I think they could have been divided into smaller chunks. There are at least four places where you have to stop and spend fifteen minutes reading a journal, cover to cover. But they're not bad writing. I'm just pointing out that they're awfully long to read all at once. Ok, never mind, it's a small complaint.
Dialogue is rare.
This isn't much of a surprise, since the designers chose to keep Myst 's one-click interface. So extended dialogue would be glaringly artificial. Very sensibly, they didn't try for any. There are a few scenes where someone walks in, says something, and hurries out again. Half the time the person doesn't even speak your language.