Cryptonomicon, from a cryptologists point of view, was fucking awesome. The raw cryptanalysis involved, and the archaic mathematical forms thereof, were a brilliant addition to an altogether exceptional novel.

I am not generally a person to choose favorites, but Snow Crash has been at the top of my list since I read it about a year ago. It was just so clever and amusing, amusing being the finest quality for occupying me when I have a choice. I suppose it helped that it's set in the city where I live.

I finished Cryptonomicon a few months ago--seemed like it took forever to draw me in and I was a bit disappointed in the beginning, the amusement factor being rarer than in Snow Crash at that point in the story.

I must get some more Neal Stephenson books to read--just as soon as I read some of the 99 or so books I have here that I haven't even cracked yet.

Is anyone else here a bookaholic? Boy, has it caused problems in my life!

Zodiac, Snow Crash, and Cryptonomicon are my favorites. Quicksilver is in my reading queue.

I read The Diamond Age, but found the story line rather dull and not a very compelling read. Neal's visions on nanotech were fascinating, however.

Now that The Big U is back in print, I might check it out. Has anyone in this tribe read it?

Neal Stephenson has also written a number of articles and short stories that can be found online:

Mother Earth Mother Board
www.wired.com/wired/archi...lass_pr.html

In the Kingdom of Mao Bell
www.wired.com/wired/archi...ao.bell.html

Spew
www.wired.com/wired/archi...spew_pr.html

Jipi and the paranoid chip [This is supposedly what was to appear as part of a third time period in Cryptonomicon, and may yet, we hope, be developed into a full novel.]
www.vanemden.com/books/neals/jipi.html

The Great Simoleon Caper
kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu/~kamika...eon.html

In the Beginning was the Command Line
artlung.com/smorgasborg/...I_C_O_N.shtml