Fiction

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein - Book Three: Dead and Alive by Dean Koontz
Chapters 12 - 18

Asides and little details are all well and good for fleshing out a world and its characters, but you do have to wonder if the reader really needs whole chapters like the one describing an obscure, little-known restaurant and what two characters eat there while waiting around for something to happen. Of course, said restaurant and/or said food may be of importance later, rendering this as important foreshadowing or set-up rather than time-wasting, pointless detail, but unfortunately I don't think such usefulness is guaranteed.

Presumably such unrelated asides spring from Koontz feeling the need to regularly remind his reader about each of the half-dozen (or so) plot threads he has running currently, even if there's nothing to report from that particular thread yet. But perhaps he'd be better off trusting the reader to remember the characters until they actually have a role to play, rather than merely reminding us of their continued existence through an unnecessary bit of nothing, especially when there are several other characters and situations where interesting -- and relevant -- events no doubt continue to unfold.