Snow Crash

By Neal Stephenson, published in 1992

Rating: ★★★★★ (5 stars out of 5)

It’s hard to overstate how much this book influenced me. I read it at exactly the right age (teenager) and at exactly the right time (high school) to learn exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It’s fast, it’s funny, it’s thought-provoking, and it’s dazzling in its unconventionality. This book taught me that you can name your character Hiro Protagonist, that you can end a chapter with “–after that it’s just a chase scene” and tell an adventure story and write really well at the same time. I didn’t know any of that was possible.