We got public libraries in major cities, but only if you’re lucky. If the library is well-maintained, well-stocked, and generally a good place to be? You either live in the capital (which has one public library of note), or REALLY lucky. Otherwise, it’s probably musty and understaffed.

Otherwise, uhh, schools and universities have libraries. They can be decent, but only accessible if you’re a student there. There are a few privately-owned library/cafe thing in major cities, and I’ve heard of philanthropists making small libraries in smaller towns. That’s pretty much it.

Reading is just not a national past time here, and the government sure isn’t trying to make it one.

Recommendations from friends and people I follow online, mainly. I follow a bunch of authors and narrative designers and between all of them I haven’t ran out of books for my wishlist yet!

Well as a translator myself, I can say translating and writing are VERY different skillsets! Entirely possible for someone to be good at writing in English but mediocre at translating to it (I am one such example 😔).

But yes, it seems likely the different styles and SF-hardness is more to blame than the translation itself.

Not being character-driven might explain why I didn’t enjoy reading The Three-Body Problem, but in that case Dune is very character-driven by comparison! I love Dune! I find myself very attached to its characters and their relationships, both to each other and to the world at large.

I’m on the same boat as OP on The Three Body Problem. The writing feels dry, the characters don’t feel real, and as a result I don’t really care about what happens in the story. I’ve read a few media translated from Chinese and few are as dry as Three Body. I’m not sure if the translation is just poor (I’ve heard it’s heavily edited compared to the original) or if that’s just how the original writing is.