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September 2009

The Archives

• Matthew Baldwin

  Acknowledgements

  09.26.09 | Permalink | 30 Comments

  Back in April, when I set out to recruit three more Guides, I decided to start with the folks I thought would be best suited for the role and then move down the list as I accumulated rejections (of which I expected plenty). Instead, to my great fortune, the first three people I asked [...]

• 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 [...]

• Miscellaneous

  The End

  09.21.09 | Permalink | 6 Comments

  Early in Infinite Summer, we received an email from a participant (who requested anonymity):
  I went to a David Foster Wallace talk/autograph signing in Boston years ago. I asked him to write a message of congratulations to the reader on the final page. I thought this would motivate me to re-read IJ, since his congratulatory [...]

• Elsewhere Jest

  Roundup

  09.20.09 | Permalink | 22 Comments

  As Infinite Summer draws to a close, many have penned their “final thoughts” post:

  Sarah’s Books: “But and so and but so I finished IJ.”

  I Just Read About That: “So, obviously, the first reaction is WHAT?!“

  Infinite Zombies: “I’ve probably tended to race down the hill of those last 200 pages and just lost the end amid [...]

• Guests

  Greg Carlisle: Reading Infinite Jest Changed My Life (and Now It Will Change Yours)

  09.18.09 | Permalink | 32 Comments

  Greg Carlisle is the author of Elegant Complexity: A Study of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest and an instructor of theater at Morehead State University.
  When my friend Brian handed me A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again and told me I had to read it, I immediately recognized the name of the author whose [...]

• Avery Edison

  Mission Improbable

  09.17.09 | Permalink | 27 Comments

  Yes, I know — the term “mission improbable” brings up around forty-five thousand results in Google. I am, very decidedly, not the first person to think of it. Last week I went with the title “Grapes of Wraith”, which was somewhat poorly received in the comments section. One commenter improved it, though, changing the title [...]

• Kevin Guilfoile

  I Got This Fire In My Heart, Won’t Let Me Sleep, Can’t Concentrate…

  09.16.09 | Permalink | 45 Comments

  NOTE: I realize some Infsumerians didn’t like the (fully disclosed) spoilers in my last post. There’s a big one (a nuclear one) in this post, too, but I’m wrapping up the novel this week and it would be difficult for me to do that without making this point, so here’s my apology in advance. If [...]

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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