Things

[jack]

Things I've done, not in any particular order.

* Got up at 8.30.
* Bought gel inner tube and more tyre patches.
* Bought extension cables (:p sonic). Albeit in the fourth shop on Newmarket road I went in.
* Reading Cryptonomicon again. It is still good. Is it one of the marks of a classic book that you keep noticing new things every time you reread it?
* Joined atreic and emporer and people in the Castle (their local! just beyond the post box, how cool?) for food and drink. There I:
* Had two binges
* Collected final word on my flowery shirt. I thought they were cheery (and incidently cheap) but everyone, friends and colleages, says 'no'. Though atreic said "no (but I like it)".
* I said many embarassing things some of which got written down ("Being short and froglike is more important than getting the girl").
* I am perceived as short person, despite not being really. This is interesting because I tend to do that, but wasn't sure how much other people did. I don't know if it's psychological, or if I just hunch, and either way if that's from deprecatingness or something else.
* There was mutual hand massaging. This is very relaxing.

Otherly, how come my last post got nearly 50 comments? I should haylp more often, assuming getting comments is the goal in life :)

Comments

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

It is still good. Is it one of the marks of a classic book that you keep noticing new things every time you reread it?


Yes. But don't bother with the Baroque stuff.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I already did. I did enjoy them, but did think they could possibly do with a big chunk of editing down.

I tend to think of Stephenson's work as a progression from more normal action novels to more rambling historicalesque geeky novels. Most people's favorites are around Diamond Age and Snow Crash, I like Cryptonomicon but think the Baroque takes it a bit far, some people like that.

[mair_in_grenderich]

I like cryptonomicon.

I read half of snow crash and just got bored. Then I lent it to someone and haven't seen it for months. I bought a couple of others recently and had a go at them and couldn't get interested.

I bought Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell the other day, that's better than it looked, but I've been distracted from it by shorter books.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

It took me ages to read JS&MrN. I had to concentrate. But in retrospect, I decided I loved it and SClarke[1] was a goddess.

Maybe you're one of the people who'd like Baroque more :) Snow Crash makes more sense when you realise it's a retelling of the enki namshub myth thing. I liked the earlier Stephenson, but I would have thought one'd like SC at least as much.

[1] Who apparently some CUSFS people knew from way back.

[mair_in_grenderich]

it took me a while to get into cryptonomicon (I think it took me until the scene where randy was eating his cap'n crunch), but I didn't have any other books to distract me at the time.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

LOL. I don't think it took me quite that long, but it was certainly a bit unfollowable the first time, and the first few chapters at least were non-into-it-ness.

But I'm glad I perserved. I can't remember when I first did read it now.

Similarly with JS&mrN I sort of forced my way through from book-drought, but am very glad I did.