Infinite Summer

[JeffKamin]

I'll do this if at least 3-4 other Books & Bars members are interested in a side project.

http://www.infinitesummer.org/

Anyone second the motion?
I tried and crashed and burned on this years ago.
But it's now or never.

[elihoughton]

I would do it, but Infinite Winter seems like it might be a better idea. If you get enough people to do it, let me know.

[marymargaret]

My arms have been getting flabby. Carrying this book around all summer might help me tone up a bit. Count me in!
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I did a radio interview and the DJ's first question was "who are you?" I had to think: is this guy really deep, or did I drive to the wrong station?
Mitch Hedberg

[Beth]

I think I could handle 75 pages a week. Plus, I'm being sucked in by the Web copy's alluring invitation to join the ranks of the "endurance bibliophiles." Count me in.

[JeffKamin]

Ok, if we can sway Elise to try for a third (!) time, we'd have 5. And if we can get 5, we can get 10. Who else dares to read 75 extra pages a week this summer? (Infinite Jest, though, I know, not easy)
Calling out regulars/posters: Carter, Text, Keith, Jess, Roxie, Jess K, Patrick, Morgan, Emily, Kate, Hayley, Herman Bros. etc. I dare you to join our folly.


Note: The only person I know who claims to have actually read the whole thing is Alex M.

[Carter]

Sorry, but there is NO WAY I am taking on another book commitment. You know how the server at a restaurant always asks if you want dessert even after they just watched you eat until you nearly ruptured your intestines? Well, this is the same sort of thing.

[dirtworship]

I was holding out to see if others were as crazy as Jefe and Eli. I will give it a go. Climbing the mountain because it's there, of course. And it's probably right up there with Moby Dick and War & Peace in the elite (?) world of "I read that."

(Which will then have to be topped with, "I read it twice.")
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Fnord

[Paula]

I'm in. I can do the extra 75 on the bus instead of learning more than I really want to know about my fellow bus riders...

[morgan]

I'm thinking about it. I'll probably have to check it out at the bookstore and see how it reads before I commit. I'm already trying to get through a book on string theory and attempting to spend as much time as possible floating down rivers drinking beer while it's warm. One man can only take on so many challenges.

[doubtful guest]

prequel: if you wanna ignore the text below and just have fun with what this guy was capable of, try the pdf download of an old harper's nonfiction piece DFW did (below), or the now classic kenyon graduation speech he gave a few years ago:

www.harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf

http://web.archive.org/web/20080213082423/http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html

now the rant:

It was raining out of a low sky, and the tide was way out.

have not checked this site in a long time. and here is this thing. my contribution:

this, for what it is worth, remains my favorite book...ever...in my llife..no, really, i mean it. what does that mean? is that a random trivia answer like "what is your favorite color?"? no. it means that I keep editing what i write in this post while trying to explain...that i read it when it came out because i'd read a few of his harper's pieces and got hooked, because i lucked into seeing him do a reading before it came out and laughed harder than i have laughed at anything else in my life other than, perhaps, the first time i saw that monty python movie with the coconuts and the deadly rabbits...when people want an easy take on this book, they glibbly spout about his extreme postmodern ingenuity and etc. etc. etc...i got something so different out of it...i had way too much theory training, way too much (etc.) for my own good, and this was the first author (to this date, the only novelist) who was able to say "ok, let's say all that stuff is true, how do you work at getting a real human connection despite that?" it is, when it comes down to it, the least cynically ironic, least smuggly overeducated book i have ever read, despite/because of the fact that the author could play the pomo game better than 99.9999 percent of those who ever played that game (whether in their own works or in glib bon mots about his). that any comment i might make is now always to be filtred through his death is...well, i can't say anything about that. it is my favorite book because it stayed on the shelf by my bed for more than a decade as a touchstone to check in with the way some people keep a bible nearby. if you decide to try this book, do yourself the favor of ignoring those who dismiss it as ultrapostmodern showing off. this is a book by a guy trying to really find touching and heartwrenching and funny and (etc.) moments both without a reactionary rejection of the (by now) cliche pomo insights of modern world and without accepting those same insights as a license to take the easy route to smug irony and sarcasm...if you skip around or browse or whatever it takes to get interested...heck, even if you don't finsih, but find a few cool passages here and there, this book is worth playing the game. I wish you way more than luck.
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Te Occidere Possunt Sed Te Edere Non Possunt Nefas Est

[Dan]

I'm in. Justin sold me on it by saying "If you like The Royal Tenenbaums, you'll like it." There's a chance I don't read the B&B books until I'm done, but this is on my list of things to accomplish in my life.

[JeffKamin]

Thanks D.G., but would you find the time this summer to read it again if we had at least ten others to join you? I predict we can get almost 20 to try by the 21st.

[E]

GD it, I'm in.

[eden]

i am not sure about that, but since I did not get past page 376 the first go 'round, and "the moms" still enters my thoughts every now again, i am in.

i will not let this book defeat me!
(i may have sold my hb copy to powell's several years ago, but i am likely to be able to retrieve that very same copy if i go there now...)

[Carter]

OK, here's the deal: I know I said "NO WAY" -- all caps, no less -- earlier, but I could possibly be persuaded to do this if there were the right incentive. No, I'm not not thinking 'shared rewarding literary experience' here. I'm thinking 'We kicked this book's ass!' party at the end. If I can count on that, I may be willing to forego any other kind of fun this summer, like boating, biking, seeing the out-of-doors, interacting with fellow humans in any way whatsoever, etc.

BTW: I'm definitely in if anyone ever wants to do this for War and Peace. The new translation is supposed to be, as Tolstoy would say, "the bombdiggity".