Lindskold - Broth ...

... the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer 2. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Suzanna Clarke 3. Moo by Jane Smiley 4. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson 5. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen 6. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon 7. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters ...

I loved Cryptonomicon too. But the anachronisms in the Baroque Cycle spoilt it for me. I also thought Snow Crash was over-rated - I much preferred his The Diamond Age.

I absolutely loved Cryptonomicon. The Baroque Cycle was uneven IMO but the best sections were great. I can certainly understand those who felt that there wasn't enough reward for ploughing through the not-so-great sections. I certainly didn't care that much for Snowcrash - it was a good book, ...

... read and like his books. I wonmder how much of it is left over from Snowcrash. Because a lot of people couldn't finish Cryptonomicon, and I'm far from being the only one who gave up on the Baroque Cycle...

Neal Stephenson The System of the World. How could one not love Princess Caroline?

... finish the challenge so I tended to avoid doorstops for the most part. (Especially after spending half of January reading Cryptonomicon, after which I figured I needed to pick up the pace!)

3. Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson- To be honest, I was disappointed with this book. I have heard nothing but great things about Snow Crash from others, but I could just not get into this one no matter how hard i tried. The characters felt sort of bland and the plot just didn't seem to go ...

... seeds of ideas that were later used in BNW. The Collector is another decent, creepy thriller by John Fowles. Cryptonomicon is a decent cyberpunk scifi novel, if you like that genre. Not as good as Neuromancer, but Neal Stephenson is on a comparable level with William G ...

... has branched into related fields. well enough self promotion.. which makes me thing of in the name of the rose and Cryptonomicon as a couple of genre books that demanded and rewarded attention. NSteph went downhill posthaste afterwards..i'm trying to get into Anathem.

... to see what you had already read of this. If you've read all these, I can easily recommend more! :-) Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon (also The Diamond Age is good) Connie Willis - Doomsday Book (also To Say Nothing of the Dog is very funny) C. J. Cherryh - Downbelow Station (probab ...

Hmmm, realized I responded with a list to MusicMom41, but this is blackdogbooks thread. :-) Putting it over in her thread.

... Morrison-ness. Also bought Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay because it was cheap even though I've already read it and also Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson which I have not.

... quantum mechanics... and society. Better paced, better edited, and not much of the the navel gazing that takes place in Cryptonomicon and it's cousins (which I know you didn't like). Of course it's pseudomedieval, but it IS science fiction, with aliens and all - not historical fiction or ...

(Accidently double-posted, because LT went down....)

#4 ...i felt rather burnt by the last two volumes of The Baroque Cycle... That's it exactly. Much as I loved Cryptonomicon, The Baroque Cycle pretty much burned me out, too, and I'm reluctant to take on another 1,000 page doorstop until somebody talks me into it.

@ 205 arouse77: I'm curious about what you think of Cryptonomicon because I'm thinking about buying it.

Cryptonomicon By Neal Stephenson The Rake William F Buckley Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Suzanne and also then we came to the end by Joshua Ferris which i reviewed here: www.autumnrouse.com

... the Quake Small Remedies Super-Cannes House of Leaves Blonde Pastoralia Timbuktu The Romantics Cryptonomicon As If I Am Not There Everything You Need Fear and Trembling The Ground Beneath Her Feet Disgrace Sputnik Sweetheart Elementary Particles ...

... In the Beginning... was the Command Line, which is just wrong. Having said that, I did enjoy The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon, but I gave up on the Baroque Cycle after ploughing through the first two books. In hardback. I have no intention of buying or reading his new one, Anathem.

I am roughly 400 pages into Cryptonomicon after spending far too long on The Corrections

... McMaster Bujold Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson Camouflage by Joe Haldeman Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear Doomsday Book by Connie Willis End of the World Blues by Jon Courtenay Grim ...

... some help picking my next read, I've gotten through most of the classics and would like like to read someone new. I like Neal Stephenson and Tad Williams William Gibson stuff along those lines. Any help is appreciated.

... Admittedly, some of my favorites are an investment; I don't read particularly fast, and I love doorstops - Infinite Jest, Cryptonomicon, Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series (which, let's face it, is one single, massive work), etc. In some cases, a reread would take months, not weeks. But ...

... and Zooey by J.D. Salinger Lord of the Rings trilogy King of the City by Michael Moorcock Cruddy by Lynda Barry Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Babel by Patti Smith Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins Miss Wyoming by Douglas Coupland Yikes, I'm havin' a flashback ...

... it, although the majority of the reviews on LT seem to disagree with me. "Tepid" was my reaction to Quicksilver--so far, Cryptonomicon is the only one I'm glad I read. I should add that Snow Crash is very entertaining at first--it's when Stephenson started to get all serious that he lost ...

Hmmm. Thanks for the heads-up on Snow Crash. I have it on my library list but perhaps will rethink. I was tepid on Cryptonomicon so it sounds like maybe I should pass.

45) Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson--This was a huge disappointment after Cryptonomicon. The little flaws in Stephenson's later work are magnified in this, one of his earlier novels. And there were so many logic holes that I could barely tell whether the story was brilliant or didn't quite make ...

Another Neal Stephenson book is Cryptonomicon. I haven't read it myself, but have heard good things and recommendations regarding it.

... by Anatoli Boukreev Sharpe's Triumph by Bernard Cornwell Wellington at Waterloo by Jac Weller Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson Austenland by Shannon Hale The ...

44) Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson--Simply put, this book is AWESOME. I read Stephenson's Quicksilver a few years ago and thought it was way overrated, but I was willing to give him another try when I found out this book covered two of my favorite historical topics: WWII and cryptography. Al ...

Cryptonomicon: Neal Stephenson

I'm really weird, I have read Cryptonomicon at least trice, and the Baroque Cycle twice (I think). Of course, lots of sequences were you can just flip pages until the real story resumes, at least in the Cryptonomicon, but I still both enjoyed and liked it. I liked The name of the rose as ...

I have to agree with Cryptonomicon. The book was waaaaaaaay to long for what it said. Would have made a gripping short story...

... The Name of the Rose is one of my favorites, but I'm weird. 8^} Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell is on my list. And Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson.

Books CAN be a good gift, though. I gave my dad Cryptonomicon one Yule and he subsequently went on to buy and read the Baroque Cycle, plus LOTS of books on WWII and cryptography, and biographies and historic texts about the period described to the late 17th century and science history. Another, ...

I don't typically re-read much. So, the only things I have or plan to re-read would have to be: 1. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson There have undoubtedly been many nano-tech books written by other authors, but Stephenson always has a lot of good lines and good characters. Plus, I like ...

Cryptonomicon is one of the few books that both my husband and I enjoyed (the other was Memoir From Antproof Case). He loved the perl script and the economics stuff; I enjoyed the plot and still chuckle when I think of that guy using a tie he bought at an airport as a tourniquet. I haven't read ...

I am reading Cryptonomicon and it is interesting so far - just really long. Another quesion" About the Pat Barker Trilogy - what is the order of the books - how should I read them - ie which book should I read first.

... think Snow Crash and Diamond Age are both works of genius. I found the endings much more satisfying on a second read. Cryptonomicon is excellent too, but like limerts I'm a bit of a Stephenson fanboy and can't think of anything of his I *haven't* liked. :)

I could never get into Snow Crash but i enjoyed Quicksilver and Cryptonomicon quite a bit.

Quicksilver was okay, I thought. I loved Cryptonomicon, however. I haven't read any of his others yet.

... enjoyed Quicksilver but I think you would need a good knowledge of the setting to get the most out of it. Also read his Cryptonomicon but felt it lost its way a little especially towards the end.

... with Clam's first paragraph. Sometimes the fiction I read inspires me to read works of a non fictional character. Like Cryptonomicon inspired the reading of books on cryptography/crypto history. I can't seem to recall any instance when I bought/read another work of fiction just to know ...

Last week I snagged Into Thin Air and Cryptonomicon for 75¢ (cents) a piece!

... great. This book will improve those recommendations. But if most people who own a certain programming book also own, say, Cryptonomicon, I'll be less likely to see that. And recommendations like that, the ones that go beyond a specific category of books and get at some deeper similarity of ...

... Lethem's cross-genre masterpiece Motherless Brooklyn won the NBCC prize. Others that arrived in '99: Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, Kingsolver's awesome The Poisonwood Bible, Kent Haruf's Plainsong, Stewart O'Nan's greatest book A Prayer for the Dying, and Roddy Doyle's thrilling A ...

... then suddenly it was due back at the library. Again though, I haven't felt moved to reborrow it. And I gave up on the Cryptonomicon. Again, not a conscious decision. I just put it down and din't pick it back up. I probably would have finished all three if I'd bought them, but having ...

15. The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman pgs: 217. Read 28 February - 22 April. 16. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson pgs: 1140. Read 24 March - 22 April. total pages: 4824 non-fiction: 4/20 books 808/6000 pages

Just recently. How about Cryptonomicon? I'm trying to get my boyfriend to read that these days.

I was going to suggest Catch-22 as well. Another great, funny book I read recently was Cryptonomicon, but depending what you mean by "shallow," it might be that. I also thought Invitation to a Beheading was funny, in a dark and twisted way.

... Suite Francaise. I couldn't finish Sarah's Key because the writing wasn't very good. I know some think it's boring, but Cryptonomicon has some good writing about the Pacific theater. Madeleine Bunting's The Model Occupation was one of the inspirations for my book (it's available on Kind ...

... character. Out of other recent books I've read, one that really sticks out that is also in two different time-frames is Cryptonomicon, which has a WWII-era story-line alongside a modern (contemporary) story-line. Great novel.

... Age by Neal Stephenson I am quickly becoming a big fan of Mr. Stephenson. I didn't like this one quite as much as Cryptonomicon, if only because I got a bit confused toward the end. It is a really interesting book, though, and it goes really fast once you get going. 9. The Vicar ...

... was pretty much a fluff read. Definitely not much substance there. Out of my first complete set of 8, my favorite was Cryptonomicon. It took me two weeks to read it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. He goes off on lengthy tangents sometimes, but they are so entertaining I didn't mind. One ...

... a bio about Robert Hooke, on extended loan from my father. I guess he got intrigued when he read The Baroque Cycle (Cryptonomicon, which was a gift to him from me, had him reading into crypto history; he's that kind of person) and as my parents can't store one more book he gave it to me, ...

... more book to go, and I will have finished my first set of 8! So far I have read: The Portrait of a Lady – Classic Cryptonomicon – 1001 Books to Read Before You Die Persuasion – Classic Reread The Know-It-All – Non-fiction Eater – TBR SF/Fantasy Last of the Amazons – ...

... But I won't complain, 'cause I'm one of those who loves Stephenson, so more of his writing is fine by me. Definitely try Cryptonomicon first -- the Cycle re-uses a number of characters and ideas that he introduced there. Plus, it's only one book. And it's better.

I would suggest trying Cryptonomicon as an appetizer. If you like the 800? pages of that, you'll probably love the 2500? pages of the Baroque cycle. But it's certainly not for every taste.

2. Cryptonomicon Wow, that's a long book! Totally worth it, though! 3. Persuasion Had to re-read it after watching the mangled adaptation on PBS the weekend before last. So I'm off to a slow start, but making progress!

... years ago and were enjoying it very much but couldn't finish it because some of the CDs were badly scratched. I finished Cryptonomicon yesterday, so that is one down from my 1001 Books to Read Before I Die list, and I have just a few pages to go in Persuasion which will be my first classic ...

I just finished Cryptonomicon. What a fun book! I'm almost done re-reading Persuasion too, but I've read it several times before so it doesn't really count. With all the new Jane Austen adaptations being shown on PBS in the next couple of months, I'll probably be reading all of them for ...

... 5/6 of their approx. 4000 volumes are non fiction. Later dad picked up his old interest in what's vaguely sf; I gave him Cryptonomicon one chistmas and he surprised me with buying the Baroque Cycle all by himself. It must have been the first nonfic he bought in 20 years.

Cryptonomicon ?

... by Thich Nhat Hanh, and Basic Teachings of the Buddha, by Glenn Wallis. I've also begun re-reading Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon". (Sorry, no Touchstones for most of these). I also have sitting on my reading table Bruce Lee's Striking Thoughts.

I just started Cryptonomicon and am liking it so far. Looks like there are some Neal Stephenson fans here. This is the first of his books I have read but I don't think it will be the last!

The Baroque Cycle is tremendous, but so sprawling that it is taking me a long time to get through it. Cryptonomicon is far and away his best work, although Snow Crash is also wonderful. Neal Stephenson, William Gibson and Iain M. Banks redefined Science Fiction

I finished The Portrait of a Lady and started on Cryptonomicon today.

>7 cabegley Cryptonomicon was the first of his books that I've read, but considering how good it was, I'm definitely up for some more. I was thinking Snow Crash next, but I'll keep my eyes open at HPB for the series you mention as well. >56 teelgee You're not alone in your ...

I'm about half way through The God Delusion with The year of living biblically waiting. #2 & #7 glad to hear Cryptonomicon is worth the read. It's been sitting on my shelf for a year or so, mocking me, I might try and tackle it this year. #22 and #26 RE-reading Jonathan Strange yikes! It ...

I'm with clam, it doesn't get better than Middlemarch. Worst, hmmm, probably Cryptonomicon. blech.

... by Laurie Halse Anderson Tomorrow by Graham Swift Dissolution by C. J. Sansom King of the vagabonds by Neal Stephenson Odalisque by Neal Stephenson The lost constitution by William Martin The Spanish bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax The girls he adored by Jonath ...

... of fantastic, though I'd classify him more like existential sci-fi noir The Blind Assassin has a sci-fi story in story Cryptonomicon is more along the lines of cyberpunk Stranger in a Strange Land The Once and Future King Gormenghast and Titus Groan possibly Alice's Adventures ...

I'm finishing Anthem during my downtimes at work. (Hi Boss). I want to read Cryptonomicon, but I want to read The Diamond Age first for some reason.

philosojerk (#2)--I really liked Cryptonomicon as well. Have you read Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World)? A big time commitment, but well worth it, in my opinion.

Tough to come up with just five. My top four for 2007 had to have been Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Blindness by Jose Saramago Winds of War by Herman Wouk Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov There's about a 13-way tie for fifth place, though, and I've ...

Woo! I've been waiting for a new thread because I was so far behind on the last two weeks' worth. I finally finished Cryptonomicon last week (absolutely fantastic book), and this week I started Vladimir Nabokov's Ada. Then I had to go out, and my copy of Ada is a huge hardcover edition, ...

... buy, it would be hard for me to pick specific books for some categories. I noticed last week that the library's copy of Cryptonomicon, which I handled just a couple months ago but passed over for other books on my list, was no longer there. :( But I'm blathering. Anyway, interesting ...

Quicksilver. Not to everyone's liking, though. 'Steampunk' SF. And to really appreciate it you have to read Cryptonomicon before. Both are 900+ tomes. But if you like them you have two more 900+ page books to follow up with (Confusion and System of the World) ;-)

... Walters on friday - it's the first book of hers i'm reading and am enjoying her style. 48 philosojerk: i have Cryptonomicon in my TBR pile - please keep us updated on your progress and if you still like it - maybe i'll make it my first of 2008!!!

I finished The Left Hand of Darkness this evening (which I very much enjoyed), and started reading Cryptonomicon during commercials of the Survivor finale (worst season ever, btw). I'm only about 50 pages in, but I already love this book. Great sarcastic humor, and after recently reading a ...

I treated myself to a trip to HPB today, and came home rich! I got Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds The Three Muskateers by Alexandre Dumas Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke Foucaul ...

... at the Fair that Changed America-Erik Larson The Mustangs-J. Frank Dobie Rattlesnakes-J. Frank Dobie Cryptonomicon-Neal Stephenson American Gods-Neil Gaiman A Spot of Bother: A Novel-Mark Haddon A Parents' Guide to the Montessori Classroom-Aline D. Wo ...

... . . War and Peace, Lord of the Rings, Don Quixote, Gone with the Wind, Les Miserables, Infinite Jest, U.S.A., Cryptonomicon, Suitable Boy and The Taebek Mountains (the last one which apparently no one has ever seen). Any others? I thought I was going to add Moby Dick to ...

... with the edition/translation.) Anna Karenina, I think. A lot of the older books on the list are over 1000, I think. Cryptonomicon is around 1000 pages. Infinite Jest is over 1000. Edited to add U.S.A, which is kind of cheating, since it's a trilogy.

... like The Forever War. It wasn't horrible or anything, i just didn't see what was so good. I was about halfway through Cryptonomicon when we moved, never was motivated to go back to it. Based on my experiences with those, i'm not sure whether I want to use this list to find books I'd ...

Cryptonomicon was one of those "life's too short" kind of books for me. I couldn't be bothered to finish a book about a bunch of characters I couldn't give a crap about. And there's just too much "look, aren't I clever." But I'm sure it would be entertaining to discuss.

I tried reading Cryptonomicon a while ago, but got bogged down and gave up. Maybe I'll try it again sometime. Of course, with my recent massive purchase at the library sale and my TBR pile already at insane levels and growing constantly, it might not happen.

...and I'd say a 900+ page book (Cryptonomicon) makes for a somewhat demanding group read? ;-) Last light of the sun is more like GD, but really, I don't enjoyed it very much, even if I finished it. Not one of his best.

Cryptonomicon is one of those books I read, but with growing (but not fatal) impatience as getting "needlessly complex". But, yah, it was a really good read.

I've read The Name of the Wind and Cryptonomicon. I thought the first was a pretty good start to a series, and I'm looking forward to the next volume in 2008. Cryptonomicon was really good, but a bit dense, with lots of characters and some shifting around in time. I plan to re-read it when (if!) ...

... ancient furniture, described in detail over several pages? Maybe if it furthers the story, but... (Both examples are from Cryptonomicon). Anyway, Cherryh have my vote as well, as do Kay. They both write good sex scenes that more often than not is consistent with the characters and the ...

... be very big. I still hope to get to The Border Trilogy, but I don't think I will get to Douglas Adams this year. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson - Done, it goes pretty quick, but there are still 900 pages to get through. American Gods by Neil Gamon - Done, but wasn't very big Ear ...

I LOVED< LOVED, LOVED Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. It is one of the few books that I finished, then immediately started reading it again, just for the joy of savoring it.

... Breakfast of champions is a biology book. Decamerone is about christianity. The Prince by Macchiavelli and Cryptonomicon are comedies. I must be deeply indoctrinated, as I haven't noticed that the classical Swedish crime story series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö is ...

... Breakfast of champions is a biology book. Decamerone is about christianity. The Prince by Macchiavelli and Cryptonomicon are comedies. I must be deeply indoctrinated, as I haven't noticed that the classical Swedish crime story series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö is ...

I just finished Abracadabra by Stephen Gresham and still working on Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson and The Battle of Alamein by John Bierman. Tonight I will start Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander, then the rest of the series.

How is Cryptography ridiculous for Da Vinci Code? Cryptography points to something serious. Like Cryptonomicon, or the Codebreakers.

Zodiac Jumper Ammonite Cryptonomicon Lunatics

Interesting that you chose Cryptonomicon as an example. I would have placed that as a book with substance. But, rethinking it through I see your point. Neil Stephenson does have substance, but he often side steps discussing the main concepts and instead just writes about people thinking through ...

... when I look at fiction, mathematics, the top three books are The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, then Cryptonomicon, then Flatland. The first one has 1,031 fiction tags but only 34 mathematics tags, while Flatland has 281 fiction tags and 327 mathematics tags--and the ...

Gold - 349 - Cryptonomicon (9) Silver - 354 -Chats on old silver (3) Indigo - 113 - Nemesis Violet - 72 - (4 titles tied )

... into best-sellerdom, and sells in the millions: Dune in the 60s, Ender's Game in the 70s, Neuromancer in the 80s... Cryptonomicon, perhaps, for the 90s? But the genre chugs along even in years without runaway hits. Let's guess that it's 20% of new books that go into the black. The ...

... read 4. The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise by Michael Grunwald (1) - 2006 5. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (2) - 1999

... about it, and it has changed how I look at the world... 1. The Absorbent Mind by Maria Montessori (1949) 2. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (1999) 3. American Gods by Neil Gaiman (2001)

... make it so that people can't post until they've entered 20 books! EDIT: there's a bit in Neal Stephenson's thriller Cryptonomicon where a hacker blows up someone's computer by overloading it's circuits or something. Can you do that?

... up there in the message stratosphere I really enjoyed Quicksilver (and Confusion and The System of the World... and Cryptonomicon /which accidentally got me into reading a couple of pop science books on crypto + crypto history.../). So, all great minds are not alike, hehe ;-) Anyway, ...

I recommend Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. It has one plot-line that is now-ish and another that is in WWII. Both plots involve trying to decipher information, so they both have a kind of mystery behind them. He weaves them together really well. He's primarily known as a cyper-punk/sci-fi ...

... I found that after reading 5 pages I had to put it down to think. I am sorry to hear that some people had issues with The Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle. When I started reading these books I could hardly put them down. Plus Half-Cock Jack has to be the coolest character in history.

... I've heard rather unkind things about Quicksilver and the other two, which is why I avoided them like the plague. Cryptonomicon was fun, but tedious as all hell at times.

... a year or so ago, perhaps because of unreasonably high expectations based on recommendations. And I know some people love Cryptonomicon, but I got into the middle and couldn't find any reason to continue.

Victory... I finally finished Cryptonomicon. Sorry, I had to share, it took me over three weeks. I enjoyed it. I'm just a slow reader and 900 pages takes me some time. I find that if you strip away the math, code-breaking and perl scripts etc., this is basically a thriller, with lots of gore and ...

Still reading Cryptonomicon. I just might actually finish it this week.

... by John Gimlette In-glish Lit: Life of Pi by Yann Martel Biographies: The Man Who Knew Infinity Sci-Fi: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (Which isn't really a list of my all-time favourites, just the ones I can reach from my bed at a moment's notice, and thus are ...

My books are all packed for a move, but here're a few: Cryptonomicon (and The Confusion) by Neal Stephenson Things that Fall from the Sky by Kevin Brockmeier McGee and Stuckey's The Bountiful Container by Rose Marie Nichols McGee for gardening stuff Watership Down by Ri ...

I'm all the way to page 330 on Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which means I'm actually speeding up. At this rate I'll finish mid-May, much better than July 1. It's a fun read; and, yes, I did look up the country of Kinakuta online.

From Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon Let’s set the existence-of-God issue aside for a later volume, and just stipulate that in some way, self-replicating organisms came into existence on this planet and immediately began trying to get rid of each other, either by spamming their ...

... was interesting, but overall only OK. A little self deprecating humor: As of Friday night I had read all of 38 pages of Cryptonomicon (my copy is 918 pages)... that was three days since I started. At this rate I will finish in July.

... swashbuckling kind. It's a VERY good book. Is Enoch the Red a wizard? If so, read Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle + Cryptonomicon. Rather heavy stuff, though, and not fantasy - it's normally tagged sf or steampunk. (BTW, I think he is) On the much lighter and funnier side is the Discw ...

Finished Rattlesnakes by J. Frank Dobie. Next is a 900 page tour through Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. I have no idea how long this will take me, but Stephenson's irreverence seems like a nice change after two Dobie's with their careful language and endless folk tales.

... and it remains my favourite. I hope you enjoy it as well. I'm sort of in the process of deciding whether I'll gowith Cryptonomicon, "The Dream Merchant" by Isabel Hoving or The Anubis Gates. So far I'm thinking The Anubis Gates, but we'll see. I'm not usually this indecisive, but ...

... reading_fox and I are known to disagree on Neal Stephenson - while Snow Crash is excellent I think the quadruple of Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, Confusion and The System of the World is great reads. But I deliberately left them out in my former post as books +900 pages each is, well. ...

... Discworld books, probably more than half of them Pashazade - Effendi - Felaheen Snow Crash The Diamond Age Cryptonomicon Quicksilver - Confusion - The System of the World The earthsea trilogy - Tehanu Worlds of Exile and Illusion Quite a few books from my ...

... Most writers do. But I enjoy the alternate history stuff, and then maybe that's why I liked it and you didn't :-) Cryptonomicon is easier, and not really alternate - it retells/appropriates a couple of RL WWII incidents, places and persons and he uses them in a way that is surprisingly ...

... text! A great novel. I wasn't that happy with The Diamond Age, even though I have read it more than once, but I LOVED Cryptonomicon and think Quicksilver and its sequels are even better. I know his work is not widely appreciated but I really enjoy the convoluted stories he writes. He ...

Wyrm. Accelerando. Cryptonomicon. Iron Sunrise.

... have you read Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle (starting with Quicksilver)? If you haven't, and you enjoyed Cryptonomicon, I'd highly recommend it. Very long, and sometimes a bit baggy, but worth the ride.

I just finished reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson and while it was very long and a bit overwhelming at times, I really enjoyed it. (The book follows people in two different time periods, and generally jumps back and forth from chapter to chapter...a few times I had to remind myself if I ...

Are you sure that's the ISBN on your copy? That number is not listed yet on the Cryptonomicon workpage. Anyway, if you can't find a book by it's ISBN try searching a few words from the title, or search by the author, you don't need to take the manual entry route quite yet. I'm lazy too, so I ...

... books I continue the habit. As a matter of fact THEY continue to buy books as well ;-) Books in this category includes Cryptonomicon and Anatomy of a typeface. Also, I buy quite a few books intended as reference and inspiration to my colleagues at work, exposing them to books they else ...

#7 - believe it or not, but Cryptonomicon has a plot ;-) Personally I just skip the pages describing bodily functions, or algorithms (I started out training to be an engineer but decided I like the "magical" approach better - I don't enjoy numbercrunching and chemical formulas). I'd ...

... Neal Stephenson and his Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World), including Cryptonomicon; Jon Courtenay Grimwood and his Arabesque Cycle (Pashazade, Effendi, Felaheen) + his End of the World Blues and Stamping Butterflies (but the ...

I preordered Quicksilver. It took almost 24 months for it to arrive! Before that I preordered Cryptonomicon... I've also preordered most of Grimwoods' books, and some of Pratchetts, if I remember correctly. :-)

#30 I gave up on Cryptonomicon a couple months ago. To me it was the sort of book that could have easily been absolutely engrossing, but it was carried out extremely poorly. I'm currently taking a break from the Bancroft Strategy. I say "break" because I might end up finishing it, not ...

DH read Cryptonomicon last year because he felt like the only computer engineer who hadn't. He said it was worth a read but didn't think it was as good as his colleagues made it out to be. I'm only on my third book of ...

... But I've learnt to skim parts of it. As these things go Quicksilver was not the worst - I still give that distinction to Cryptonomicon with it's lengthy analyzis of... well, what some religions puts as one of the ultimate sins, staged in a cryptographic setting... plus some wierd furniture ...

... would bet that if Stephenson hadn't written his earlier, more "pure" sci-fi books, people wouldn't be trying so hard to putCryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle into the sci-fi bag ... because Stephenson became know first as a sci-fi writer, he's somewhat typecast.

Cryptonomicon isn't the 'hardest' of SF, but the concept of the "data haven" certainly lets it squeak in as SF. More centrally, Cryptonomicon certainly is fiction about science (in this case, cryptography), which is sometimes indistinguishable from "Science Fiction". It's a ...

# 67 Cryptonomicon is one of my favourite books, and Snow Crash was good in it's time - I guess it could feel dated today. How far have you read into the book? I thought it took some time for the characters to develop... For added depth, IF you liked Crypto when your through it I'd recommend ...

65> I am also currently reading Cryptonomicon and would agree with your assessment so far. I think Snow Crash and The Diamond Age (both of which I love) qualify more clearly as sf. However, one of the reasons I love Stephenson is because his books are essentially treatises on other topics ...

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. I'm enjoying the sheer geekiness of it all. It reminds me of Gravity's Rainbow, but not as magical, or obsessive, or cinematic or crazy. I'm a knitter, so I'm also listening to Talk Talk on my iPod. I love T.C. Boyle, I read everything he writes. Thi ...

Yeah Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, and The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling - still the best steampunk in the genre - both stand out for me. I also enjoyed Pattern Recognition - also by Gibson

... et al) from Neal Stephenson SF - because that's what he have written before. Even if it was a while since, as Cryptonomicon hardly reads as SF either. As to the others I am not sure I think a setting in the future/alternate history is enough for a work being SF, even if most ...

... think: Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George Marching As To War by Pierre Berton Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova The Josephine B trilogy by Sandra Gulland (an LT author!) and/or (if I ...

... read in any single year ever. So I broke down and sketched out a reading schedule for the year. The biggest books are: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson American Gods by Neil Gamon Earth : an intimate history by Richard Fortey The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy The ultimate ...

... Egan 6. Transmetropolitan, Warren Ellis 7. The diamond age, or, Young lady's illustrated primer, Neal Stephenson 8. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson* I have been planning to read some Christopher Priest, Jonathan Lethem and Richard Morgan. Perhaps, in the near future, this list will ...

... I'll second Snow crash, but Diamond Age isn't a work I'd recommend to someone not used to Stephenson, same with Cryptonomicon. Zodiac on the other hand was fun and pretty easy to read. "Movie books" like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are probably very good for those ...

I am very fond of The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon was badly flawed I think. Hmm I suspect I have put up a review of that though If my notes were only a line or two I might not have posted them.

... age is one of Stephensons weaker works; only The Big U and Zodiac are worse, and I REALLY enjoyed reading both Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle of which Quicksilver is a part.

... and the Sorcerers Stone (Book 1) - J.K. Rowling Neuromancer - William Gibson Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson The Secret History - Donna Tartt A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess Harry Potter ...

... not the only weirdo out there! But it can be hard on shoulders and back when one have to carry BIG books around. I read Cryptonomicon when commuting, and it's close to 1000 pages, hard cover... That's when you know you're ready for the asylum ;-)

... d. Das Boot (The Boat) by Lothar-Gunther Buchheim is excellent and was adapted into the well known TV series/film. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Journey into Fear by Eric Ambler or any of his other books Brideshead Revisited & Sword of Honour by Evelyn Waugh

... Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson. I'm almost done and I love it. I've read snow crash, cryptonomicon, and the entire baroque cycle, but this is my favorite. It reminds me of early sterling like Schismatrix Plus. The story, characters, and journey ...

... I figure this will get me a little caught up with the rest of the class. So I've read Wicked, Slaughterhouse-Five, Cryptonomicon, Anna Karenina, and Catch-22, interleaved with lighter reading of course. Currently well into Ender's Game. On deck: Huckleberry Finn.

... of hundred pages I can switch back and forth. It's been okay for almost a year now, and I got a lot done (most recently Cryptonomicon and Anna Karenina), but around Part 7 of A.K. I felt it start to go. </digression> So to bring this back to the topic: what I'm reading now is the ...

I liked Cryptonomicon, although I did find it a bit slow in parts. Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (that touchstone only shows Volume 3; not sure how I'd do all three volumes), on the other hand, was fantastic. It was also a bit slow for the first 100 pages or so, but then the next 2500 pages really ...

Perhaps try Cryptonomicon first? Quicksilver is excellent but the pacing reflects the fact that it is just the beginning of a long trilogy. And to quote a secondary definition "Extravagant, complex, or bizarre, especially in ornamentation", the Baroque trilogy is just that.

... the book that the most others had (theoretically) read, but that I hadn't. It was Slaughterhouse-Five. Loved it. Then Cryptonomicon, which was very long and nothing special. Now it's Anna Karenina, which is spectacularly great, and next comes The Brothers Karamazov, which I'm looking ...

Re: hard SF - Neal Stephenson is a good read, Cryptonomicon in particular. Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle (which starts with Quicksilver) could almost be classified as historical fiction with science as a theme, but he has other more "traditional" (though less "hard") works which are ...

I went the other way with Neal Stephenson; I loved Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, but really really struggled to get through the Baroque Cycle. I found it really tough going, without any real payoff. I made it in the end, but it took some real dedication :)

... stick my neck out and say that Preacher, taken as a single narrative, is at least as close to that 'ideal' form as, say, Cryptonomicon. I don't think this is radical at all -- I'm very skeptical of imposed interpretations myself. (See the Sandman Papers for an example or two of such.) But ...

I don't see any programming books, unless you're counting Cryptonomicon :)

... period it's set in - for example, Jean M Auel. Special mention to Neal Stephenson for the Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon - maybe there are elements of fantasy in there, but they are steeped in the best traditions of historical fiction and I love them.