Once upon a time, I attended BYU. (Or, in the language of the city where I now live, "that school down south." When you live a mere four blocks or so from the main campus of the U of U, BYU's name actually becomes an epithet.) For a year, anyway. Then I washed out, which you can surmise if you troll back through the archives of my blog. Or you already know that particular trivia if you know me personally.
Anyhow, I met this great girl there--we shall call her Petra, because that's who she is. (See her link? If not, that's just sad. I can see it, and I'm half-blind--so you should be able to see her link.) Together, we schemed to take over the world. Played Speed Scrabble. And wrote a crazy letter to Del Rey publishers, requesting the reunion scene from The Princess Bride. (Okay, so all of that isn't true. We never schemed to take over the world. But if we ever did, I'm thinking we'd be super-cool dictators. Although she'd probably completely oust me eventually and rule on her own, since she's just that much smarter than I am.)
Both of us are big readers. I mean, we read lots. And lots and lots. She reads faster, but the point still stands--we both read voraciously. Anyway, she incessantly mentioned this Neal Stephenson novel called Cryptonomicon. It's one of her favorites. She'd read it forty-billion times by then (okay, maybe three), and recommended it to me almost any time the word "book" cropped up in our conversations. As you can imagine, this title stuck in my brain.
For five years. That's how long it took me to get around to reading Cryptonomicon. (In my defense, the sucker's 900 pages long! And for someone with a not-very-math-oriented brain, it's not the quickest read!!) I had to wait until a phase of life when I had spare time on my hands. (Spare time: "surreptitious reading of snatches while at work, in addition to normal reading time")
So, ahem. Petra, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that it took this long. I'm sorry that it took me until page 300 to get truly interested in it. I'm sorry I didn't read it sooner, so I could have actually discussed it with you in person--for your sake and mine, because I have a feeling I would like this book sooooo much better if I could just talk to you about it. For a while. Long enough, anyway, for you to clarify the math stuff.
A question to any and all who have read this novel: did I black out somewhere? Do we as readers ever get clued in about the entire Enoch Root situation? (I mean, Bobby Shaftoe sees him dead on a table, but then he's in jail with Randy? How does that work??)
P.S. Also, I'm sorry, Salt Lake City Public Library. My timing was bad. Lucky for you, I'm the type of girl who pays her overdue fines.
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3 comments:
I love the whole random diversion about the history and maintenance of pipe organs.
As for the whole Enoch Root thing, no, it's not satisfactorily explained in the book. I think he's supposed to be immortal or something, because he also appears in Quicksilver, although I never finished that.
I think I had only read it once back then, actually, since I read it for the first time during finals week freshman year. Now I've read it closer to forty billion times.
And no, the readers never get clued in. You're not the only one to wonder, either.
Katya--I, too, was entertained by the diversion about organs.
Petra--Can't a girl get a little hyperbolic now and then? :)
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