Anathem was Stephenson's first book that I read; I was absolutely mind blown. It's a slow burn (like most of his books), but the ending is more than worth it. Later I picked up Cryptonomicon, and it's a big reason why I'm doing a PhD in crypto now.

Does Anathem have an ending or just sort of ends like the rest of Stephenson's books? Just curious.

It's the least bad of his endings, and quite big. Worth going to the end.

Its ending is a bit more traditional, as well as explicitly making fun of the fact that people criticize him for his endings.

Stephenson seems to think it does: https://youtu.be/lnq-2BJwatE?t=10m53s

As someone who has read several dozen sci-fi books, that one stands out as one of the absolute best. It's definitely an inspiration for the startup I'm working on now.

What kind of a startup is that? !

It was only from a minor plot line, but I really liked the idea that they grew all their own food and baked bread. The app is for community farming--it's called terrafarm (terrafarm.io).

I liked Anathem, but it is more of a philosophical work. Personally I think The Diamond Age is Stephenson's hard sci-fi masterpiece.

I agree, The Diamond Age is my favorite book from Stephenson so far (I have the baroque cycle and pre-snowcrash books left to read), but something about Anathem makes me feel like it has staying power. Just my opinion though.

The Baroque Cycle I never quite could make myself read fully, despite liking other books of his a lot.

The Baroque Cycle seems like it was a ton of fun to write, much less so to read.