Jerkface Saved My Life.
May 28, 2003, 12:05 pmI bought A Diamond Age and Snow Crash yesterday. They're the nice kind of paperbacks that are comparable in dimension to hardbacks, but with non-hard covers (my sister told me what they're called, but I've forgotten already).
Snow Crash was the first book I ever read while not under duress that I really enjoyed. My former roommate, Jeff, loaned it to me in the summer of 1999. I don't think he knew at the time that I didn't read recreationally; he just handed me this book one day and said, “you should read this.” I guess I felt obligated to read it, but I ended up really liking it (and later reading and rereading everything that the author - Neal Stephenson - has published). I owe a lot of things to Jeff - furthering my interest in programming, introducing me to Linux, reintroducing me to console videogames - but I think introducing me to recreational reading (where so many other people had previously failed) is the greatest.