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Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Books Not a Jest

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 2:42 PM

4efd/1243972659-laurence6-4439.jpg Here's a good idea for a bookclub: This website is the home base for "Infinite Summer," which is a group effort to read David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest over the entire summer. It seems eminently do-able:

Read Infinite Jest over the summer of 2009, June 21st to September 22nd. A thousand pages1 ÷ 92 days = 75 pages a week. No sweat.

1. Plus endnotes 2.
2. A lot of them.

I heartily endorse this plan.

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Comments (15) RSS

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75 pages is an hour's reading for me. 75 pages of DFW is significantly longer. I'll pass on this one for a while longer.

Posted by Gitai on June 2, 2009 at 2:53 PM

Big surprise! It's all You you you all the time!

Posted by Max J on June 2, 2009 at 3:03 PM

I do not endorse anyone, ever, reading Infinite Jest. I have had the pleasure. It was not worth it.

Posted by Allie on June 2, 2009 at 3:04 PM

Totally worth it. I read it maybe too fast the first time around, so pacing myself and taking the summer to do it a second time might be a good idea. Maybe I can get a copy for my birthday, conveniently situated a few days after the beginning of summer.

Posted by Levislade

on June 2, 2009 at 3:21 PM

I'm pretty sure I finished it in less than 3 months. Was it worth the effort? Not particularly. A real ending would have been a nice reward, at the very least. I'm glad I don't feel the need to "prove" myself against indulgent, over-hyped books like that anymore.

Posted by gfish

on June 2, 2009 at 3:25 PM

I read the first 90 pages in a day and felt disturbed and depressed, so I quit.

Posted by Renée Krulich (Nay) on June 2, 2009 at 3:30 PM

Totally worth it, and especially when you'll be going along with many others who will help you through the rough stuff.

I mean, don't read it because you think you need to prove anything, but if you're interested in what challenging yet compassionate fiction can do this is a must read.

Posted by Mario on June 2, 2009 at 4:10 PM

A reading group is a great way to get through IJ! A friend and I read it together over the winter and it was one of the most rewarding reading experiences I've ever had. It's a really fantastic book and I loved every moment that I was able to live in that world.

Posted by RainKing on June 2, 2009 at 4:39 PM

the first hundred or so pages were the hardest. then you get the structure of the book and it breaks your brain and puts it back together again.

Posted by josh

on June 2, 2009 at 4:45 PM

oh josh, is that so? thanks for sharing.

Posted by slogbuster on June 2, 2009 at 4:59 PM

I'm in. There are a group of us (ie - people I actually know in real life) doing it, and I think peer pressure will get me through it this time.

I feel like a shitty bookseller for never having finished reading it.

Posted by bibliogrrl on June 2, 2009 at 5:16 PM

What a coincidence! Just yesterday I was recommending it to a friend and realized the only cool parts I could remember were the French Canadian wheelchair assasins and Global Thermonuclear War. I told him, "I should reread that. Next time I have 4 months to spare, I will." Turns out I only need 3!

Posted by skweetis on June 2, 2009 at 5:42 PM

Egads, 1,000 pages? If DFW cannot be bothered to organize and condense his thoughts a bit and trim it down to something manageable, I cannot be bothered to read it. Does he really have that much to say?

Posted by Gus on June 2, 2009 at 5:58 PM

Gus, you'll never know until you read it. INFINITE JEST is organized and condensed. Having read it 5 times, I can say that yes, he really does have that much to say.

Posted by Roscoe on June 2, 2009 at 7:21 PM

@13 Yes he does. Hell, there's more that 1100 pages of things that are unsaid in the book - it could've easily been twice as long.

Posted by RainKing on June 3, 2009 at 7:06 AM