The Fool’s Run – John Sandford (September)
What the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer – John Markoff (September)
The Hot Kid – Elmore Leonard (August)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J. K. Rowling (August)
The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova (July)
The System of the World – Neal Stephenson (June)
The Twelfth Card – Jeffery Deaver (May)
All the Flowers Are Dying – Lawrence Block (February)
The Broker – John Grisham (February)
State of Fear – Michael Crichton (February)
Tag Archives: Neal Stephenson
The Baroque Cycle
Just finished reading the third (and final) volume of Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World). I don’t know what to say about almost 3,000 pages except it was a journey. Perhaps one for fans only. I didn’t care much for The Diamond Age but loved Cryptonomicon (1,168 pages) and Snow Crash. Some day I’ll be at a boring party and meet someone that read and enjoyed the story of Dr. Waterhouse, Eliza and Jack Shaftoe as much as I. And we’ll have a nice, long chat.
The Confusion
Just slogged through 800+ pages of Neal Stephenson’s The Confusion (Volume Two of the Baroque Cyclel). I enjoyed it more than the previous sentence would suggest but I found it a tough read. With another 1,000 pages ahead of me in Volume Three.
A world full of power and energy
“The world is full of power and energy and a person can go far by just skimming off a tiny bit of it.” — Pg. 31 of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash.
There are only two industries
There are only two industries. This has always been true. There is the industry of things, and the industry of entertainmnet. The industry of things comes first. It keeps us alive. But making things is easy now. This is not a very interesting business anymore. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (pg 338)
When the men with the swords come, run away!
“When the men with the swords come, run away! Especially if they’ve got Bibles, too.”
— Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver (pg 400)
Death by Hollywood
As a long-time fan of NYPD Blue, I had to give Steven Bochco’s first novel a read. The publisher had to do the usual margin and leading tricks to get this up to hard-back page count (what would have been wrong with a 150 page novel?). But Death by Hollywood is a tasty little snack.
By and large, we’re nothing more than well-paid pimps who represent our poched-out clients as if they’re beautiful young virgins, offereing them up to a bunch of jaded johns who know better, but these are the only whores in town. As the saying goes, denial is not a river in Egypt. It’s a river in Hollywood, and it runs deep, and brown.
On deck: Deception Point by Dan Brown; and Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. Volume one of three. Each in the 1,000 page range.
Good ideas
“Good ideas are just there all of a sudden, like angels in the Bible.”
— Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. (pg 878)