I agree with you. I looked into micro controllers six or seven years ago and thought the same thing. Now with some much going on with Arduino and some many cool projects out there, I'm finally going to jump in and start doing instead of just reading.

I'm re-reading Cryptonomicon right now also, it's been 5 years since the first read. I'm looking forward to Anathem and hope its good enough to require a re-read in the future.