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?
“Building Stories” by Chris Ware. Not a book, but a deconstructed graphic novel that comes in a box full of different formats and sizes - from a newspaper to a tiny bubblegum sized strip. You read them in any order you please, learning stories of people who live in the same building, while also building your own path through the stories.
It’s one of my most prized pieces of literature.