While it may be a bit old, this kind of crossover celebrity gossip I can get into

EDIT: Presumably this is Robert Hooke as in the author of Micrographia and an early microscope

If you enjoy Hooke fanfic, he features prominently in Quicksilver.

highly recommend the entire baroque cycle!

Yep. But with a slight warning though, it's a lot of pages. Even by Neal Stephenson's standards, it's a lot. Not everybody has the attention span for this one. It's a very dense plot, with lots of side plots, asides, etc. (which is kind of the whole point of Neal Stephenson's books) that spreads over 9 books that originally were published in 3 volumes of ~1200 pages each depending on font size and edition you would have gotten. I've worked my way through that more times than I'd like to admit because it's enjoyable to re-read. Most recently earlier this year. It usually takes me 1-2 months at least.

Don’t threaten me with a good time!

Highly recommended. What is interesting to me is that he managed to place the Waterhouse family (and Enoch Root, a casual immortal) as some kind of Forrest Gump through history allowing you to see it all through the eyes of someone who could have been there. Anyway, no more spoilers, go read ;) And enjoy!

As does Newton, very quirkily

Also Leibniz, and a bunch of other historical figures from the time.

Hooke in Quicksilver kinda made me mad at my science and physics teachers. He’s just some dude who did things with lenses as far as they would have had me believe.

Some of this book is fantastical but the bones of it are historical fiction.

And springs! They brought up springs, surely. But it is true that Hooke is underrated in popular culture, in part because Newton thought very little of him, unfairly.

Yes. In hindsight I'm more surprised we don't hear more about their interactions due to the common enemy pointed out in the article!