Infinite Summer

I'm going to agree with Quinn. Joe, your intro made me what to push through this screen and meet you for the next glass of Maker's Mark.

I am Zander. I am 24. I've effectively been unemployed since February, due in part to my own lack of "capitalist virility" and an untimely move from Vancouver BC to Seattle WA. For the past two months I've done little other than read DFW like he was my best friend and lover. I believe I have now read every single interview he ever gave. I often combine DFW with alcohol, making certain aspects of IJ especially poignant. I want to cram as much of this man into my soul before September roles around and I enter graduate school in philosophy, which has almost nothing to do with life these days, and everything to do with historical re-analysis and logical bickering. It also has nearly nothing to do with future employment.

Hi. My name is Jenny; I am 28*, and am an attorney in Los Angeles. As a student, I went to a tony all-girls' high school in Los Angeles, a Seven Sisters college on the East Coast, and a law school back in L.A. I have been working at my current firm for nearly two years.

I picked up Infinite Jest on a whim after reading the AV Club on Wallace's work, and stumbled upon the Infinite Summer challenge just as I was beginning to read. I've been enjoying the book greatly, and the project has really helped to keep me disciplined and engaged with my reading.

I am actually trying to stay a little ahead of the posted schedule, as I will be going on a trip at the end of August; I am currently on page 507.

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* I turn 29 tomorrow.

Hi, I'm Matt. I started IJ on the solstice but have kept to the blog and Twitter updates till now. I'm 39 and married and have two kids I made and one my wife made. I work in the Blighting the Landscape With Towers dept. of a major telecom company whose initials are A, T & T. I'm a reformed lawyer with undergraduate degrees in English and History from a college I doubt you've heard of. How I came to IJ was like this: I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy back in May, and posted to Facebook that I thought it was my favorite book ever. A friend of mine replied that his was IJ. I looked into it and it looked too long and dense and there were all these warnings at Amazon about not reading it. But then I came across InfSum somehow on Twitter and figured it would be fun to read it communally and so that's what I'm doing. I'm 100 or so pages ahead of the pace and dying to talk about the Eschaton chapter but of course I'll wait.

William Fuller, Sacramento, California, Artistic Director The Pink Toupee Collective (more info: http://www.pinktoupee.org/); just found out about The Infinite Summer! I'm in! Loved DFW essays and a few short stories; was overwhelmed by the amount of emotion/compassion expressed by people after his death; have been wanting to read IJ and think this may make it possible; oops, time to go; got a lot of catchin' up to do!

Aaron, 25. Have attempted to read Infinite Jest many times before, but never quite managed it. Am now deeper into the novel than ever before (p. 313), and with no intent of stopping, especially since I've been blogging my own progress (as well as catching up with everyone here). Can't wait to attend the NYC meet-up; text-boxes are far from infinite, and their limned borders prevent one from reaching the Etna-like gushing that I'd like to do all over this page when talking about this novel, this oh-so-much-more-than-mere-Entertainment.

Anyway, I work all day as an editor, and review theater by night--Infinite Jest, surprisingly, has been a calming influence on all that. There's something nice about re-reading the same paragraph three times, just to make sure I get it. If anyone's attempted to speed read Infinite Jest, I'm sure the joke's on them.

I'm Mike - 48yo astrophysicist from the DC/Baltimore area. Despite having never read any DFW I impulsively suggested 'A Supposedly Fun Thing' a couple of months ago to my book club at work and I loved it. I immediately bought up nearly all of DFW's other stuff in one swell foop and happily found this group to spur me on to read IJ this summer. I feared that I wouldn't be able to keep up seeing as how I'm also in two other real-life book clubs, currently reading 'Dhalgren' and 'The Civil War: A Narrative' by Delaney and Foote, respectively. Oh, did I mention trying to keep up with AVClub's Wrapped Up in Books concurrently?

Anyway, I'm absolutely consumed by IJ and am loving the forums and commentary here. I'm finding it very helpful to read along with Carlisle's 'Elegant Complexity' as I go (alternating chapters with IJ itself). No spoilers, and it's hugely useful in pointing out connections and themes that I might have missed otherwise. Cheers!

Hello. My name is Logan. I'm 20 years old and a history student at the University of Houston. My only job right now is on game day staff in guest services for the Houston Astros... other than that I'm living off insurance money from a nasty car accident a year ago involving myself, and off duty police officer, a ran red-light, my head, some internal bleeding, and a dozen cat scans... nothing permanent though (that I'm aware of, lol) and I can afford rent now... so hey! I guess I came out ahead!

I just finished IJ for the first time a couple weeks ago. I read DFW's commencement speech a couple years back, but I really didn't key in on who he was until he passed away. After that I read Broom of the System, some other novels, and then IJ.

Whoops, I neglected to post an introduction. I'm Meghan, 25, work at a non-profit in Manhattan. I first read DFW in a college non-fiction workshop - "A Supposedly Fun Thing" was one of the only assigned readings I finished since it was the last semester of my senior year and I'd kind of checked out already. Earlier this year I went on a DFW bender and read all the essays and short stories, and started on IJ... I made it about 160 pages in that time. But now I'm in it to win it, way ahead of schedule with no plans to turn back. I love the blog and forums, and the discussions I've been having with friends - I've gotten so much more out of the book than I would have if I'd just read it on my own. I'm hoping to check out the NYC meet-up this week.

My name is Eric. I live in Worcester, MA... career and education unimportant.

I picked up Infinite Jest not long after DFW died, almost sheepishly since here was this well-regarded author that I, someone who considered himself a well-read person, had completely overlooked. I read the first chapter, was utterly confused as to where it was going from there, and shelved it for awhile. I'm not usually much of a fiction reader- the last fiction book I read before IJ was House of Leaves, and before that I've gone between reading Umberto Eco and Chuck Palahniuk (whom I think owes a lot to DFW, I see now). A little over a month ago, I grabbed it off the shelf and got to work, realizing that it was perhaps the most readable book I've ever encountered.

I just finished the book last weekend in a day-long reading binge worthy of Gately and Fax's last hurrah together. I can't stop thinking about it. I don't know anyone personally who has read IJ, so I get to torment people on the internets with what I think about the book!

Tom here from CT who had planned on rereading IJ some time this summer when I learned of Infinite Summer so it seemed like a good time to get started. I was introduced to DFW by my daughter who is the only other person I know IRL, other than our son, who has read IJ. By now I've read everything Wallace has written other than Everything and More. Fairly well educated, degree-wise anyway, B.A. in Political Science, MBA, JD but it's been life outside of the classroom that has made it possible to understand Wallace's incredible cast of characters.

Ironically I learned of both Wallace existence and the end of that existence from our daughter. It will be nice to enlarge the circle of individuals IJ can be discussed with.