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It's 3 books, but Neal Stephenson's
The Baroque Cycle might be a good choice. It's fiction (the author considers it science fiction), but he's a huge geek and takes some very interesting diversions into cryptology, economics, politics, history, etc. Each book is 8-900 pages, but they're in paperback now so they shouldn't take up a ton of space.
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Just looked that up and it looks really cool and interesting. Before investing so much time in books like that though, I kind of prefer that they have withstood the test of time already. I know thats snobbish but what can I say.
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Cryptonomicon is by the same author, is only one book, and is also very good. Snow Crash is also by the same author, is one short book, and is excellent.