Infinite Summer

yes...Olive Kitteridge...short stories to clear the head

I had been on some long request lists for a couple of books from my library that arrived while I've been reading IJ - so I read "The Strain" over July 4th weekend and just finished "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies." I also tend to read multiple books at a time - usually a fiction and non-fiction and am now dipping into the essays in "A Supposedly Fun Thing..." since I'm about a week ahead in the IJ schedule. But I have to say, I'm finding it harder and harder to put IJ down. When Infinite Summer started I was in the middle of "Ablutions: Notes for a Novel" by Patrick deWitt - it's a stunning and very different look at alcohol addiction and the corrosive effects of addiction in general. I had no idea it would resonate so much with IJ!
Joan

Cat's Cradle, Last Exit to Brooklyn, How We Are Hungry...some textbook dipping...listening to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men on audiobook a lot.
This is how I used to do it as a kid, but I'd gotten a lot more linear until a few months ago.

I've been trying to keep up with my preferred comic books while reading IJ, but it's been tough. Most of the superhero books (Batman, I'm looking at you) have held much less interest to me, though some of the more, uh, people-based books like Phonogram and Jersey Gods (which both combine elements of the fantastic along with mundane life) have been a nice break. And Mark Waid's Incredibles miniseries (yeah--the Pixar movie) was a welcome respite. Next on deck: Wednesday comics (3 weeks worth!) and Scott Pilgrim vol. 4.

I read all of jd Salinger while reading I'm.I felt that salinger was an influence on dfw

I am rereading IJ (finished it on August 12, but I feel compelled to read it again), but I am reading the "Twilight" books now just because a friend loaned them to me. Talk about "peer presure!" I don't even like these books, for young readers fantasy books, the Harry Potter series is light years away in quality. Just starting the final book, and I can't wait to get through it. I am seriously thinking of reading some nonfiction, Michael Shermer or Richard Dawkins are calling me.

After DFW, I can't think of any other fiction that would hold my attention right now. Nothing else grabs my interest as his work does.

I started reading Gibson's Spook Country while reading IJ but I stopped with Spook Country around page 80. IJ really sucked me in and I found it overwhelming trying to focus on another fiction book. I did manage however to read about half of John Medina's Brain Rules while finishing IJ.

I always read a fiction & non-fiction book simultaneously, but once I finished Stalingrad by Antony Beevor (about 1/3rd of the way through IJ at the time) I held off on picking up another one because I was so absorbed and intent on finishing those 1,000+ pages