I am half-way through Neal Stephenson's gigantic new novel REAMDE, and it reads like a 1000 page Wired Magazine article, a Wired article with a thrilling plot and a multitude of well-drawn international characters, but a Wired article nonetheless, and this makes my review pretty simple . . . if you like Wired Magazine, I recommend the novel . . . and if you don't, then I don't; you also might like the novel if you appreciate the word "albedo," which is a fun word to challenge people to define, but also a word I have never seen in a novel, but Stephenson had no problem working it in: "modern paper, with its eye searing 95 percent albedo, simply ruined the look that was coming together inside the walls."
thank god wikipedia is back, so i could see a chart to help me understand the relative albedo of fresh snow vs. crops...
ReplyDeleteIf you're interested in keeping with the "computer virus" theme, I just finished Mark Bowden's book "Worm". Not his best, but it's a quick read.
ReplyDeleteAlbedo refers to Al DePantsdowno's libido, right?
ReplyDeletei never read mark bowden-- i will check it out . . .
ReplyDeleteYou never read Black Hawk Down or Killing Pablo? Put them on your list.
ReplyDeletei did read "black hawk down." great book. forgot the author. sorry mark!
ReplyDeleteAlmighty Yojo is Dave????
ReplyDeleteYep. He is.
ReplyDeleteDid you read Sybil?
ReplyDeletewait until you find out who al depantsdowno is . . .
ReplyDeleteI'm not Dave (Although we do share a proclivity toward the development of prodigious amounts of body hair).
ReplyDeleteWhat a great read. If you are a technologist, especially a programmer, this is the author for you! The more you understand the infrastructure of technology, the more you will enjoy this read. Doesn't mean you have to know technology, it's just nice to read a novel so thoroughly researched and with such great technical underpinnings!
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