Starting January 31, 2016 and ending on May 2, 2016, we will read 75 pages each week for 13 weeks. Totally doable, right? Of course, this doesn’t take into consideration the endnotes. Which are considerable.
Thank you to @CarrieTian, who made a Google Calendar version for us.
Also, if you like, you can download an Infinite Winter schedule bookmark, courtesy of @Prolixian!
| Date | Page | Location | Percent Complete |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Feb 5 | 63 | 1522 | 6% |
| Mon, Feb 8 | 94 | 2233 | 9% |
| Fri, Feb 12 | 137 | 3236 | 13% |
| Mon, Feb 15 | 168 | 3900 | 17% |
| Fri, Feb 19 | 210 | 4844 | 21% |
| Mon, Feb 22 | 242 | 5561 | 24% |
| Fri, Feb 26 | 284 | 6545 | 28% |
| Mon, Feb 29 | 316 | 7250 | 32% |
| Fri, Mar 4 | 358 | 8174 | 36% |
| Mon, Mar 7 | 390 | 8869 | 39% |
| Fri, Mar 11 | 432 | 9832 | 44% |
| Mon, Mar 14 | 464 | 10556 | 47% |
| Fri, Mar 18 | 506 | 11510 | 51% |
| Mon, Mar 21 | 537 | 12243 | 54% |
| Fri, Mar 25 | 580 | 13233 | 59% |
| Mon, Mar 28 | 611 | 13925 | 62% |
| Fri, Apr 1 | 653 | 14900 | 66% |
| Mon, Apr 4 | 685 | 15628 | 69% |
| Fri, Apr 8 | 727 | 16554 | 74% |
| Mon, Apr 11 | 759 | 17293 | 77% |
| Fri, Apr 15 | 801 | 18315 | 81% |
| Mon, Apr 18 | 833 | 19021 | 84% |
| Fri, Apr 22 | 875 | 19972 | 89% |
| Mon, Apr 25 | 907 | 20767 | 92% |
| Fri, Apr 29 | 949 | 21708 | 96% |
| Mon, May 2 | 981 | 22403 | 100% |
I’m on page 165 … I love David’s writing, its emotion, humanness, details/observations, presence in the moment, and so much more. I am about half way through The Pale King, but will gladly continue IJ if it means being in this cyber community of kindred spirits. Peace and good reading. – Tim, writer, teacher
I am really looking forward to this journey and hope to engage in a fun discussion of what sounds like an incredible read.
Here I am on the day of the launch waiting to find out how the club is going to work. I have read 135 pages and have a few questions and not many answers. Looking around. Good Morning !
I can’t wait to read IJ again. So excited. So how does this work? I’ve never done a computer group thing before (yes, I am a luddite). Do we just come here to read what others are thinking and then post our own thoughts? Is there anything else to it? What do we fill in the field labeled “Website?” When I read IJ the first time, it just drove me nuts that no one I knew had read it. I had all these deep thoughts and couldn’t talk to anyone… then I got idea to go on the computer and look stuff up. Do we have to sign up somewhere? Is there a leader for this? T minus three days and counting!
Those things I wonder about too, but anyway: now I’ve digged the book out of the storeroom and look foreward to read. I just glanced through the first pages and by the style of the language it looks like Wallace liked Wittgenstein
He did indeed! His first novel mentions Wittgenstein a few times and Wallace studied philosophy for a bit in college
Cool, maybe possible to discuss it more later in the forum. I just signed up for reddit.
Wallace wrote a book review”The Empty Plenum” about a book Wittgenstein’s Mistress. This is a Quora article here talking about your question: https://www.quora.com/What-did-David-Foster-Wallace-think-of-Wittgenstein
And just now I was able to google The Empty Plenum and someone had posted it on Scribd (it asks to log in but I was able to still scroll through it without having an account).
http://www.scribd.com/doc/124867666/David-Foster-Wallace-The-Empty-Plenum-David-Markson-s-Wittgenstein-s-Mistress#scribd
Wittgenstein’s Mistress is a great read if you get the chance. 🙂
Thank you! I bet it is. I’m reading Reader’s Block now and enjoy it in a way I haven’t done since I watched the original film version of The Society of the Spectacle ( both Markson’s and Debord’s works are unadmitted melancholy about cultural oblivion). Looking forward to read the stuff you mentioned!
Hey hey! I think the main place for discussion as we go along is going to be this forum: https://www.reddit.com/r/InfiniteWinter/
You’ll need to make a free Reddit account in order to comment and post questions by clicking the “sign up” link at the top right of the page in that Reddit link.
This sounds like a great way of reading and reflecting upon the movie The End of the Tour which I will watch at the film club tonight. I’m in!
Awesome! Welcome, Olav.
I’m in! Looking forward to this.
Dan, Welcome!
I got mine on EBay for $15 including shipping from bargainbookstores.com brand new. I am also going to write down all the words I have to look up in the dictionary. I don’t have a computer so will be going to the library to check the website a few times a week for information and updates. Excited!
Welcome! Great plan. I’m curious to learn where you end up recording your new word finds! Mark Flanagan started writing the words inside the front cover. In my last read I decided to keep track of the words in an email. I’m getting really inspired by the variations in everyone’s Infinite Jest reading notes/collections.
The infinite jest wiki is great for looking up words/references listed page-by-page:
http://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/david-foster-wallace/index.php?title=Main_Page
Here’s to hoping there was a plane ticket bookmark in that EBay copy of Infinite Jest…or some small remnant of information from the last reader!
Welcome!
This has tempted me for too long on myself. I am in. And I am definitely doing the paper version.
I’m in and recruiting my Book Club to join as well. The tome has occupied space on my bookshelf as a mystery for too long. Jonathan Franzen references the book so it MUST be a good and worthwhile time investment.
Hi – Yes, he & Franzen were friends – and may have been a bit competitive with each other –
I’m in and recruiting my Book Club to join as well. The tome has occupied space on my bookshelf as a mystery for too long. Jonathan Franzen references the book so it MUST be a good and worthwhile time investment.
Definitely doing paper. I think the Kindle handles back-and-forth footnote navigation better than it used to, but given the length of some of the notes, by the time you finish reading it you have to swipe Kindle pages back, back, back to the beginning of the footnote, so you can tap the number and get back to the original page… Yeah, I’m a two bookmark guy with this one.
The footnotes end now has a ‘Back To Text’ hyperlink. A great improvement from when I first read IJ on a Kindle.
Also casting my lot for the dead-tree version. Done it both ways, and using an electronic version has advantages in terms of copying out large passages into Word documents, but it just doesn’t compare, reading-experience wise. Plus, how will everyone else at the coffee shop know how awesome you are if you’re not physically lugging around a cinder-block sized novel?
That was a joke at the time the book was released — students walking all over the campus where DFW taught, lugging the book, but not reading it. All about the “image” without substance. How meta.
Just loaded it up on my kindle…. Can’t wait to start!
So psyched you’re here, Carlos. And THANK YOU for donating this website to Infinite Winter!!
Sureee. Why not. I think I’ll need to nab the print version for sure, though, I need my annotations.
Is there a group for Infinite Winter on Goodreads like there was back in 2009 ? It was a nice addition that time around. I might have missed it, so just thought I would ask.
What does “location” mean?
It’s the location in the text of a Kindle e-book. Older Kindles and some e-books don’t have regular page numbers so you have to refer to the location.
Interesting. I wasn’t aware that new Kindles had page numbers 🙂
Mark, I think they added page numbering in about 2011, but not all books have that function enabled.
I ordered my copy from Amazon and it arrived within days. I had never even heard of the book until I saw the article in the Denver Post promoting Infinite Winter and I’m excited to get started!
I’m in. I’ve started and stopped (for dumb life reasons) this book twice in the last few years, time to make the push for real.
I’m in and blogging about it. IJ arrived just the other day, and I’ve been tinkering around the edges.
Where will you be blogging about it, Michael? I’d like to compile a list of bloggers blogging about Infinite Winter elsewhere, and link to them.
I’m posting on my regular blog – A Teacher’s View.
http://www.a-teachers-view.blogspot.com
And, of course, tweeting – @mmazenko
http://www.a-teachers-view.blogspot.com/2016/01/david-foster-wallace-voice-of.html
Awesome, thanks!
Dear Mark,
I will be blogging here: https://claudesylvanshine.wordpress.com/
Shazia
I’m in. Like facing a 1,000 mile thru hike – here’s hoping it’s fun.
Thanks for answering. I went to two area bookstores yesterday, Hastings and B & N, and neither had the book. Today I’ll visit COAS Books (used bookstore). But, then again, the Kindle version has its advantages. Maybe I’ll use my pendulum to help me decide.
I ordered my copy from B&N.com for a reasonable price and they have decent shipping, should arrive before the 31st if you want to go that route
I don’t think so, Jeffrey, but the location is provided for those who do. Personally, I will be reading from both the actual paper book and a Kindle (which I have found to be very friendly w/r/t the endnotes).
Thanks for jumping in!
Thinking I might jump in. Looking at your timetable, do I assume most readers will download the Kindle book?
Hi Jeffrey,
Welcome! I second Mark’s response. The physicality of the book is an awesome part of the read. Matt Bucher talks a little bit about this in his [intro] (http://infinitewinter.org/matt-bucher-so-you-want-to-read-infinite-jest/).