The rules of Infinite Summer are pretty simple:

The Challenge

Join endurance bibliophiles from around the world in reading Infinite Jest over the summer of 2009, June 21st to September 22nd. A thousand pages¹ ÷ 92 days = 75 pages a week. No sweat.

1. Plus endnotes^a.
a. A lot of them.

The Rules

There ain’t none. Read Infinite Jest, start around June 21st (if you want), finish around September 22nd (if you want), gloat about having completed the novel afterward (required).

If you wish to read ahead, feel free. Think of us as a pacecar: you can leave us in the dust, but it’s probably best not to fall behind.

If you are ahead of the pack you should feel free to join the conversation. All we ask is that you adhere to the Inficratic Oath: First, Reveal No Spoilers. So, apparently, there is at least one rule.

I’m a sucker for this for several reasons: 1) I love a group challenge, 2) I love David Foster Wallace, 3) And yet, I’ve never read this book past page 50 or so. 4) For some reason, right now, I’m really into personal endurance challenges of some sort.  The half-marathon, 8:36pm, this, and a general obsession with longitudinal studies all have some kind of magical endurance element that sparks something in me.

So naturally, I’ve subscribed to the site’s RSS feed, read Dave Eggers’s new forward, followed the @infinitesummer Twitter account, followed InfiniteTumblr, and joined the Facebook group. I guess this is what it means to “commit” to something in these futuristic days.

Eventually I plan on starting the book too.

Feel like reading a really long book with us?

This entry was posted by Buster on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 5:16 pm. It is filed under Responses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.