The Reader’s Nook - The N&G Book Thread

I just spent the past 3 and half weeks reading Infinite Jest and it truly is an amazing work of art. I can absolutely see why it has garnered so many die hard fans and likewise so many detractors. It absolutely is difficult, no two ways about it, but if you don't object to that as a factor in your reading, I'd absolutely recommend it. It was my third attempt at it. I tried first around '97/'98 when I bought the huge paperback and I think I only managed the first chapter. I tried again when I first bought the Kindle edition (my account tells me that was January 2013) but I struggled with the footnotes on my old Kindle. The newer Paperwhite with touchscreen has made the footnotes a breeze however and because DFW's vocabulary far outweighs my own, being able to use the dictionary facility on the Kindle also made it less challenging than I'd previously found. I rarely feel the urge to reread a novel simply because there are so many that I haven't read yet but I'm sure I'll be tempted to reread this at some point simply because there is so much to digest on a first read.
 
Mr Moore said:
I just spent the past 3 and half weeks reading Infinite Jest and it truly is an amazing work of art. I can absolutely see why it has garnered so many die hard fans and likewise so many detractors. It absolutely is difficult, no two ways about it, but if you don't object to that as a factor in your reading, I'd absolutely recommend it. It was my third attempt at it. I tried first around '97/'98 when I bought the huge paperback and I think I only managed the first chapter. I tried again when I first bought the Kindle edition (my account tells me that was January 2013) but I struggled with the footnotes on my old Kindle. The newer Paperwhite with touchscreen has made the footnotes a breeze however and because DFW's vocabulary far outweighs my own, being able to use the dictionary facility on the Kindle also made it less challenging than I'd previously found. I rarely feel the urge to reread a novel simply because there are so many that I haven't read yet but I'm sure I'll be tempted to reread this at some point simply because there is so much to digest on a first read.
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and now, now you are ready for the majesty that is The Decemberists' video for Calamity Song:



Wherein children play Eschaton and is apparently set in "In The Year of The Chewable Ambien Tab"
 
yukbon said:
and now, now you are ready for the majesty that is The Decemberists' video for Calamity Song:



Wherein children play Eschaton and Otis gets his head stuck in the monitor.

"In The Year of The Chewable Ambien Tab"
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That video is great. Your link doesn't show up here in the UK for some reason but I found it on youtube a while back and it cracked me up, nearly as much as that chapter did!
 
Mr Moore said:
That video is great. Your link doesn't show up here in the UK for some reason but I found it on youtube a while back and it cracked me up, nearly as much as that chapter did!
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aside; there's some podcast interviews with DFW (google Bookworm podcast) where he describes the writing of it and it's fascinating if you're really into the nuts and bolts of it
 
yukbon said:
aside; there's some podcast interviews with DFW (google Bookworm podcast) where he describes the writing of it and it's fascinating if you're really into the nuts and bolts of it
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www.kcrw.com

David Foster Wallace | Bookworm

David Foster Wallace has written the ultimate mega-meta novel, a 1078-page whopper. The surprise is that this mind-stunner may capture the imagination of a new generation of readers.
www.kcrw.com www.kcrw.com

If it's this one, I just listened and he sounds like such a fascinating person. I love what they say toward the end about the readability for a second go around: It is funny enough and pleasurable enough to warrant that in spite of the enormity of it. And I completely agree with the presenter that it's somewhere around half way through that you really start to like these characters and for me it was when the structure became pleasurable when it had initially been somewhat frustrating.
 
If you haven't seen the movie "End of the Tour", it's definitely worth a watch. I quite enjoyed it. It's basically just DFW (being played by Jason Segel) talk to Jesse Eisenberg for a couple hours. But it's great.

Also I've always enjoyed this little video:

 
The thing that actually got me into DFW was a Charlie rose interview he did around the time of supposedly fun thing and he spends the whole show being visibly uncomfortable and awkward on camera but like, personably so, and he spoke at length about dune and David lynch. Literally the next day I found infinite jest at b&n sales bin for like 5$ or whatever it was. I picked it up on the strength of Wallace being genuine and awkward.
 
I read DFW’s Consider The Lobster for a class in college and loved it. So then for another class I picked out the essay collection A Supposedly Fun Thing… and loved it too. But it still took me a couple of years to pick up Infinite Jest. Anyway, love his work. End of the Tour is great. And IJ is one of my all time favorites.
 
Updates on what I've knocked out recently:

- The Memory Police - for my friends' sci fi book club (that is shockingly still going). more spec fic than sci fi, but loved it nonetheless. Like a mix between Murakami and Marquez. Good shit.

- Interior Chinatown - Listened to this one on audiobook. Loved it. Says so much in such a funny and inventive way.

- Homesick for Another World - Otessa Moshfegh is suspiciously great at writing truly sick shit, and I can't get enough of it.

Going to have to read something light and fun here next. Queuing up Priory of the Orange Tree and Piranesi as the next audio book.
 
Bennnnn said:
Started on Michelle Zauner’s (Japanese Breakfast) Crying In H Mart and I’m loving it. I knew I would enjoy it, but it’s even better than what I was expecting. Just fantastic writing.
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Nice, I've got this coming from the library soon. I loved the essay of the same name a couple years ago and am really looking forward to the book, even though I'm not super into her music.
ayayrawn said:
Updates on what I've knocked out recently:

- The Memory Police - for my friends' sci fi book club (that is shockingly still going). more spec fic than sci fi, but loved it nonetheless. Like a mix between Murakami and Marquez. Good shit.

- Interior Chinatown - Listened to this one on audiobook. Loved it. Says so much in such a funny and inventive way.

- Homesick for Another World - Otessa Moshfegh is suspiciously great at writing truly sick shit, and I can't get enough of it.

Going to have to read something light and fun here next. Queuing up Priory of the Orange Tree and Piranesi as the next audio book.
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Interior Chinatown is very high on my to-read list, too. The author wrote an episode of the incredible TV show Lodge 49 and I'm currently gobbling up everything even remotely related to that show.
 
I just finished White Tears (Kunzru), which looks like it's been discussed here... I'd imagine it was a polarizing experience. This is something I'd aspire to:

It was his belief that a man could only properly hold "around four hundred" records in his mind. A collection should be no larger. He had no time for anyone (which was almost everyone, as he well knew) who amassed thousands of records "without regard to quality or importance." There existed what he called a golden number. About this number he could grow quite mystical, but he would never tell me exactly what it was. He would audition many records, but if he wanted to keep one, another had to go. Each new star had to deserve its place in the constellation. It had to be, in a word he always used with great gravity, "worthwhile."
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Next up, continuing the unintentional theme of books with records on the cover: Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell.

And cheers to all of the DFW mentions. Having lived in the Boston area for 15ish years, Infinite Jest was an especially fun read. But Pale King has been on my shelf for 10 years, and I haven't had the energy to pick it up.
 
LeSamourai said:
This year I decided to stop rating books I read on Goodreads (as part of an overall attempt to have and share fewer opinions), and it's been really nice to not think about how I'm going to grade a book while I'm reading it.
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My problem is they don't do half-stars. The reading experience is nuanced, and five categories seems incredibly narrow for quantifying it.
 
kvetcha said:
That series was deeply influential on both my worldview and my taste in prose.
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I can totally see why. It's way different from what I've been reading in a good way. I really plowed through it too, I thought I had only just started, then bam it was done.
 
trickyseven said:
I can totally see why. It's way different from what I've been reading in a good way. I really plowed through it too, I thought I had only just started, then bam it was done.
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Adams had a way with the language that is oft-imitated (hello, Neil Gaiman) but has never quite been duplicated.
 
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