Cryptonomicon

This book is good. My biggest complaint is that it is is really, really long (over 900 pages), dense, and amazingly wordy (he likes tangents that are completely nonessential to the plot). Other than that, there were a lot of great aspects to it. First, it was very different from my usual reads in that it is completely geared towards (and obviously from) the male perspective - as evidenced by his descriptions, euphemisms and anecdotes. Second, it's historically fascinating. Set in both WWII and today, it covers a lot of ground and really cool topics I was previously unfamiliar with. Last, it's truly and fantastically nerdy. Lots of computer stuff, most of it Linux (nice), old computer stuff (like the character that built the first RAM), and when one of them programmed his laptop to communicate with him via morse code through the LED. Dang cool. All of the crypto math went over my head, but I feel ok about that because how they used the crypto was fascinating.

So, being a computer geek and having lots of guy friends, I totally got it (I think) and I enjoyed it even though it became a personal challenge to finish it. I don't plan on recommending it to any of my girlfriends, and certainly not my mother, but all you guys out there - dig in.