I Evoke Brow XII: The Vorpal Blade

Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1) A man and woman skate through the frozen canals of a northern European city:

"The Comte d'Avaux moved through the Hague's canal-network in the gait of a man walking across red-hot coals, but some innate aplomb kept him from falling down even once. "Would you like to go home now, monsieur?" "Oh no, mademoiselle--I am enjoying myself," he returned, biting off the syllables one by one, like a crocodile working its way up an oar.""

Lately I've been putting little post-it notes next to lines I particularly enjoy in books I'm reading so I can come back later and record them here. This is the only line I flagged in this 1000 or so page novel; the only one that I thought was particularly clever (and could stand on it's own, without much context, a prerequisite for me). But, lest you think I didn't enjoy this book, the problem wasn't a lack of good writing: what I needed was a huge post-it to cover the entire text. This book succeeds on every level; engrossing is far too pale a description for the incredibly variety and eloquence of the techniques Stephenson uses to immerse you in the 17th century. The story is at times bizarre, funny, thrilling, titillating, amusing, educational, and always interesting. Stephenson's books are in that elite group that keep me up reading into the wee hours of the morning. This was one that I—almost literally—couldn't put down (putting those em-dashes to good use!) I knocked it out in about a week or so. It was rarely more than ten feet away from me: I took to work, to the bathroom, read it at breakfast. By the end I was utterly sleep deprived. I had to force myself not to immediately jump into the next volume (which I unfortunately read first)—I needed the rest. 10/10 ----- Listening to: Estimated>Eyes>(an excellent) Throwing Stones>GDTRFB gd1983-09-02