[gwern]

I'm not surprised ChatGPT can answer it - I'm not sure why, but _Rainbows End_ is one of the most commonly-asked about SF books like that. Everyone remembers the book-tornado doing shotgun sequencing, but they can never remember its name or anything else that happens. I guess that's the problem with having a technology whose mental image is so compelling but also mostly disconnected to the rest of the book. (I know I can't tell you much about the rest without rereading the WP entry.)

[linsomniac]

I'm definitely in that camp, I read it ~10 years ago, and honestly can't remember anything about it but the book scanning.

Similarly, a friend recently read Ghost Fleet and I decided to pick it up and read it. The first chapter seemed familiar, and every once in a while there were "scenes" that I absolutely remembered having read years prior, but I had no memory of the overall plot.

[araes]

Rainbow's End, and Vernor Vinge in general, probably also fall in that category of referenced often, yet not actually read. Somebody actually reads the book, finds the one cool quote or example everybody likes, that idea gets repeated a huge amount, and most people don't actually read Rainbows End. Yet you hear about it so much tangentially, you feel like you have (or must have).