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

[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.