gary on 8 Jun 2012 11:31:56 -0700


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Re: [PLUG] I need a book recommendation


=> Slightly OT, but these crazy detailed sections remind me a lot of Moby
=> Dick. The digressions there drive people crazy, but when I accept them
=> as interesting for their own sake, I find them kind of fun.
=>
=> Paul

   I was thinking the same thing about Les Miserables. Whole chapters on
the history of the battle of Waterloo, or the Paris sewers. Hugo
eventually brings it back into the plot, but it takes quite a while.

                                      Gary Duzan


=>
=> On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 11:07 AM, Jay Dobies <jason.dobies@redhat.com>
=> wrote:
=>>>> I'm one of the few geeks who just doesn't get Stephenson. I want to
=>>>> try
=>>>> Snow
=>>>> Crash again but I hated Cryptonomicon. It felt like 100 pages of story
=>>>> stretched out into 800 pages of fluff.
=>>>>
=>>>
=>>> That's definitely a position I can respect. I think it's something to
=>>> do with his OCD-esque prose at points. He focuses on details that
=>>> might seem trivial (Proper Methodology For Eating Cap'n Crunch comes
=>>> to mind) but that appeal to a certain strain in some folks. I read
=>>> those sections and think "Well played, good sir." while others think
=>>> "What a waste...!"
=>>
=>>
=>> Ha, the Captain Crunch example is the first one I think of with that
=>> book.
=>> On the 4th or so page describing how to properly eat Captain Crunch I
=>> sat
=>> back and wondered why the hell I was spending my time reading it  :)
=>>
=>> The funny part is that I found all of the deep math stuff in the book
=>> fascinating. He went on for pages about how gear size on a bike
=>> influences
=>> whether or not it will break the bike chain. Most people would find that
=>> mind-numbing but I was really into it (that's what I expected out of
=>> that
=>> book).
=>>
=>>
=>>
=>>
=>> --
=>> Jay Dobies
=>> Freenode: jdob @ #pulp
=>> http://pulpproject.org | http://blog.pulpproject.org
=>>
___________________________________________________________________________
=>> Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --      
=>>  http://www.phillylinux.org
=>> Announcements -
=>> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
=>> General Discussion  --  
=>> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
=>
=>
=>
=> --
=> _________________________________
=> Pulchritudo splendor veritatis.
=>
___________________________________________________________________________
=> Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --
=> http://www.phillylinux.org
=> Announcements -
=> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
=> General Discussion  --
=> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
=>


___________________________________________________________________________
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