I really love sci-fi novels and I read a lot of books. I read 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson a while back and that book is particularly interesting to me. Rather than each chapter advancing the narrative of the story, there were occasional breaks where a chapter would have a list of semi-random words which just gave the vibe of what’s happening, or some history of a scene, or a recipe for how to build an asteroid.
There’s another book that I have heard of but neglected to write the name down, where the reader of the book is a character within the book, and the narrator speaks directly to you (but not a choose-your-adventure style book).
All of this got me interested in finding other books, preferably sci-fi or maybe fantasy, where the concept of being a book is played with and new ideas are tried. Any recommendations?
As an answer to the request for a “book that plays with what it means to be a book”, this is 100% the best answer (that I’ve experienced). It’s as much art project as book, but also a fantastic story. Very challenging, and very rewarding.
As others have said, this MUST be read as a physical paper book. Not an e-book, and not an audiobook (if one even exists? It would be wild that someone OK’d an audiobook version of this).