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I was pleasantly surprised to see two Neal Stephenson books on the list, but why did the second have to be Anathem? I thought Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cyc
by jtbigwoo 15y ago
I was pleasantly surprised to see two Neal Stephenson books on the list, but why did the second have to be Anathem? I thought Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle were much better books. Anathem's plot seemed like book-nerd wish fulfillment.
Of course I still read all thousand pages of Anathem in, like, four days. :)
- andrewparker 15y agofavorite stephenson books in order: 1. snow crash 2. diamond age 3. cryptonomicon 4. zodiac 5. baroque cycle
- brown9-2 15y agois Anathem kept off your list on purpose ? :)
- andrewparker 15y agoyes because I couldn't finish it so I don't have a comment.
- whazzmaster 15y agoThe first 100 pages or so of Anathem seemed like such a chore to get through, mainly because of the tons of exposition required to build the world. It was one of those books, however (Frank Norris' The Octopus being the other for me personally,) that really rewards the reader for taking the time to understand the world that is built. In both cases I read the last few hundred pages straight through to find out how it ended.
- sid0 15y agoAnathem is fundamentally about the philosophy of mathematics. To someone like me who's actually interested in it, it was amazing.
- mentat 15y agoFunny thing, I thought it was fundamentally about the nature of humans' interaction with history. (Though it also made me more interested in math.)