I Just Read About That…

I’m a fan of David Foster Wallace. I read Infinite Jest when it came out (1996) and loved it.  I still vividly recall scenes from the book even 13 years later.  However, I’m a very different person and a very different reader now.  And I wondered if I would get more out of the book reading it as an older, hopefully [DFW would hate that usage] wiser person (and certainly a second read could only help with this incredibly dense book).

But who wants to undertake the immense work involved in reading this 1100 page book?

Enter Infinite Summer.

The Challenge

Join endurance bibliophiles from around the world in reading 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^a.
a. A lot of them.

The Rules

There ain’t none. Read Infinite Jest, start around June 21st (if you want), finish around September 22nd (if you want), gloat about having completed the novel afterward (required).

If you wish to read ahead, feel free. Think of us as a pacecar: you can leave us in the dust, but it’s probably best not to fall behind.

If you are ahead of the pack you should feel free to join the conversation. All we ask is that you adhere to the Inficratic Oath: First, Reveal No Spoilers. So, apparently, there is at least one rule.

So I’m on board.  This is TOTALLY going to screw with my plans of reading lots of other books this summer.  And this especially hurts because I have two summer reading contests that I was hoping to enter a couple of entries every two weeks.  I know this book.  75 pages can take a long time.  I hope I can squeeze in some other books as well.

Like on Infinite Summer, I’m going to post weekly updates, mostly to keep notes for myself, but also to comment when it’s warranted.

I wonder if what I remember being in the book is actually there. One thing I remember very well, and it’s not a spoiler of anything was that he called Storrow Drive the Storrow 500.  At the time I took Storrow Drive several times a month, so it really resonated.

ALSO: I grabbed my old hardcover copy of the book and found several articles that I had clipped from the Boston Phoenix about DFW and Infinite Jest.  I must have been a major geek fan of the book to have done so.  At the end of the book, I’ll read the articles and see if they were worth cutting out.