Instead of just reading junk/beach books during the summer (which I certainly also do), I like to tackle some big books, too. Last summer I read A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth, which was the longest book I had ever read at 1474 pages in a small font and narrow margins. Several kind commentors / bloggers have mentioned Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace in the same company as Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which is currently #1 on Amy's Top Ten Books of 2005 List. My bulky copy (1079 pages including end notes) of Infinite Jest with its bright orange binding cover has been waiting patiently on the Read Me shelves here in Alaska for at least a year. I haven't been able to start Everything is Illuminated for some reason -- afraid I'll be disappointed if it's not as good as Loud/Close, maybe, or still letting that wonderful book seep into the aquifer of my memory.
I've been reading my Theravada Vipassana Buddhism books, too, which is the type of formal meditation I do, when I do it. Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: the Path of Insight Meditation is a classic, and Dharma Punx and Buddhism without Beliefs are all favorites. All of the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh do me good, too. An End to Suffering: the Buddha in the World keeps sitting at the bottom of my Current Reading pile, but I imagine that I'll get to it before the Summer is over.
I'll keep you posted on my progress as I read my way through Infinite Jest.
80 pages in Amy - I am so happy. Keep reading before Brad gets back. I had a friend read 300 pages in a few days, but he was still beaten (3 months)... it does get better and I wish I had monitored the footnotes better the first time, because I will never be DFW pure again (wish i was joking) Glad to see you have a dictionary there..
Posted by: Ben Barren | Wednesday, July 27, 2005 at 06:05 AM
I read about 80 pages last night and am definitely hooked. Using my dictionary frequently (palaver, prolix, and (almost) all of the pharmaceutical terminology. He has more of an eye for the grotesque than the sublime (so far). I remember reading some portion of this in The New Yorker. Would be hard to forget some of his vivid (grotesque) imagery. Ben C, don't be afraid -- jump in here with me.
Posted by: Amy Batchelor | Tuesday, July 26, 2005 at 01:11 PM
My friends and I have a competition (about 10 of us who have read it) Who can read it the fastest the first time. (once you have read it once, you supposedly have to read the first chapter again to get the conclusion, which is where you start - "The Infinite Jest" : But anyway, the shortest reading time is something like 10 weeks, and some people (myself included didnt read all the footnotes such first time, picking the morsels such as the submerged film script/subtext - who else would do that except DFW:)
I can promise by about page 20 it gets really enjoyable :) and if you read it in under 10 weeks you are the new Infinite Jest Champion ! Good luck, it is fun, really, wickedly. (never was the word wicked so appropriate) Once you read page 1 though the clock is on. No stop/start stopwatch thing... (a bit like trying to read James Joyce)
Posted by: Ben Barren | Tuesday, July 26, 2005 at 01:01 AM
oh man Amy, i'm gonna have to read it now too. I haven't had the balls to crack Infinite Jest yet and just mustered the courage to think about reading Atlas Shrugged (instead of digging into the latest Harvard Biz Review or another easy reading biz book) but what the hell, i'll do Infinite Jest and see if i can beat you to a blog post/book review about it. It's gonna take me awhile, no sweat!
Posted by: Ben Casnocha | Monday, July 25, 2005 at 10:43 PM