mercurial excursions

A few days ago, I went to go seeNeal Stephenson read from his newest book, Quicksilver. (Hey Mark, neener neener!)

The main website for the book, is some kind of fascinating “wiki” doodad. As Stephenson said, the web isn’t a very good place for explaining stuff, so the wiki thing is an attempt to try and use the web to explain stuff better. Valiant!

I’ve also been perusing “In the Beginning was the Command Line…”, an interesting essay Stephenson wrote–what do you call a non-fiction novella? nonfictionette? nonfictionella?–about operating systems and design and etc.

The reading of the book was so-so. I don’t really think his work reads out loud very well. I think he knows this, too, because he spent most of his time speaking and answering questions from the audience. Hotdamn! All my doubts are gone. I’m reading this book. And soon.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *