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.
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.
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).
