Mother Earth, Motherboard by Neal Stephenson

This 66-page article from Wired Magazine is the best nerd writing I've read since Tracy Kidder and "Soul of a New Machine." More than you ever wanted to know about undersea communication cables written in an irreverent style with all kinds of literary and historical allusions. With chapter previews like Gulliver's Travels and Pilgrim's Progress and Robert Louis Stevenson and Robinson Crusoe. I found the wandering style very entertaining and the author never fails to come back to the point. Read it at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html