I have a severe allergic reaction to paying $10, often more, for a book that I can’t loan or resell. Since the Kindle uses a proprietary format, buying ebooks from the Kindle store is an investment that locks you to the platform. At least they’re trying to make the platform widely available. Dave Winer is right, Amazon knows they’re business is selling ebooks, not ebook readers. I just hope we can keep the concept of owning a book, instead of owning a non-transferable license to read a specific incarnation of the aforementioned book (heretofore referred to as The Book) on one of a class of reading devices.

I also liked the idea of an ancient language which arose from our brain structures. Interesting to think of the consequences that would have on linguistic research, but it doesn’t seem too likely.

The ending of the book was disappointing, since almost nothing was resolved with any of the characters. We don’t even know who lived and who died. It desperately needed an epilogue. I was also rather disappointed with the three or four chapters which consist entirely of Hiro explaining everything that was going on. That part felt like the end of a Scooby Doo episode, right before they say, “Well, that about wraps it up. There’s just one more thing. Let’s see who the monster really is. Why, it’s old man Wilfred!!” Neal Stephenson seems to be a good writer sometimes, but at times he simply fails.