Infinite time to read??

[i_am_vidoq]

Question before I embark on this journey...why should I read Infinite Jest? I know a bunch of you guys were praising it a few years ago but picking this thing up (I own it) and flipping through it, I get the feeling it will be one of those books that makes me stop reading for a while because I'm never motivated to finish it (see Moby Dick, Gravity'

Comments

[misunderstruck]

It doesn't have a great plot, and if encyclopediac novels lacking plots are not your thing (like Moby Dick, Gravity's Rainbow, Ulysses, the Bible), then I wouldn't recommend it.

There are parts that are clever, and a lot of it is well-written, and there are parts that are totally fucking hilarious (to the point where I was laughing so hard while reading it that I had to stop and read it out loud to my roommate, and I still couldn't stop laughing while reading it aloud).

DFW has published one or two books of short fiction since then, actually. No novels.

[xraytheenforcer]

I have a very low (read: non-existent) tolerance for self-important wank that doesn't involve leather-clad Scandinavians howling about Valhalla while accompanied by some shredding double-bass drum. Therefore, I have a very, very, verrrrrrry low opinion of DFW and Infinite Jest.

[bassmike]

It has some great moments. But it took me a year to read. I think I finished half a dozen other books in that same year. So, eh?