I watched the movie years ago, and hadn’t read the book. I wanted to read it, since I had read elsewhere that 2001 was a first contact story, of all things (I never would’ve guessed that from the movie – I knew the monolith was weird, but never connected the dots. The movie had a lot of weird). I’ve been really into first contact, aliens, star trek, transformers, and so on recently, so something as lauded as 2001 seemed right up my alley, especially since I’m trying to read “real” books more.
There was a LOT of descriptive text focused on the technology and world-building, but it was never boring. I’m glad I enjoyed it – I usually prefer works that are very character or relationship oriented. It was a very easy and relaxing read, there were a few nights at midnight where it was hard to put down the book.
The final part of the book was just as weird as the final part of the movie, even with the context of incorporeal aliens running experiments on life to create thinking beings.