The National Post’s Afterword interviewed Matthew Baldwin about the genesis of Infinite Summer.
At A Supposedly Fun Blog, several writers (including Erza Klein of the Washington Post) have assembled to blog their reading of Infinite Jest. They join Infinite Zombies, which has been doing so for the last two weeks.
Sonja describes her reading methodology. William boasts that his weblog Human Complex is “Now Infinitely Summerier”. Christine has been posting an “IJ Quote of the Day” on Naptime Writing. Ray says he’ll be writing about Infinite Jest every Wednesday at Love, Your Copyeditor.
Political blogger Atrios reveals that the title of his blog is taken from the novel.
And speaking of political bloggers, Matthew Yglesias is reading Infinite Jest on the Kindle:
I think I stumbled upon an inadvertent flaw in the Kindle. Namely, that when you read really long books—particularly as part of a quasi-group enterprise—you want to either brag about how many pages you’ve read or else whine about how many pages you’ve fallen behind. But the Kindle doesn’t have pages! Just, um, locations.
So I read 1,100 locations worth of the book. But nobody knows what that means. Normal people won’t even know if that’s a lot or a little.
In general, the Kindle strikes me as somewhat hobbled by an overly generous view of why people buy books. Not only is there this problematic lack of bragging, but with the kindle edition of the book I can’t have a handsome volume laying around the house as if to say to visitors, “why, yes, I may be a professional political pundit but I’m also a man of culture.” And I’ll have nothing on my shelf. Amazon should at least send you a sticker when you buy a book on Kindle so you can maintain some kind of display wall of all the impressive books you’ve read.
According to this page, Skylight Books in LA will give you a 15% book club discount if you mention “Infinite Summer” when buying IJ. They also say their facilities are available for meet-ups.
Here are some other people who were talking about Infinite Summer this week:
- Melissa of Broken Nerves.
- Croz of Out of the cradle endlessly rocking.
- Brandon of Bookstorm.
- Lonita of All the Lonita that’s unfit to print.
- Paul of I Just Read About That …
- Chad of Uncertain Principles.
- Peter of of Brain Hammer.
- Rebecca of Of Books and Bicycles.
- Martin of Emdashes.
- Kirsten of Now or Never.
If you have recently written about Infinite Jest, please let us know in the comments or the forums.
Comments
33 responses to “Roundup”
Yup. Week 1 commentary at The Feminist Texican.
[…] This post was Twitted by LisaKenney […]
As a long time fan of David Foster Wallace I was thrilled to read about this site. I applaud everyone reading or rereading IJ as I pick it up for the fourth time and join in the fun. I suggest two bookmarks.
Very short post about why I am reading Infinite Jest again at Aqueduct (http://www.amystevensonline.com/blog).
I posted just a mini-update, urging others to join us if they haven’t yet — it’s not too late! http://verbatim.blogs.com/verbatim/2009/06/surely-i-jest.html
The IS group on Ravelry now has 91 members(!).
I’m among those members! I’m also writing occasionally about my rereading experience at http://www.torridly.org.
I’ve fallen hook,line and sinker for this project too, and realize it has already elbowed it’s way into my own site. …and kind of eclipsed all other activities at the moment.
This has encouraged a second reading of IJ and it is gratifying to know it is even better the second go around.
I love the idea of so many folks discovering his writing due to IS, it makes the heart glad.
i just found out about this through nymag.com:
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/06/anderson_the_ultimate_summer_read.html
i’m in!
Reading for the first time and enjoying the sensation of being 3 again, spinning around in circles…
I’ve done a little bit of Infinite Blogging myself.
Blogging quotes of the day and random thoughts on Infinite Jest throughout the last two weeks at http://www.ivblogz.com/wedlocked
I’ve got a half IJ half other stuff post at my place: http://eudaemoniaforall.blogspot.com/2009/06/end-of-spring-and-on-to-infinite-summer.html
Thank you so much for setting up the challenge. I have posted about starting IJ at http://sjpreads.blogspot.com/. I’m really enjoying the book!
Thanks for the bump!
William, awesome Wimbledon post. I was thinking exactly the same thoughts as I watched match summaries yesterday, albeit much less eloquently.
Hey all!
Thanks for the link. I’ve decided to add my weekly posts to the blog as well. I just hope I can read the book and this blog in the course of one week!
Here’s my first entry:
http://ijustreadaboutthat.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/david-foster-wallace-infinite-jest-week-1/
Oh, I am so, so excited about this. Infinite Jest is my favorite book. I cannot wait to see what this yields.
I wrote about it here:
http://bleakonomy.blogspot.com/2009/06/this-makes-my-heart-hurt.html
Really happy this resource is here! I love reading this as part of a group; so fun. I wrote about it here: http://piebooks.blogspot.com/2009/06/infinite-summer.html
Check the archives under my name at THENERVOUSBREAKDOWN.COM for my IJ blog.
Just thought to let you know we’re blogging the Infinite Summer over at terraceagenda.com, also. A little disappointed that Infinite Zombies isn’t a retelling of IJ, except with zombies. Not too disappointed, mind you, just a little. Humph.
I’m going to give this a try! I’m pretty excited, and I think this site will give me the motivation I need!
I’ve been blogging on my Myspace page…I just post updates as comments on there.
That didn’t post the address it’s
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=93687763&blogId=493682884
[…] I’ve mentioned before, Infinite Summer is my .5th time through Infinite Jest, having not quite made it all the way through the last time I […]
Coinicidentally, I started re-reading IJ even before the summer. I blogged about it back in April, but, because I have been taking the book out of the library (where it has quite a few holds because interest in DFW was rekindled after his death), I’ve beem having to return it and re-take it out and return it and re-take it out … Upshot: here it is June and I’m on page 720.
I’m picking up a lot more the second time, though.
just started reading – my fiance convinced me to tackle this beast. just blogged about the challenge! http://www.thesassykathy.com/
what a wonderful summer project. I’m on board and will be blogging the whole way. posted my first response last week. please take a look!
http://www.pianoandscene.com/blog
thanks!
j.
Helpful piece on Infinite Summer at http://book-clubs.suite101.com/article.cfm/infinite_jest_stirs_infinite_summer_readfest
[…] the mean time there are already some entertaining remarks coming from of the related blogs. I have to wonder if this will permanently affect the style and tone in some of the nerdier, […]
And now, Infinite Jest LOLcats tie-in:
http://cheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=4603473
I blogged about IS on June 21. I am not participating in the Big Read during baseball season, but will go ahead with my 2nd complete read –I’ve read many sections dozens of times — in November YDAU.
I’m in love with this project – thousands of readers joining virtually to read one of the greatest (and most imposing) novels of our time. Not only am I on board, but I am writing participation and encouraging my readers to get on board as well.
http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/fiction/fr/infinite-jest.htm
Well done!
Mark Flanagan
About.com Guide to Contemporary Literature