SA Book & Challenge Lovers discussion

For 2013, a few of us will be reading Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle (comprising Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World) by Neal Stephenson. We'll begin with Cryptonomicon on 15 January. Please feel free to join in if you're keen!

Would everyone be ok with a reading schedule? Even if we don't all stick to it, I find the structure quite useful. I don't have a print copy though; could someone who has one (Barbara?) please look at options for a schedule? Preferably under 100 pages per day. I don't know about everyone else, but I've got loads of other stuff to read in January and February, and I don't think I could manage a faster pace, and Stephenson can be pretty dense.

I think a schedule is a good idea. My copy has 918 pages including the appendix. 910 without the appendix.
I would suggest even less than 100 pages. The letters are really small and 100 pages in this book is 200 pages in a simple pocketbook. So I would suggest 50-60 pages at most depending on how the chapters run.
Unfortunately the chapters aren't numbered but I am willing to go through the book and make a list of chapters where we have to begin/stop every day.

I was worried that the text size would affect the page count like that, *sigh*. My eBook shows 18187 locations. I still don't know what that means exactly, but most books I read have 3500-5000 locations.

I think your suggestion of 50-60 pages would be great. And thanks, I would really appreciate it if you made a list of chapters for daily reading goals! You don't have to do them all at once; I think a daily update would also be fine.

I went through the book and I must say it looks interesting with all kinds of schematics and formulas and different kinds of text.
I made a schedule which is a guideline and if anyone wants to change it please let me know. The info I give in the schedule is the date, the first chapter we read, the last chapter we read, the number of chapters in total and the corresponding pages in my edition which is . New chapters don't begin at a new page. And last ly the number of page to be read.

15-1 Proloque - Forays, 5, p 1-62, 62p
16-1 Indigo - Nightmare, 7, p 62-116, 54p
17-1 Londinium - Cycles, 5, p 116-175, 59p
18-1 Aloft - Lizard, 8, p 175-229, 54p
19-1 The Castle - Ram, 7, p 229-280, 51p
20-1 Dilligence - Mugs, 8, p 280-333, 53p
21-1 Yamamoto - Hostilities, 6, p 334-389, 55p
22-1 Funkspiel - Santa Monica, 6, p 389-446, 59p
23-1 Outpost - Conspiracy, 8, p 446-506, 60p
24-1 Hoard - Inri, 4, p 506-561, 55p
25-1 California - The General, 7, p 561-620, 59p
26-1 Origin - The Most Cigarettes, 5, p 620-675, 55p
27-1 Christmas 1944 - The Primary, 6, p 675-730, 55p
28-1 Deluge - Wisdom, 6, p 730-785, 55p,
29-1 Fall - Akihabara, 6, p 785-842, 57p
30-1 Project X - Appendix, 11, p 842-918, 76p

The last day is a bit more, but by then I think we will all want to finish the book and won't mind.

If this schedule is too much for some of us than we can always decide to have a catch up day.

I'm terrible at discussions, but I'd like to read along on this one.
18187 locations?? This will probably then be the longest book I've ever read on the Kindle.

Thanks so much for the schedule Barbara! I'm sure I'll be one of the people needing a catch-up day, but I'll try to stay on schedule.

@Claudia: yes, please join us! With a book this long I'm sure you'll find something to talk about :) I think it will probably be the longest book I read on Kindle too, and perhaps the longest book I've read, period.

The schedule looks great. Thanks Barbara.

I accidentally bought the German version. LOL
Kobobooks has two versions with these covers,

and I thought well, so the blue cover is just the new edition and the black cover the first edition (and also cheaper), hit "buy now" without bothering to even check the description. The fact that the title is listed as Cryptonomicon - Roman did not tip me off. Oh, I can be so thick sometimes. :)

lolol Claudia, at least you can collect different editions :)

Lol :)

I'm really looking forward to starting this tomorrow!

Oooh, me too!

Ok wow, this is going to be a hectic read. I read for about an hour and haven't even finished chapter 1! But I'm enjoying it so far. I love Stephenson's writing and highlighted a couple of quotes.

The modern world's hell on haiku writers: "electrical generator" is, what, eight syllables? You couldn't even fit that onto the second line!

[The pipe organ] nicely complemented the organist, a retired high school math teacher who felt that certain attributes of the Lord (violence and capriciousness in the Old Testament, majesty and triump in the New) could be directly conveyed into the souls of the enpewed sinners through a kind of frontal sonic impregnation.

The next summer, both Lawrence and Alice, his mother, were colonized by a distant cousin - a stupendous badass of a virus
(I also love Stephenson's idea that the people currently on the planet are all stupendous badasses, by virtue of the fact that their ancestors were the ones who evolved and survived long enough for them to exist. Particularly funny give that he applies the term 'stupendous badass' to a priest and his wife.)

One day a couple of weeks later [...] Alan made some kind of outlandish proposal to Lawrence involving penises. It required a great deal of methodical explanation, which Alan delivered with lots of blushing and stuttering. He was ever so polite, and several times emphasized that he was acutely aware that not everyone in the world was interested in this sort of thing.
Lawrence decided that he was probably one of those people.

I liked the description of Lawrence's sudden understanding of how the pipe organ works, and how he relates that to maths. His discussion with Alan and Rudy was good too, although I only have an abstract understanding of what they're talking about.

Anyway, must be off if I want any hope of finishing today's reading today...

Started this morning, but before I got anywhere I had to leave for work... Looking forward to this evening!

I haven't started yet. I took a long walk this afternoon instead of reading. It has been snowing here and it just looked too gorgeous to ignore so I went out and enjoyed the snow. :)

Ooh, I can't fault you for that, it sounds lovely!

I finished today's part. Was that 62 pages? Sheesh, the text must be tiny.

I love the writing. I had to read really slow so as not to miss anything. This is one of those books where you start reading, then look up a little later and realize hours have passed.

Oh yes it was! There was a layer of about 10 centimeters. Since I don't have any reason to leave the house in the next couple of days I was afraid that by the time I had a reason it would be gone and I just had to enjoy it now.

I have been reading a couple of pages and it is just great. I loved the description of the banks exchanging their money. I am in chapter 1 now and I will read some more later tonight.

Yes, Claudia, that was 62 pages or more precisely 61 and a bit. :) That is why I objected to Lauren's initial proposal of 100 pages a day thinking that might be a bit too much. If the pace proves too much we can always adjust the number of pages.

Glad you had a good walk Barbara!

I finally finished chapter 1! I might be able to read another chapter or two tonight, but I definitely won't make it through all five.
I actually suggested keeping it *under* 100 pages, so this fits the description anyway :) But yes, it's still very dense, and although it's mostly interesting, it loses me for a bit sometimes and I have to backtrack. also, I feel the urge to google things like Alan Turing and Bertrand Russell's Principia Mathematica (or whatever).

Oh, snow is a great excuse! I'm trying to get todays finished as I have even less time available tomorrow (although I should be able to catch up on Thursday) but I had to stop to replace my books on the shelf as my cat had been removing them. He learnt how the other day when chasing some bug that got behind a small book and now he loves pulling them off the shelf and then happily informing me that he is finished so I can put them back. Of course, he then starts taking them off again...

*CUTE*

Lauren wrote: "Glad you had a good walk Barbara!

I finally finished chapter 1! I might be able to read another chapter or two tonight, but I definitely won't make it through all five.
I actually suggested keepin..."

You're right. I am sorry. My memory failed me. *sighs* I am getting old and that happens when you get old.

Just finished chapter 6

I don't know how everyone else is doing, but maybe we should change the schedule and reduce the daily page count? I think it took me two hours to read three chapters this morning.

But despite the effort, I like this book, and I like the three main characters, especially Lawrence. Does he have Asperger's or something? His emotional detachment seems to suggest that that's the case.
I liked the slightly amusing take on Pearl Harbour - the way Lawrence thinks it's a very realistic drill with ethnically correct pilots and fake explosions, and he hangs on to his damaged, burning glockenspiel because they told him to look after it.

I also really liked the topic of Andrew Loeb's paper on human energy budgets, food resources and culture. An interesting thing to consider in the way cultures develop and survive. Would be interesting to learn more about that. A pity Andrew turned out to be such an asshole.

And learning about bit-key encryption was interesting too. this is the kind of book that turns my conversations with Yaseen into one-sided talks on plot, character and trivia.

It's too much effort to count to chapter numbers :P
I haven't had a chance to read today's part yet.

I like Lawrence too. You might be right about the Asperger's, that's something I'm thinking too.

I have finished Day 1's reading. I love the maths stuff and the research on energy budgets. It was such a good idea to use that to make a computer game. The encryption stuff is also fascinating. Hmm, we seem to enjoy the same stuff!

Really enjoying it, but have been busy so not much time to read. I haven't noticed it taking longer to read, but I do read pretty quickly.

The fantasy RPG stuff and the way Randy uses the engery budget ideas for a game reminded me of Stephenson's latest novel, Reamde, which is about a MMORPG similar to World of Warcraft, and where parts of the plot play out in the game world. It's also partially set in Manila.

I managed to finish chapter 9. I have other stuff I'm supposed to be doing, but I kind of just want to sit and read this.

How's it going guys?

I've finished chapter 18, which according to the schedule means I've gotten through the first three days' targets, and one chapter of day 4's. I think. And I see we're on day 8 now...

Can someone please tell me what they're doing with Gerald Hott's corpse? Did I miss this explanation? If it only comes later though, then don't tell me what it is.

I have a feeling that my dire lack of knowledge about WW2 (and history in general) is causing me to miss out on some stuff, but for the most part I think I'm following. Lawrence's story is my favourite at the moment, although I admit I skimmed that ridiculously complicated mathematical analysis of the workings of Alan's damaged bicycle.

I'm wondering where all the women are though. Stephenson doesn't typically have many women in his books, but he always has one very strong, smart kickass girl or woman. I thought maybe Amy/America might take up that role in Randy's story, but I've read a novel's worth of text already, and her role is small. There isn't any hint of a strong female character in Lawrence or Bobby's stories at all.

I'm curious about the existence of Douglas *McArthur* Shaftoe, since Bobby really loathes McArthur.

Trying to finish some other books so not making much progress on this one at the moment

Oh goodie, that means I'll be able to catch up relatively easy.
I don't know if you guys noticed, but I have been gone again for a week. I dediced to join in the flu epidemic that is going through the Netherlands and have had a very high fever and have been and still am very congested. This is the first day I am up and about again.
This also means I haven't read a page last week and I am still on page 75. So somewhere on the page two goal. I will try to read later today.

So far I do like the book. I am very curious to see how the different persons will come together.

I was wondering where you were Barbara. So sorry to hear that you were stuck in bed with the flu! I hope the rest of your symptoms clear up soon.

It is a bit comforting to know that I'm not behind though, and might actually be ahead instead. I don't know how far Claudia is though. I also noticed that Crusader is reading this at the moment. He's already gone past the 700 page mark. Not sure if he's planning to join in here.

I was planning to join in but you guys hadn't updated the thread so I decided to go on ahead. I had to make up for reading time being pretty limited this week. Despite the various tangents (quite odd stuff later on) it's surprisingly engaging reading.

Thanks! Yeah, I have been sick again. That's what you get from enjoying snow. Although I was already coughing when I went out to walk in the snow. The annoying thing is that is was the second time in like 3 weeks time I was sick and I am so very bad at it. I get really annoyed with myself for not being able to do stuff and not feeling up to do the most simple things. Also when I am sick there is no one to take care of me. I don't mean to complain but I do live alone. So you start to feel very sorry for yourself, which frustrates me further. And for some reason I hardly sleep when I am sick. A doctor once told me that is because my body fights to hard not to be sick and I get too restless to sleep. So I have gone 6 nights on only 2-3 hours of sleep per night and during the day I didn't sleep either. I must say I got a whole new understanding of Lauren F and her insomnia. Ah well, hopefully this was the alst time this year and I can look forward to an illness free year. But then again flu season doesn't end untill the end of April. So maybe I will get it again. Enough complaining, on to nicer things:

I hope Crusader does come and join us. I'ld love to hear what he thinks.

I was a bit surprised when I went to check out how far everyone was to see hardly any comments. This doesn't bode well for the other 3 books.

I was on schedule, but now I'm 3 days behind. I got sick on Sunday and I'm still under the weather. Somehow I just never feel like reading when I'm sick.

I really like the book so far. It's not something I would have picked up on my own and I'm glad I joined in the reading.

@Lauren : More clues about the fate of Hott's corpse will be revealed in the next few chapters.

@Barbara: You have every right to complain! Being sick is miserable enough, and having no one there to cheer you up and help out makes the smallest illness feel worse. Feel better soon. :)

Not you too Claudia!
So that's me, Lauren F and Claudia that have been sick. I wonder who's next.
I hope you feel better soon!

Thanks. It can be tough sometimes. Especially when I was running a high fever. I could hardly make it to the bathroom. Making a cup of tea for myself was totally out of the question. And something to eat was hard too, because I had to make due with what I had in the house. Ah well, I feel a lot better already and will probably do some shopping tomorrow.
I just kept telling myself that I was a big girl now.

Oh no! I just realised: Sunday was your birthday! You got sick on your birthday! You poor girl!
I hope you had lots of nice gifts to cheer you up.
My congratulations are a bit late, because I was sick but I hope you have a wonderfull year and I hope that you still had a wonderfull day on your birthday!

Aww thanks Barbara. :)
I did have a great day. My mom came over and we watched The Nanny, haha.

I read a lot today (over a 100 pages) and now I am at 22 % of the book.
I love the hassle with the body. I love the chapters about Bobby Shaftoe anyway. Which is strange because I do not like warstuff. We get too much of WWII in every day life that it is something that makes me say: "Oh no not that again." I know it is terrible to say that and the war has been terrible but how much reflecting can a person do.

I don't feel that my knowledge about the war is helpfull. Maybe some name recognition but nothing more. So rest assured Lauren you're not missing out on something.

I did expect more about decrypting and stuff, but maybe that is still coming.

The book is interesting although I can't wuite explain why. Which is intriguing in and of itself.

@Claudia: sometimes that is all you need. Your mum and the Nanny. When my mum comes for a visit, we watch the Big Bang Theory and quiz shows on the BBC (even though she doesn't speak English). Those are the times you'll remember. ;)

The cryptology parts do come later. Quite a bit of it.

oh goodie!

I am on page 310 which is 34%.
Where are the rest of you guys?

I am starting to wonder what the point is of this story. Don't get me wrong I do like it, but normally there is something to be accomplished or a destination to be reached and I am not sure if I get it in this book. I can't see where we're headed. Maybe that is just me.

Barbara wrote: "I am on page 310 which is 34%.
Where are the rest of you guys?

I am starting to wonder what the point is of this story. Don't get me wrong I do like it, but normally there is something to be accom..."

No, it's not just you. The story does seem rambling and unrelated, but later things start to converge. I'm on page 850 and I think I might have a clue where things are going.

I'm on the "Conspiracy" chapter now, around 47%. It doesn't bother me at all that there seems to be no point. Somewhere down the line everything might tie together , or not, but at this stage it doesn't matter much to me. Weird. Any other book like this I would have stopped reading some time ago.

Claudia wrote: "Weird. Any other book like this I would have stopped reading some time ago. "

Exactly! That's what's so weird about the book.

Me too! I find it all highly interesting and I really love the Bobby Shaftoe chapters. Normally I hate WWII stories, but now I find it all fascinating. I don't know why.
I only mentioned the story not seeming to go anywhere, because it is something that normally would bother me (and to see if I missed something or if you guys had the same feeling). Not enough to stop reading, because that is something I don't do, but enough to slow me down. Now I am glad I am behind schedule and can read what I want instead of sticking to the schedule.

I had a few other books I wanted to finish which distracted me. I should finish the last one today and then I can focus on this. I am at Chapter 10 but should be able to catch up soon.

Ok, I've finished and I'm not quite sure what to say. It was an enjoyable read, but didn't go in exactly the direction I thought and that ending was way too open-ended for my liking.

(view spoiler)[And how the hell did Andrew Loeb suddenly appear near the end bent on a mission to kill? Didn't make much sense to me. (hide spoiler)]

Loved the writing style and geeky elements though.

Don't know if I'll read Quicksilver and the others, but this was definitely worth it.

(view spoiler)[I think I was saying "What?" out loud at Andrew Loeb's appearance. I'm still unsure how exactly that came about.

The Van Eck phreaking sounds like a strange way to spy on Randy in jail at first. They were in possession of his laptop for a while, so I would guess keyloggers weren't invented yet? :P

The only part that really bored me was where Randy went to his family and the sorting of the furniture. I had to skim through that.

I like the ending. I was afraid everything would just go downhill and end with everyone dead, broke or in jail. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[No keyloggers would've been around, but since the OS system they use is pretty secure I think randy would've spotted an unknown process running and known about a keylogger. Also keyloggers wouldn't necessarily be able to capture the info displayed on the screen since those wouldn't involve the press of any keys.

It could take lots of screenshots and pipe those, but the HDD activity or usage of the Wifi would be an obvious tell. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[I thought about a hardware type keylogger to capture his password, then stealing his laptop later they might have access to the files. But Randy would be on the lookout for any such activity, plus I don't know the first thing about security or how these things work. Obviously I watch too many inaccurate spy/thief type shows that does not help me in this situation! (hide spoiler)]

I'm finding this really slow reading so taking breaks with other books. My new goal is to finish it by the end of March

Hello! I currently have nothing to contribute, but just dropped in to say I am still reading. But also very slowly - glad to know I'm not the only one Varla Fiona!

Just finished chapter 25.

Oh, I do have a question though - where the HELL is Qwghlm? Or is that also something that will be explained later? I feel like I should have guessed by now, from the various clues, but history and I aren't well acquainted.