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comment by rezzeJ
rezzeJ  ·  2725 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski intermittent book thread

I was in a bit of reading slump at the beginning of the year and for some reason decided that Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace would be a good way to start things up again. The majority of my reading is done in the once a day 20-30 minute bus commute to work (I get a lift home). Needless to say, it took me a long time to finish. It was excellent though. I was especially drawn in by the feeling that it was this entire world I was looking over, on a level above the narrative itself. My favourite character was Don Gately.

Since finishing that I've zipped through Flatland by Edwin Abbott, which I got after a recommendation from a book thread I have pinned from a while back. A nice, quick and funny read. It's one of those reads that makes you smile and do those little nose exhalation laughs with the way it describes things and makes you view them in a new way.

Now I'm on to Orlando by Virginia Woolfe and enjoying it thoroughly. In some ways it reminds of Herman Hesse's writing. Most probably because often his stories follow a troubled person trying to find purpose and reason too. Not to mention that, like Orlando, Hesse's magnum opus The Glass Bead Game is written in the style of a biography.





tacocat  ·  2725 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I tried to read Infinite Jest on my lunch break once and gave up figuring it'd take me a year at the rate I was going

edricarica  ·  2725 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I loved it, but only got about a quarter of the way through because I'm a hopeless dilettante :(

OP has inspired me to order it on audiobook, though. I drive about 6 hours a week, and just got an Audible subscription that I was initially sceptical about but has proved invaluable.

rezzeJ  ·  2725 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That probably wasn't a bad estimation on your part. It took me about 6-8 months to read it at pace that probably averages around 1 hour a week. And I took a break to read The Unbearable Lightness of Being during that time too. Now I come to think of it, I have about 1/4 left to read of that.