Books You Should Read

If you haven't yet discovered Neal Stephenson, then it's time you considered adding his work to your reading list. I was gobsmacked by his Baroque Cycle.

And from this interview, you can tell this man has a keen, honest intelligence.

Reason: Neal Stephenson’s Past,
Present, and Future: The author of the widely praised Baroque Cycle on science, markets, and post-9/11 America : "Reason: In The Baroque Cycle we see two different kinds of nation-states at war with each other: traditional monarchies vs. the modern mercantile state. Some readers see political themes in Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon—e.g., that traditional governmental institutions have collapsed or mutated into some less central form. Is this something you see as inevitable?

Neal Stephenson: I can understand that if you are the sort of person who spends a lot of time thinking about government and commerce, then by reading Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, and The Baroque Cycle through that lens, and by squinting, holding the books at funny angles, and jiggling them around, you might be able to perceive some sort of common theme. But it is a stretch. The themes you mention are so vast and so common to all societies and periods of history that I would find it difficult to write a novel that did not touch on them in some way."