i have a perculiar attitude to neal stephenson. i loved cryptonomicon, but it took the longest time for several people to persuade me to read snow crash. i loved that, too. i’ve had a copy of the first book of the baroque cycle sitting on my shelf for ages, and it’s still unread. it reminds me of reading Alistair Maclean when I was a child. it’s compelling, but you figure there are much better written books out there that you should probably read first. whilst in DC i bought Diamond Age. after 30 or 40 pages i was ready to pack it in, but i kept going. i’ve just finished it, and again find that i’m enamoured of it. i sometimes get the impression that stephenson tosses these things off in between doing other things he’s far more in to, but i’m grateful all the same. for sure he does no editing. look at the volume of words, it’s amazing. i’m pretty sure he writes from beginning to end, and then presses send. if he spends more than 3 months writing a tome, i’d be surprised. for fuck’s sake he can’t, he isn’t that old and he’s written volumes of many-hundred page novels. and i’m grateful he has. now, i just want to read more.
i’m off to berlin tomorrow and it’s time for a change. goethe’s “the sorrows of young werther” is up, then chabon’s “gentlemen of the road”. it’s unusual that i have books lined up ready to go that i’m looking forward to. and it’s good.
