Is playing [the first] Bioshock worth the effort?

[vmagics]

I bought Bioshock (not Bioshock 2) when it was first released and after a brief period of wandering and reading diaries I lost interest. Anyway, since the reviews suggest it is actually a good game I thought I'd give it another shot. However, before I invest more time and effort, I seem to remember a similar scenario in Doom3 where there was reams of diaries to cipher through to find the occasional, but (iirc) necessary door code - it was at this point that the game promptly found it's way into the dustbin. I was wondering if reading the diaries in Bioshock are necessary in order to progress through the game? Thanks