I finally finished 2666 last night after having it sit on my desk since last summer, and maybe starting to read it a couple of months ago.

While I was reading it I found it hard to enjoy as you might enjoy a more traditional novel. I wouldn’t call it a page-turner. It was a difficult read: digressions, references that were flying past me, sentences that would run for pages, masses of solid text. However, even if I wasn’t understanding everything I was seeing, there was at least something to try and understand. Once I got near the end I started reading bits from near the beginning, and I could actually imagine reading it a second time to actually get more out of it.

I didn’t realize The Part About the Crimes was actually based in reality until after I was finished, and was disturbed.

I wonder what reading it in Spanish would’ve been like. I will likely read his other books.

I listened to this 2007 Massey Lecture by Alberto Manguel yesterday that was not always easy to follow, but had some interesting sections. Particularly where he talks about the current state of book publishing. While hearing it I was really curious about what books he actually recommend, and it turns out he has a top 100 list (pdf) on his site.