Like 3 years ago, it is conceptually a good book, fascinating actually but the writing style is so robotic and don’t get me wrong, but for me at least, it was at first a little disorienting to follow Chinese names.
I had to push through to finish it.
A month and a half ago I started reading again, something light, Murderbot diaries, follow it with Project Hail Mary, then All Tomorrows. The first one very short, fast paced, PHM not that short but very entertaining, it kept me glued to the page, the All Tomorrows, not my cup of tea but short and somewhat bizarre.
People kept telling me The Dark Forest was better than TBP, with my reading slump over, I decided to give it a try.
With the 3 first books I read every second I had free, I finished them in two weeks, started TDF almost a 3 weeks ago and I’m starting to feel like I felt with The Three Body Problem made feel before, a little bored and like I have to push through.
I don’t like books that I don’t feel compelled to read and feel more like a chore. Anyways, rant over.
I’m one of those people that likes to point out how differences in writing style affect people’s enjoyment of the book, but I don’t intend that as an invitation to fight. You get it and jive with it, or you don’t and go read something else.
I’ve done the math on the books I own (in my own home, physically) as a 40 something year old dude. I own more unread books than I’ll ever be able to tackle (even if I never buy another book), want to buy more, and it’s highly unlikely people will just stop writing books for 40-60 years to let me catch up. I enjoy having them because I have my own personal library that I can afford to curate.
But it really drives the point home when you track all the books you want to read vs what you’re doing reading a book that isn’t clicking. My rule of thumb is if I’m interested enough to crack it open, I’ll do a third of the book or 200 pages, whatever’s shorter. Put a bookmark at the stopping point before you begin reading. When you get to the bookmark, it’s a ‘hell yes’ (keep reading) or just close the book and get something else off the shelf.
I get through ~50 books/year, a pace I’ve maintained since ~25 years old, which means life is very literally too short to waste on bad books. 2,750 max (assuming 80 year lifespan and a constant 50 books/yr between 25-80) are in the hopper and shocker - people keep writing. Read what you want!
If TBP doesn’t resonate with you, literally go read anything else that does. You don’t need permission to not like something a lot of other people do, nor should it bother you.