What are you reading?

[tubolcane]

I am really enjoying it, and I hope big Steve does another. I remember that wait too, especially after having started reading DT at around 11. I sort of grew up with the characters, and they felt very real at times so it was hard to watch them go. When geogaddi came out, I remember they were explaining how it took longer then expected, but then the next wait was about twice as long, etc. I'd like to think it taught me some patience, but the Internet also inspires great impatience. I wondered once if maybe I got too much BoC and DT at once then the whole multiverse would collapse or something:)

[aged sea]

Have started reading Ram Dass' Be Here Now

[Magrathea]

I recently finished "Ready player one" by Ernest Cline, it was a fun light read, I recommend it.

[solar_bleaching]

Now reading "Salmonella Men on Planet Porno" by Yasutaka Tsutsui and "Girl with Curious Hair" by David Foster Wallace.

[rainier]

I love the first story from the Girl With Curious Hair, the Jeopardy! one. I think about it all the time.

[solar_bleaching]

Yes, it's a great story, a favorite amongst many DFW readers. I also really liked that one about Lyndon Johnson.

[Treefingers]

I'd started reading 'Brief Interviews with Hideous Men'. I quite enjoyed the stories I read, but am I right in assuming it's probably not the best place to start with DFW? It didn't quite feel like the ideal starting point for someone as inexperienced with his work as myself.

And I do feel like he's the sort of writer I'd quite like.

[fujee]

DFW is my absolute favourite writer. So good.

My suggestion is start with some of his short stories, Girl with Curious Hair and Consider the Lobster are both awesome, about as good as short stories get.

If you want to dive in, then go for the behemoth that is Infinite Jest. Life changing novel imo.

[Beavercanoe]

I'd started reading 'Brief Interviews with Hideous Men'. I quite enjoyed the stories I read, but am I right in assuming it's probably not the best place to start with DFW? It didn't quite feel like the ideal starting point for someone as inexperienced with his work as myself.

And I do feel like he's the sort of writer I'd quite like.

I started with Infinite Jest, and it was really daunting, as you'd imagine. It took me about 4 months to get halfway through, at which point I realized that the book actually takes dedication if you want out of it what it has to offer. So I started over and devoted lots of time to finishing the thing, and I finished it in another 3 months. Didn't regret it one bit.

By "I didn't regret it" I mean that it actually changed my life quite a lot. DFW is... incredible.
Though I don't think it matters where you start. It may be difficult to understand his approach to writing with certain books more than others, but I think no matter what you read you'll have, at some point, an "oh! I get it now!" moment.


I just ordered 'Everything and More,' a used copy of 'Broom of the System' and another copy of 'Infinite Jest' to give to a friend of mine. <3 DFW (Rest in Peace)

[rainier]

It's a big thing to take on, but I think Infinite Jest is the best place to start. It's kind of hard to get into at first because it's very confusing, but once all the threads start coming together it's astounding. Girl With Curious Hair is another good place to start though. Infinite Jest is so amazing I always want everyone to read it though. I'm due for a rereading soon.

Every time I read it I make new connections. DFW was insanely brilliant and I think he had an enormous heart.

[Beavercanoe]

Still on the topic of David Foster Wallace (which I am so happy to see appreciation for in this thread), for anyone who's interested, here is a playlist of an uncut interview he did around the time that the German translation of the book (IJ) was being published. It's an hour and some, but incredibly insightful and totally worth watching. Some Infinite Jest references, but I don't think there's too much in terms of plot spoilers:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1889154F804A7719

[rainier]

Oh wow thanks, I've never seen that before. Very insightful. I hold back on reading a lot of his interviews and his work sometimes because it brings up pretty heavy stuff for me and then my brain feels like it's on fire. I love what he has to say about irony though.

[hexagon son]

The Monuments of Mars by Richard C. Hoagland and Moby Dick (needs no introduction!).

[fujee]

Just about to start the Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard.

[chronical]

The Catcher in The Rye. Pretty good so far:)

[jcnporter]

Just finished Hammer of the Gods, very entertaining. Also re-reading Straw Dogs by John Gray.

[Treefingers]

Still on Mason and Dixon, it seems to be really hitting its stride right where I am (the chapter I just read was kind of a Frankenstein parody (or of that kind of Gothic 'modern Prometheus' style narratives) narrated by a self-exiled French chef, which centres around a mechanical duck purported to have a working digestive system (amazingly, I found that this is based in fact: in real life, though, it was a hoax that the duck could actually digest food, and this chapter extrapolates on that fiction brilliantly)).

[d e n]

OF COURSe

there'd be DFW love on a BOC forum.

[Mexicola]

Cold Earth by Susan Moss.

'Six young people meet on an archaeological dig in a remote corner of Greenland. Excavating the unsettling remains of a Norse society under attack, they also come to uncover their own demons, as it becomes apparent that a plague pandemic is sweeping across the planet and communication with the outside world is breaking down. Increasingly unsure whether their missives will ever reach their destination, each of the characters writes a letter to someone close to them, trying to make sense of their situation and expressing their fears and dwindling hope of ever getting back home...'

[Lens Larque]

Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon. A rolicking lol adventure.