One of the really cool things about Eli's story is the fact that he received a copy of SICP signed by Abelson and Sussman after completing his project (because of the actions of someone who knows the authors). That had to be a fun thing to receive in the mail.
I love what Eli Bendersky did here to track his progess as he was going through the book: http://eli.thegreenplace.net/category/programming/lisp/sicp/