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General Category => Book Reviews => Topic started by: MadJohnShaft on July 26, 2011, 07:28:08 AM

Title: Okay okay, I'll read 1Q84 not 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: MadJohnShaft on July 26, 2011, 07:28:08 AM
Yowsa, taking the plunge with the well loved Infinite Jest.

Goodbye rest of the literary world until I can slog through it.  I expect a lot of Tennis.   Poor David Foster Wallace should have stuck it out.  

http://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Jest-0-ebook/dp/B000S1M9LY/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_3 (http://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Jest-0-ebook/dp/B000S1M9LY/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_3)

Today, March 2, 2012 he would have turned 50 - why, Lord, why?
Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: Jor el on July 26, 2011, 03:30:09 PM

Good Luck
Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: MadJohnShaft on August 05, 2011, 07:20:56 PM
It's great!  I skipped over the burroughs-esque ghetto junky chapter - cause it's been done - but the rest is fucking 'awesome'
Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: Jor el on August 05, 2011, 08:35:25 PM

I bought it quite a few years ago, but never got up & running.
Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: MadJohnShaft on August 08, 2011, 05:39:13 PM
If you haven't read any of his essays or other stuff.... I found that good wind-up to take the plunge here.

13% done
Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: MadJohnShaft on October 29, 2011, 02:04:27 PM
And abandoned for a bunch of other stuff - 1Q84 is a big fucking thing and it has grabbed me.


Yes! I read the Mindy Kalib book then right back to 1Q84 (which is great) then back to I.J.

Poor David Foster Wallace is dead and his best book is so long people can only pretend they read it.
Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 1Q84 not 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: MadJohnShaft on December 16, 2011, 09:20:36 PM
1Q84 was on hold.

But not now, got it up to 60% on vacation last week, thanks to some flying.  


White Teeth by Zadie Smith seems to be in the same bucket as 1Q84, amazing adventures of kavalier and clay, Infinite Jest, and The Corrections so I may try that as my big old read next.


http://www.amazon.com/White-Teeth-Vintage-International-ebook/dp/B000FBFM9S/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325769783&sr=1-1 (http://www.amazon.com/White-Teeth-Vintage-International-ebook/dp/B000FBFM9S/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325769783&sr=1-1)
Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 1Q84 not 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: Mr Neutron on January 26, 2012, 09:05:57 AM
so, mjs, what's the verdict on the Murakami book?

I read, and enjoyed Hard boiled wonderland...., this might be worth checking out.

Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 1Q84 not 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: MadJohnShaft on January 27, 2012, 07:11:57 AM
79%

It's got issues per the reviews - I'm not feeling the length works with the plot and vice versa. I am enjoying reading it but it feels like there is a more reasonable sized novel inside it trying to break free.

I hope it ends well
Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 1Q84 not 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: MadJohnShaft on February 24, 2012, 06:52:51 AM
I finished 1Q84 and fuck yeah! I read me a big assed long book.  Now I miss it.  I give it a solid B+, figure our man wanted to write one really long book.


They all do.


Now, for my main long assed fiction book, I'm picking between resuming Infinte Jest, Zadie Smith's White Teeth, or this 50s masterpiece by  William Gass  called The Recognitions that sounds interesting .

http://www.amazon.com/Recognitions-American-Literature-Dalkey-Archive/dp/1564786919/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_1 (http://www.amazon.com/Recognitions-American-Literature-Dalkey-Archive/dp/1564786919/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_1)
Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 1Q84 not 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: MadJohnShaft on March 02, 2012, 10:04:42 PM
The Recognitions might be the winner, it's crazy long and not messing around. I read the first couple of pages a few times, cause it is like that.

But I started White Teeth instead, a well loved novel.
Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 1Q84 not 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: MadJohnShaft on September 11, 2012, 10:12:51 PM
Hey - the book people have some necrophilia for poor David Foster Wallace.  Let the man be, he was sad.


Look at this handwritten page from this novel

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/assets_c/2010/03/InfiniteJestDraft-28121.html (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/assets_c/2010/03/InfiniteJestDraft-28121.html)
Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 1Q84 not 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: Dylan Thomas on September 18, 2012, 02:54:06 PM
Definitely a long book.  One of these days I will also read it.
Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 1Q84 not 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: rayinreverse on September 19, 2012, 03:26:01 PM
Use the 3 bookmark method.
one for the page youre on. One for the index of footnotes, and one for the timeline.
I know it seems ridiculous, but it makes it a little easier to read.
read all of the footnotes!
Title: Re: Okay okay, I'll read 1Q84 not 'Infinite Jest' already.
Post by: MadJohnShaft on September 21, 2012, 09:19:42 AM
You know, the footnotes on Ipad are not that bad - the only thing is if you leave off reading while on a footnote it is jarring and confusing to remember to click back to the main text - I almost wish you could put the footnotes in-line.