If you know what this figure is, then I think you might like Neal Stephenson's Anathem. If you don't know what this is, or worse, know but don't think its cool, then you're not going to understand Anathem. Sadly PZ Myers is in the "I don't get it" camp.
The figure is of course Euclid's famous but overly complicated geometrical proof of the Pythagorean Theorem (the image from the Wolfram web page on this subject, which is worth reading).
Forget the later half of Anathem - its just an extended action scene - the real meat is in the first half and if you're not hooked by the dialectical discourse between Theors by half way through then you're not going to get it.
Anathem is a exploration of math, physics, and metaphysics, OK? Square root of two demonstrated by cutting cakes. Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Platonic forms. Etc.
If you don't know much math, physics or metaphysics, you might not be able of appreciating it. The same way Cryptonomicon is best appreciated by people with *nix experience (and OSX doesn't count, apple dweebs!), Anathem is best appreciated by people similar to the Theors it describes.
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