Say what you will about the gameplay, but collecting and reading shards really makes the game for me. Eavesdropping on conversations, the game is full of little details that really make you want to become part of this world. It's more than just visual dressing, it's an idea shaped into reality.

I especially like how every side gigs look accidental and independent - here you have some studio with recording, here you have some former employee executed for treason, here you have a newsman collecting materials about some scam - and yet if you care to read notes and connect the dots you will see how the all form a common story.

Absolutely. CDPR really have some of the best writers in the industry. Haven't gone really far but the little I pick up is really interesting, except for a few of the shards. They can sometimes just contain a very simple and small communication bit between two people that really doesn't add anything spcial but a little background noise :)

Some are background noise, but some (perhaps most? I did not count it) are actually connected. You get them one by one like a pieces of puzzle and suddenly... bang! you see full picture of the same story from perspective of different actors.
I genuinely enjoy reading those texts, because they are actually relevant to what my character is encountering.

The accidental finds like Egg hunts which usually start with a dead body or some stranger asking for help.