Damn the Free Chapter

Two and a half years ago I finished Neal Stephensen’s Cryptonomicon. I liked it, but it took forever to finish. Well, fast forward to today and I just finished the prequel, Quicksilver. I got the book for my 27th birthday and it took me a year and a half to finish! I probably never would have read it, but the free chapter included with Cryptonomicon sold me. Damn you. Not that Quicksilver wasn’t good, but it’s almost more impressive as a thing. I can appreciate a mountain without having to climb it or a bridge without having to jump off it.

I’ll be 80 by the time I finish the whole series.

Typically I flop between fiction and non-fiction, and I just started reading the Selfish Gene. Usually the fiction goes by faster, but in this case I’m devouring it.