Joanna:
> As a literary work however, it is fairly thin beer.
Meaning what? You don't like it stylistically?
> I have also read Delilo, which left no lasting impression except the
> unwillingness to read anything else by him.
What did you start with? I mean, I don't want to come across as one of those obnoxious fans who insist you started with the wrong thing, and that if you just read "work x" you'd appreciate it (I hate music fans who do that), but I'm curious to know what work by Delillo put you off. I think the early, pre-White Noise stuff is fantastic, and White Noise itself is pretty great. Some of his more recent stuff comes across as a bit cold and distant, but I think that's probably the intended effect.
> Gibson I don't know.
Hm. Well, I guess his seminal work would be "Neuromancer", but I have the feeling that anybody who didn't already read it in the 80s or early 90s and then tried to read it now would wonder what the big deal is. Kind of like trying to listen to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music with ears accustomed to glitch techno.
Maybe some of the more recent stuff would be worth reading, though, like the trilogy that starts with Pattern Recognition.