Cryptonomicon

Call me crazy, but I am beginning to think that Neal Stephenson is the greatest novelist of his generation. Really. You don't believe me? Perhaps you simply need to read his 1999 masterpiece, Cryptonomicon, of which on I am currently on page 310 of.

The book is as good as Snow Crash, which is saying a lot. Outside of the fact that Stephenson basically invented Second Life--in the freaking Eighties (!)--that book single-handedly paved the way for my friend Nancy to name her cat Hiro. Notwithstanding the awesomeness of Snow Crash, this 918 page, endlessly fascinating doorstop of a novel is riiiight up my mystery-meets-cute-with-quantum-physics sensibility. (On their first date you can tell what restaurant they are at but not where the relationship is going.) My point, and I do have one, is that this man is beeg fat genius. I am seriously considering moving straight on to The Diamond Age--perma-loaned to me by my pal and fellow-traveler in the cannon of the School of Gibson, Lanny--without an intervening palate-cleanser like Meltzer's The Book of Lies (see supra).

Consider just the happy-jitters inducing introductory quote from crypro-legend Alan Turing, who was woefully treated by the Brits for liking boys, "the system on which a message is enciphered corresponds to the laws of the universe, the intercepted messages to the evidence available, the keys for a day or a message to important constants which have to be determined."

One more thing, if you are trying to create an undecipherable message, do not try the old first-letter-of-each-sentence-spells-something-special cypher. Not so hard to break.

PS - Oh, and "The Shankill and The Falls" by alt-country icon Bap Kennedy is lyric and beautiful; now playing on the iTunes. That's why the song is the next one up for my band, B-Minus.