this summer i have been careening along, enjoying some very fun books. i have been dipping into the lives of vampires, werewolves, and even fossil hunters! all breezy reading.
so when i opened up neal stephenson’s anathem and started reading, it felt like my mind had hit a wall of jello. the book is described as “hard science fiction.” and i know that probably isn’t intended to describe the effort required to read it, but wow, what a change!
the descriptions of the architecture are dense, and stephenson created a whole new language for the book, so many of the words are unrecognizable, requiring the reader to guess at their meaning from the context.
i haven’t let that stop me, and i continue to progress through the book’s 980 pages. although, i read in a review that the true plot isn’t revealed until 200 pages in, so i think i am still in the set up….very curious to see what it is all leading up to!
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if I was going to read something that difficult i would probably choose a textbook! i have a Freud reader that i’m slowly getting through that has the same amount of complexity and length.
sounds interesting though, i’m keen to hear what you get out of it.
i have started reading Fallen. it hasn’t grabbed me yet, so i’m reading a few pages a day,
That seems like too much work. I like complicated words as much as the next gal, but I tend to prefer classics for that. When I`m not reading something well known and loved, I tend to use easy books to relax. You know, books only 600 or so pages, that uses official English words. I tend to not like Sci- Fi as well, so that may be affecting my feelings for the book.
i usually enjoy science fiction, and if i like a book, then i am glad when it is loooong! but i have to admit that i put this book down and haven’t even considered picking it back up!
Some things are just too much, and books made purely for the sake of being difficult reads falls into that category for me.