I got about 2/3 through this before the book was destroyed in a flood. But I was basically done. I don't feel compelled to buy a new copy to finish.
The biggest issue with this novel is that the author continually reminds you as part of the plot that his autobiographical avatar continually wins literary contests. It is a reminder that something more dramatic, more poetic, more interesting should be happening. Instead, the book is exactly as advertised: rewritten journal entries of someone's daily life. Moderately interesting details here and there, some cool references to the cultural life of Egypt in the 1990s (cool to see a depiction of the idiotic Banquet for Seaweed controversy) but because the novel follow diary writing structure, it is not cumulative or narrative as a whole.