I found the footnotes, which are about as long as the text, to be a very interesting stand-alone read. Wolfram's self-congratulating doesn't bother me, although

I found the footnotes, which are about as long as the text, to be a very interesting stand-alone read. Wolfram's self-congratulating doesn't bother me, although his work sometimes borders on confusing a posteriori computer models with reality. (Not that he's the only one who does that.) I highly recommend NKS.