Timing is everything. I was completely baffled when I first read it in the late 1980s. I was an omnivorous reader with a preference for literary fiction, but found techy sci-fi to be lacking in human appeal.

I’d laid hands on a computer, but had very little idea why I should be anymore interested in this flaky typewriter than in a hammer or a waffle iron or any other tool. All I remembered a month after reading was that some mostly-dead guy lived in the computer somehow. I liked Dixie, but the book itself seemed to be meant for someone else.

I read it again in the late 90s and loved it. Between those reads I went to college, minored in CS, logged on to a VAX/VMS work station almost daily to read message boards. I was horrified by AOL, thrilled by NetScape, over-the-moon for Wikipedia, etc.

My second reading took place in a completely different world and in a completely different brain. Most good books are different every time I read them, but Neuromancer — Wow!