I just took a road trip and looked at one of Bill Gates previous favorite books list, and picked "Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012". I've always wanted to know more about Mr. Buffet, so I thought this would be a great choice.
I almost drove off the road listening to him talking about bonds vs stocks and percentages. It was interesting, but definitely not a road trip book.
That said, I finished Snow Crash on the trip, and it was a great book. I think I preferred Cryptonomicon a bit more, but some of the theories in Snow Crash were incredible, and way before their time. Hiro Protagonist and YT are also awesome characters.
> some of the theories in Snow Crash were incredible, and way before their time.
The namshubs from Snow Crash are pretty heavily inspired by ideas from The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. It's a very interesting book. Richard Dawkins said of it "It is one of those books that is either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between! Probably the former, but I'm hedging my bets."
The Baroque Cycle was fun but didn't really come together as a self-contained story with beginning and end. Which may have been his intention, but still; I much preferred Anathem.
Tip - get the unabridged audiobook versions from Audible, I couldn't finish Quicksilver in print form but I've listened to the entire Baroque Cycle multiple times.
Edit: Jack Shaftoe is probably my favourite fictional character: King of the Vagabonds, L'Emmerdeur, Half-Cocked Jack, Quicksilver, Ali Zaybak, Sword of Divine Fire, and Jack the Coiner....
I almost drove off the road listening to him talking about bonds vs stocks and percentages. It was interesting, but definitely not a road trip book.
That said, I finished Snow Crash on the trip, and it was a great book. I think I preferred Cryptonomicon a bit more, but some of the theories in Snow Crash were incredible, and way before their time. Hiro Protagonist and YT are also awesome characters.