Middlemarch is also my favorite classic novel. I didn't get anything out of Underworld (or White Noise). Don't understand why they're so acclaimed. Curious if you end up the same.

As you are someone who's read both of those DeLillo novels, I'm curious on what your opinion of Thomas Pynchon is (if you're read him also).

I read Mason and Dixon and half of Gravitys Rainbow. Brilliant author but too dense and too, eh, Pynchony, for me. I liked Marquez best of that era. That said I've more or less stopped reading fiction, feel like after hundreds of attempts I have yet to find anything life changing enough to be worth the investment.

Thanks for yr response. I've read Pynchon but not DeLillo, which is why I asked the question.

> That said I've more or less stopped reading fiction, feel like after hundreds of attempts I have yet to find anything life changing enough to be worth the investment.

This was interesting. I'm not going to argue against you stopping reading fiction because I don't see reading as a necessarily 'virtuous' activity. I think there can be value in it but there can be value in doing other things instead. I personally feel that I have come across a number of books in my time that were somewhat 'life changing' but I never read in a quest to find such books; my reading has always been done for experience/curiosity.

Feel free to read DeLillo (obviously). I'm really curious what the fuss is about. I found the characters drab, the style uninspiring, the themes mundane. There must be something there but I didn't get it.

If I did, I think I would try Ratner's Star, as that seems his most interesting novel (at least in what it attempted, whether successful or not). But I'm in no hurry.

Do you still watch Netflix? If so, is that life changing enough? If not, what do you do for hobbies?

Coding? I started contributing to google's quantum computing libraries last year (they did not create a wormhole) and now moving on to compiler development.