Infinite Jest?

Has anyone read it and what do you think? I was wondering how long it took you to read?

I'm in the process of reading it now for my 75 book challenge. It's not a hard read, but the text demands a high level of attention from the reader. It’s full of puns, plays on words, anachronisms, and some really bizarre scenarios which can easily be missed if you are just skimming it over and reading it for the plot. (I’m convinced that people who don’t like the book are reading it only for the plot.)

This is my second go at the book, the first time I only got 700 pages in or so before I put it down. My brain was way too occupied with other things for me to give the text its due. (Something I feel is both an insult to the author and the art form.) But what I covered was amazing and funny it made me to want to give it another go.

I restarted this week and have covered 300 pages (that’s with about and hour or so of reading while commuting through Boston). The bit that takes the longest is the footnotes in the back and I firmly believe that the key to reading it is a bookmark for the front half and one for the indexes. Oh and a list of the years helps too.

The person who first introduced this book to my circle of friends, read it over a year during his senior year in college. I am hoping to finish it by the end of the month. So I guess reading time is based on commitment and your stamina as a reader. If you take a stab at it like its a modern Ulysses you should be fine.

I found it pretty hard going and like you should probably try again. Part of my problem is that I tend to read fiction at the end of the day (a time that used to be reserved in the past to 'light' fiction as in 'thrillers' and 'pot-boilers'). I found myself enjoying some episodes but not really taking in the book as a whole. I have remembered how to use a microwave as a suicide method but that probably just shows I'm twisted.

At present I'm reading Tulia and I know it's gripping because I'm reading it in both day and evening 'slots' to the exclusion of anything else.

Thanks for the responses. For whatever reason I have put the book down. Not from dislike or disinterest in the book. I have read about six other less dense books since then including two or three from the 1001 lists and for some reason instead of picking it back up I started Anna Karenina. Sometimes my reading interests change very quickly and something else intices me. I have been reading on average 100 pages a day of lighter novels. I will be travelling some this month so I will take Anna Karenina (if i haven't finished) and Infinite Jest with me.

Prophetandmistress: You made mention of a list of years. Is this a list you make as you go along and do you document the going ons for that particular year?

Thanks again to you two for the responses.

If you have the 10th anniversary edition of the book its on page 223. The dates at the beginning of each section are kinda important because the action does not happen in chronological order.

I loved this book! I read it in about three weeks, and at first I was slogging through it. The confusion and varying view points and random chronolgy were driving me nuts. Somewhere around page 200 I hit a groove, figured out what the year order was and totally got into the book. So if you're getting bogged down at first, just keep going. It gets better.

Also, I will second the two boookmark suggestion. I believe that is how the book is meant to be read, with the footnotes interupting the narrative.

Just put this book on hold at the library.

A note on the library page said 'Not for the weak-wristed'
I just wonder how I'm going to get it to school so it can be read on the bus on the way home from school.

I just starting reading it yesterday. I'm about seventy pages in so I am guessing it will take me about 1.5 to 2 weeks to finish it.

I agree that you have to be ready to immerse yourself in the details of the book. The writing demands focused reading, but the payoff comes from the gradual revelation of the connection between seemingly disparate parts and characters.

I found the rather lengthy footnote on James Incandenza's filmography to be very helpful in spelling out some of the themes and events of the novel, so definitely bookmark your footnote page and read them all.

-- M1001