Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

The 1001 Year-Long Book Study, 2025 starts January 1, 2025. Group members have voted to read Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace.

The reading schedule is for the entire year of 2025:

� January - February -- Chapters 1 - 15
    (pp. 3 - 181, 179 pages + Notes 1-59)

� March - April -- Chapters 16 - 21
    (pp. 181-321, 141 pages + Notes 60-119)

� May - June -- Chapters 22 - 24
    (pp. 321-489, 169 pages + Notes 120-207)

� July - August -- Chapters 25 - 26
    (pp. 489-619, 131 pages + Notes 208-256)

� September - October -- Chapter 27
    (pp. 620-808, 189 pages + Notes 257-336)

� November - December -- Chapter 28
    (pp. 809-981, 173 pages + Notes 337-388)

(Note -- Page numbers may vary with editions. Chapters are not numbered but indicated by a circle. Reading schedule adapted from Elegant Complexity: A Study of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest), by Greg Carlisle.)


Helpful Resources:

Books

� Elegant Complexity: A Study of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, by Greg Carlisle

� A Reader's Companion to Infinite Jest, by Robert H. Bell

� David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest: A Reader's Guide, by Stephen J. Burn

Use this topic for general discussion, questions, and suggestions for other helpful resources.

Enjoy! I read this book a few years ago and enjoyed it.

Suggestion: Read/Re-read Hamlet first

There is a page-by-page spoiler-free wiki for terms and references.


While I cannot personally vouch for the following, there are additional resources;
1) Robert Bell William Dowling. A Reader's Companion to Infinite Jest
2) Stephen J. Burn. David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest: A Reader's Guide


There is a spoiler-free video by Benjamin McEvoy on YT that is really good. Almost anything that I can say about "tips" is in that video.

The first tip is to know that the first chapter (Year of Glad) is, timewise, the last thing to occur. When you are done, re-read that first chapter; it has so much more punch the second time around.

Perhaps the easiest way to get through the first 200 pages or so is to think of this as a loosely connected arc of interconnected short stories. You may be a little lost at first, but it'll start to click after a while. Almost everything in here is for a reason, although you may not see it on first glance, or (like that first chapter) until 1000 pages later; or maybe not until the second read-through. This is not willy-nilly writing or a ramble; it is meticulously constructed.

Thanks Kurt for the suggestions. I read the intro and first few pages yesterday. I noticed the ebook for kindle is for sale for $13. This seems a good option for a book this long with library renewal constraints. That's a little over 1 cent/page.

George P. wrote: "Thanks Kurt for the suggestions. I read the intro and first few pages yesterday. I noticed the ebook for kindle is for sale for $13. This seems a good option for a book this long with library renew..."

Definitely a good buy if you want to highlight and make notes and easily flip between the text and the Notes.

Kurt wrote: "Suggestion: Read/Re-read Hamlet first

There is a page-by-page spoiler-free wiki for terms and references.


While I cannot personally vouch for the following, t..."

Great suggestions, Kurt! I've added the books with links to the top comment and will add the video as soon as I watch it and get the link.

I've finished the 1st chapter and am enjoying the book. I've read enough Boxall books to know that sometimes you just go with the flow of the book and don't really worry about understanding every little detail.

Loved the reference to the "Whataburger Bowl!" Down here in Texas, Whataburger is a big thing and the Whataburger chain is celebrating its 75th year throughout 2025; it was founded in 1950.

I haven't read this one yet. I don't know if I could manage a year. I usually go straight through. I'll grab a copy.

I think you're allowed to read ahead if you feel so inclined :)

I cannot access the walacewiki website. Do any of you encounter the same problem?

I've just tried and it worked fine for me.

It seems to be a EU problem, because I am able to access the website when i set my VPN to the US (in the Netherlands many US newspapers and AI interfaces like Grok are inaccessible due to stringent EU laws).

I now see that it was the VPN from my work that blocked the website. All good, happy reading!

Has anyone mentioned this character chart yet? I saw that the link on the wiki didn’t work, but I found the chart elsewhere:

Lisa wrote: "Has anyone mentioned this character chart yet? I saw that the link on the wiki didn’t work, but I found the chart elsewhere:

"

Wow! That is awesome -- I will add it to our resources at the top of the page. Thanks for sharing.

I'm at pg 260 so looks like I'm a month ahead of schedule. When I began I figured I would read it in 6 months but looking more like 8 or maybe 9 now.
It does seem as though the story jumps around and has a lot of extraneous stuff but I will try to have faith that almost all of it is there for a reason.
BTW we don't have a Whataburger in Utah, but I plan to move to Tucson for most of the year soon and I see they have a bunch of them.

With a good part of the story set around an AA/ rehab house I wondered if Wallace had been in rehab himself. Apparently he was in rehab for about a month. I don't know if he continued to go to AA meetings afterwards.
I'm at 41% now, so running ahead of our schedule but still in first half; at this rate I may finish sometime in August. I started with a paper book but I'm currently listening to an audiobook. I like the audiobook reader. I'll go back to paper or ebook when my 3 weeks on the library audio runs out.
The tennis academy parts are my favorite so far, and they seem to be half the book or more.