And so we begin.

So today is the day. A lot of people are probably wondering, “Why did I think this was a good idea?” I am pumped and ready to go. My plan is to keep pretty much to the schedule and read about 10-12 pages a day. I’m sure I’ll be tempted to read more, but that’s probably a good pace to be able to have a chance to read carefully and take it all in. I started _Infinite Jest_ a couple years ago and blazed through the first couple hundred pages and set it down for a week or two. When I came back to it all I could think is “Who are these people again? What exactly is going on?” So I went on to other things. This time I am determined to finish, and to understand. I’m reading a million other things right now, so that’ll help focus the reading energy away when needed. Reading several (or in my case at the moment, a lot more than several) books in parallel, it’s always great to see the way that ideas span across the books I’m reading. I’ll start a thought in one book, continue it in another, and finish it in a third or fourth book. I’m looking forward to discussing not only _Infinite Jest_ but <a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/559070?shelf=currently-reading”>everything else I’m reading</a> at the moment.

I first became aware of _Infinite Jest_ in high school. For a long time it existed in my mind as an idea. A book that few people will ever read, and even fewer people actually understand. This idea had previously been represented by _War and Peace_. But _Infinite Jest_ wasn’t written long ago and far away. It wasn’t some period-piece miniseries on PBS. Some guy, who wasn’t even old, actually sat down and wrote this huge book that had a thousand pages and hundreds of footnotes. And it had a title that conjured something vague, almost unknowable. Shakespearean (a guess at the time) and yet mathematical, rational. It was a book I was sure I’d never read. Because most of the people who read these books did so sitting in a leather chair in front of their fireplace smoking a pipe and drinking scotch.

Yet here I am, sans the leather chair, fireplace, pipe, or scotch. About to begin an infinite summer.

So today is the day. A lot of people are probably wondering, “Why did I think this was a good idea?” I am pumped and ready to go. My plan is to keep pretty much to the schedule and read about 10-12 pages a day. I’m sure I’ll be tempted to read more, but that’s probably a good pace to be able to have a chance to read carefully and take it all in. I started Infinite Jest a couple years ago and blazed through the first couple hundred pages and set it down for a week or two. When I came back to it all I could think is “Who are these people again? What exactly is going on?” So I went on to other things. This time I am determined to finish, and to understand. I’m reading a million other things right now, so that’ll help focus the reading energy away when needed. Reading several (or in my case at the moment, a lot more than several) books in parallel, it’s always great to see the way that ideas span across the books I’m reading. I’ll start a thought in one book, continue it in another, and finish it in a third or fourth book. I’m looking forward to discussing not only Infinite Jest but everything else I’m reading at the moment.

I first became aware of Infinite Jest in high school. For a long time it existed in my mind as an idea. A book that few people will ever read, and even fewer people actually understand. This idea had previously been represented by War and Peace. But Infinite Jest wasn’t written long ago and far away. It wasn’t some period-piece miniseries on PBS. Some guy, who wasn’t even old, actually sat down and wrote this huge book that had a thousand pages and hundreds of footnotes. And it had a title that conjured something vague, almost unknowable. Shakespearean (a guess at the time) and yet mathematical, rational. It was a book I was sure I’d never read. Because most of the people who read these books did so sitting in a leather chair in front of their fireplace smoking a pipe and drinking scotch.

Yet here I am, sans the leather chair, fireplace, pipe, or scotch. About to begin an infinite summer.