Infinite Summer: When reading a book becomes an event
Jun 20, 2009 in Books
I’m getting ready to take part in Infinite Summer Drive Me Crazy video , a three-month long literary endurance test where you read David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.
I’ve tried to read Infinite Jest at least three times. Usually it’s while I’m back home in Vancouver and I find a copy lying around in my old room. The same copy that I tried to read the last time I was back in Vancouver.
But this time I think it’s going to be different. I actually think I’m going to finish the book and not just because I’m blogging about the project with a few other coworkers at the National Post and my failure to read the book could possibly appear in a national newspaper.
As a speedy reader, reading a book is a pretty pedestrian activity for me. Sometimes, when I’m reviewing the book on deadline, it’s a chore.
In the case of Infinite Summer, knowing that there are a few hundred (thousand?) people reading along makes this an event. It makes reading a book something special. That doesn’t happen very often.