Nazi Gold at the End of the Rainbow! (December Reading)

[ase]

I think this is an appropriate post in which to record last night's experience for future reference: Long Island iced tea is evil.

I've had some other things on my mind, so this is late, but January's mostly ready to go, so I'll have the backlog cleared out Real Soon Now (hah).

Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson): There is a reason this got a Hugo was nominated for a Hugo (thank you, rwl). The main plot is about, oh, venture capitalism in Southeast Asia, WWII cryptography, and Nipponese gold, but it's also a two-generation geek romantic comedy of love and manners. Also, there is an EMP gun. This will never stop amusing me. The novel is literally about a thousand pages long, so I'm behooved to say, yes, it's worth it. It's definitely bloated in places (Enoch Root is a pompous ass, in my humble opinion) but the one character I dislike is outweighed by the many characters, plot points, one line bon mots and EMP gun I adored.

2006 book stats: 23 total (!), 17 fiction, 5 nonfiction. Also the Hugo shorts, a novella, and sundry essays on Lord of the Rings. I think I read more words than shown here, but for reasons that don't need explaining at this time (oh, wait: graduating from college, maybe?) they weren't reflected in the lit/nonfiction totals.

I must honor Molecular Biology of the Cell (Bruce Alberts et al), my favorite textbook ever, with which I spent many hours in 2005 and 2006. I will resell this book over my dead body. I must also put in a word for The Organic Chemistry of Biological Pathways (John McMurry and Tadhg Begley), which only does one thing, but it does that one thing superbly. Biology students: if you are taking a biochemistry couse that deals with the common pathways (glycolysis, citric acid cycle, pentose phosphate pathway, Calvin cycle, etc), look into this book. It only covers mechanisms, but it does so in exquisite detail.

In 2007, I plan to read more actual books. We'll see how well that resolution holds up.

Comments

[rwl.livejournal.com]

I agree with you that Cryptonomicon is very much a worthwhile read, despite its length. A small correction, though: it did not win the Hugo Award. Other nominees that year (2000) were J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lois Bujold's A Civil Campaign, Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio, and Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. And the Vinge book won. Stephenson has won a Hugo, but it was in 1996 for The Diamond Age, another very much worthwhile read. He's a good writer.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Augh. Thanks for the correction; 2000 was a great year for novels. I have tried to read The Diamond Age, but stalled within the first 50 pages. Stephenson's a little hit or miss with me, but I think in the right mood I'd enjoy The Diamond Age.

[herewiss13.livejournal.com]

Very glad you enjoyed Cryptonomicon. The Baroque Trilogy is just like it...only longer, with more digressions and fewer electronics.

...but in the end, it still all comes down to currency;-)

[ase.livejournal.com]

The Baroque trilogy has more of Enoch Root, who I wish had [spoiler]. I made it through the first (paperback) installment, and it's like a historical sci-fi version of LotR, only about three times as long. Not sure it works for me.

[herewiss13.livejournal.com]

I don't recall Root showing up much, if at all, in the remaining books. Perhaps it's simply the length of time since my last perusal of the work, but I can't remember him doing much more than selling phosphorus.

I don't see the LotR parallel. It's basically Enlightenment Geekery and High Finance adventure (at the dawn of finance) rather than Silicon Valley and Venture Capitalists (well...the modern version of Venture Capitalists).

Perhaps one's tolerance for economics admidst soap-opera and Ur-Science might vary.

...or perhaps that should read: "tolerance for soap-opera admidst Ur-Science and finance" ;-)

[ase.livejournal.com]

The similarity between LotR and the Baroque Cycle is in committing lengthy trilogy and in ability to convince me you've done (or researched) your worldbuilding. I was sufficiently put off by the double framing device in the first book that I've felt little need to read the rest. This may change if I get sufficiently hooked on Stephenson, but I don't think I will, based on my experiences to date.

[toraks.livejournal.com]

Yay, Alberts!!!!! Definitely my favorite textbook ever!

I read it last when I wanted to bone up on mitochondria and stuff when I started my job here -- definitely don't get rid of it if you plan to stay in science! ;-p

[ase.livejournal.com]

Oh no. MBoC is an awesome reference; sort of the cell bio version of wikipedia. There's a reason you can't find a used copy when you're textbook shopping.

[toraks.livejournal.com]

Definitely.

But we could find used books for anything -- Cornell, thousands of students per year... ;-)

[mareklamo.livejournal.com]

I like the individual story lines of Cryptonomicon, but I don't quite appreciate the way Stephenson intertwined them into one massive doorstop. Perhaps he did not want to commit trilogy. I was also disappointed by the ending.

[ase.livejournal.com]

I liked some of the "selective information" games he played ("and here we are in the 1990's timeline, suddenly finding something related to the events just covered in the WW2 section") which only works with intercut timelines. The doorstop thing could definitely get old, though, which is why I'm avoiding the later Stephenson for the moment. Care to elaborate on how the ending didn't work for you?

[mareklamo.livejournal.com]

The ending seemed like any other treasure-hunting adventure. A letdown after all the cool cryptography stuf. I did like the book enough that I would consider re-reading it if it wasn't such a doorstop.