Let me start by saying I hated MOBY DICK. I started out loving it, but then Melville turned half the book into some kind of encyclopedia entry anthology about sea life, some of it mammalian, all of it referred to as "fish". And so this is how I felt about CRYPTONOMICON. I love books about stories, and sure, there's a story in there, but it is buried under so much high brow scene building that I got bored fast. If I had to break it up into percentages, I'd say 25% of the book was story, 50% scene building (using math, which I like and even use in my own work), and 25% characterization. Both CRYPTONOMICON and MOBY DICK are popular books that could be called classics at this point and I will remain happily in the minority of readers, possibly just one reader, who didn't enjoy either.

By the way, I loved, loved, loved SNOW CRASH, so there's that.