For the most part, I'll pretty much pick up and read any book, although I can usually tell how interested I'll be in it within the first 20 pages. I found a copy of "Neuromancer" by William Gibson at (no joke) the dump, and even though I wasn't mesmerized by the jacket text, I thought I'd give it a shot. After all, I remember seeing the title on various greatest-books lists, realizing later that it had won the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award and the Hugo Award in 1984.
The novel was full of cyberpunk action, although I somehow missed its relevance for the first 150 pages (of the 270-page book). I felt like the story would begin to make sense once I turned the page, only to find more confusion there. Near the end, I finally began to sort out the characters and the plot line, but I think it was too late to enjoy it.
Now, I'm not blaming Gibson for this; I think I subconsciously skimmed the first half of the book without detailing its occurrences. If you aren't into techspeak, you may want to avoid this ... and even if you are into it, make sure you pay attention at the beginning of the book. Hopefully the book was worthy of its awards, and it definitely wasn't bad enough to trash, but I wouldn't rank it as one of my favorites, either.
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