Bad News/Good News

Bad news: My computer's power supply crapped out, taking the motherboard with it.

Good news: Girlfriend was able to stick the HD into an external casing and it doesn't appear that I've lost any data...this time.

Great news: As part of Librarything's Early Reviewer Program, I got a copy of Neal Stephenson's new book 'Anathem' several months before it's official published.

Unsettling news: It's 900+ pages long and re-invents most of human history with new vocabulary (it's not AU, just a really old colony).  Imagine Greek philosophy being integrated into a monastic/college campus setting, then slow-boiled in isolation for several thousand years.  Once you join one of these secular cloisters to study the 'Mathic Arts', you don't leave.  Everything old is new again, and renamed: computers are syntactic devices and the Web-equivalent is called the Reticulum.  I'm guessing I'll need to consult the glossary (which I've already poured over) frequently.  

I enjoy jumping into a book and just racing through it full-speed; but you just can't do that with Stephenson...otherwise you realize that it's 3am in the morning and you've still got 400 pages to go. :-P