Required Reading

If you haven't read any Neal Stephenson, you must at least read Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon.

I know, I know. Cryptonomicon is a BIG book, as are the recent Baroque Cycle works. If you haven't time or inclination to read those, then at least read this great interview on Slashdot, which I found via SFSignal.

Aside from the hilarious [fictional] anecdotes of Neal's epic battles with William Gibson, there's some real gold here. For example, this nugget about Blue Origin:

As for my visions of future private space flight: here I have to remind you of something, which is that, up to this point in the interview, I have been wearing my novelist hat, meaning that I talk freely about whatever I please. But private space flight is an area where I wear a different hat (or helmet). I do not freely disseminate my thoughts on this one topic because I have agreed to sell those thoughts to Blue Origin. Admittedly, this feels a little strange to a novelist who is accustomed to running his mouth whenever he feels like it. But it is a small price to pay for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become a minor character in a Robert Heinlein novel.

I like the sound of that: a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become a minor character in a Robert Heinlein novel." Unfortunately Blue Origin doesn't seem to be looking for an in-house lawyer at this time.