Category

Rountables

• Guides, Rountables

  Summer’s End Roundtable, Part IV

  09.25.09 | Permalink | 22 Comments

  This is the last of a four-part roundtable discussion with the Infinite Summer Guides.
  Infinite Summer: Did Infinite Jest change your life?
  Avery Edison: It’s definitely got me reading books again, which is marvelous. I hadn’t realized how much the internet had affected my ability to just sit down and read a book, and — looking back [...]

• Guides, Rountables

  Summer’s End Roundtable, Part III

  09.24.09 | Permalink | 12 Comments

  This is the third of a four-part roundtable discussion with the Infinite Summer Guides.
  Infinite Summer: Looking back, do parts of the novel that seemed superfluous at the time now make sense?
  Eden M Kennedy: Yes and no. The joke about “never try to pull more than your own weight” came back a few times in [...]

• Guides, Rountables

  Summer’s End Roundtable, Part II

  09.23.09 | Permalink | 43 Comments

  This is the second of a four-part roundtable discussion with the Infinite Summer Guides.
  Infinite Summer: What do you think happened to Hal?
  Avery Edison: I think it was the withdrawal from Bob Hope that did him in — all that mold stuff has to be a red herring, since we never got a 14-page footnote on [...]

• Guides, Rountables

  Summer’s End Roundtable, Part I

  09.22.09 | Permalink | 39 Comments

  This is the first of a four-part roundtable discussion with the Infinite Summer Guides.
  Infinite Summer: How about that ending, huh?
  Matthew Baldwin: I found the ending to be incredible. Literally quote “incredible”, as in straining credulity, as in: despite the vast expanse of white space between the final sentence and the “981″, I was [...]

• Avery Edison, Eden M. Kennedy, Kevin Guilfoile, Matthew Baldwin, Rountables

  Midsummer Roundtable, Part V

  08.14.09 | Permalink | 7 Comments

  This is the fifth of a five-part roundtable discussion with the Infinite Summer Guides.
  Infinite Summer: Any predictions as to what will happen in the second half of the novel?
  Matthew Baldwin: I’ll tell you what I’m not expecting: anything resembling a standard climax or dénouement. In nearly all of Wallace’s non- and short-fiction I’ve read, [...]

• Avery Edison, Eden M. Kennedy, Kevin Guilfoile, Matthew Baldwin, Rountables

  Midsummer Roundtable, Part IV

  08.13.09 | Permalink | 22 Comments

  This is the fourth of a five-part roundtable discussion with the Infinite Summer Guides.
  Infinite Summer: Kevin, do you find Wallace’s style influencing your own? Will the title of your next novel (The Thousand) refer to the number of endnotes you went back and inserted?
  Kevin Guilfoile: I’m pretty easily influenced by anything that I like, [...]

• Avery Edison, Eden M. Kennedy, Kevin Guilfoile, Matthew Baldwin, Rountables

  Midsummer Roundtable, Part III

  08.12.09 | Permalink | 41 Comments

  This is the third of a five-part roundtable discussion with the Infinite Summer Guides.
  Infinite Summer: Does anyone have a favorite character?
  Avery Edison: I’ve written before about liking Hal the most, whilst suspecting that he may be a dick. That’s still holding true. I tend to like the smarter characters, and in a book full [...]

• Avery Edison, Eden M. Kennedy, Kevin Guilfoile, Matthew Baldwin, Rountables

  Midsummer Roundtable, Part II

  08.11.09 | Permalink | 36 Comments

  This is the second of a five-part roundtable discussion with the Infinite Summer Guides.
  Infinite Summer: Have you been sticking to the schedule?
  Avery Edison: For the first time since the project started I’m sticking to the schedule. I had been catching up in 75-page burst the day before my posts were due to be written. [...]

• Avery Edison, Eden M. Kennedy, Kevin Guilfoile, Matthew Baldwin, Rountables

  Midsummer Roundtable, Part I

  08.10.09 | Permalink | 41 Comments

  This is the first of a five-part roundtable discussion with the Infinite Summer Guides.
  Infinite Summer: Congratulations on reaching the halfway point.
  Eden M. Kennedy: Thanks.
  Matthew Baldwin: Huzzah!
  Avery Edison: Thank you. Although I think that once you factor in the endnotes, we technically haven’t even started.
  Kevin Guilfoile: I turned 40 last year, which is pretty [...]

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 Sponsors

The Queue

In October we are reading Bram Stoker's Dracula in October. See the announcement.

In January & February of 2010 we are reading 2666, the paperback of which was just released.

At some point in between we are reading a novel TBD.

The Search

The Last 10 Posts

• Infinite Index
• Acknowledgements
• Summer’s End Roundtable, Part IV
• Summer’s End Roundtable, Part III
• Summer’s End Roundtable, Part II
• Summer’s End Roundtable, Part I
• The End
• Roundup
• Greg Carlisle: Reading Infinite Jest Changed My Life (and Now It Will Change Yours)
• Mission Improbable

The Last 10 Comments

• Pemulis' Yachting Cap on Mission Improbable: Ooh, I’m thinking maybe Gately’s ginormous head has to do...
• Pemulis' Yachting Cap on I Got This Fire In My Heart, Won’t Let Me Sleep, Can’t Concentrate…: Nucks...
• Pemulis' Yachting Cap on Summer’s End Roundtable, Part III: I just realized that Mario reminds me a bit of Owen...
• Pemulis' Yachting Cap on Summer’s End Roundtable, Part III: I’m finished! I’d started last summer...
• Tao Joannes on Infinite Index: So, are we doing it again this summer as an official thing? I’ve got some...
• Melissa on Infinite Index: Thanks, Matthew. I was keeping pace with y’all last year up until August, when I had...
• Peer on Acknowledgements: Thanks for the link. I will check it out. I was just hoping for some announcements here...
• Prolixian on Acknowledgements: Peer – if you are interested in 2666, check out bolanobolano.com. A group read...
• Peer on Acknowledgements: When will we start the new book?
• Todeswalzer on Acknowledgements: RIP Infinite Summer. It was great while it lasted.

The Directory