(no subject)

[madbaker]

Tired today. Mostly because I went to a Neal Stephenson signing last night, and didn't get to bed until 9:45. That hurts when the alarm sounds at 4 AM.

The signing was good - Neal is not a great speaker, and he's obviously uncomfortable in crowds. By his own admission, he's an introvert (I sympathize). I suspect he does this solely because his publisher tells him he has to in order to sell books.

One of the better questions of the night: "How is Qwglhm pronounced?"
A: "Tagham. That's not how the natives pronounce it - the language has glottal stops and clicks that have no equivalent, but that's the standard English mispronunciation."

One of the better answers of the night, in response to a question about how he got to be good at writing - like how to get to Carnegie Hall, practice. He's been writing for 25 years now. Neal says that he can only write for about three hours in the morning while he's fresh, and then he starts writing crap...

What I'm reading: Dave Duncan, Jaguar Knights (I have several books to get through before I start System of the World)

Comments

[albionwood.livejournal.com]

So you have read the first two Baroque Cycle books? How are they?

Cryptonomicon was fantastic - I gotta get me some more of that!

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the first two Baroque Cycle books - but a warning, they are very different in style from Cryptonomicon. The themes of money and cryptography are continued, but the stories are far denser.

Worth reading, but not the same experience at all.