Not that I'm not thoroughly occupied with Infinite Jest for the remainder of the summer, but I'm always looking to add to my "Books/Authors I should read" list, and clearly, if you all have the taste for David Foster Wallace, your suggestions for additional reading are particularly valuable.
What book and/or author besides DFW and Infinite Jest appeals to you and why?
I'll start off with my suggestion: Letters, by John Barth.
Letters was Barth's seventh book and in essence provided a sequel for each of his previous six books by creating a chain of letters between characters featured in or inspired by those six books. Explore in any detail the narrative structure of this novel, (the dates of the letters, the particular correspondents, even the first letter of each missive are all predetermined by a schema) and you will either be wowed, like me, or turned off, like some critics. Barth has a reputation for featuring narrative trickery at the expense of empathetic characters and comprehensible story, but the reputation is undeserved. Barth himself used the term "passionate virtuosity" in referring to his writing, suggesting that yes indeed, he can play postmodern tricks with the best of them ("virtuosity"), but is passionate about many things (like DFW with tennis, Barth has a love for sailing that underpins many of his books) and people (his wife first and foremost, said passion also evident in much of his writing).
Wallace references Barth in his story "Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way" in Girl with Curious Hair, enough of a reason for many of you to pick up a Barth novel or short story collection sometime.
Out on Amazon.com, besides a slew of other works by DFW, "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" actually states the following: