I was in a conference in Singapore recently and found myself chatting to some guys from Manila. When I - of course - asked them if they'd read Cryptonomicon, they all but rolled their eyes! Apparently they got asked that all the time. They hadn't read the book - the language is a bit dense, I admit - but were under the impression it was massively popular amongst hackers of a certain variety, which I suppose it is.

It's a fantastic book. I probably re-reread it once a year.