What are you reading?

[fauxpaxfauxreal]

Infinite Jest would be the obvious choice. 

Have you read Cryptonomicon yet?  That's a corker too. 

Right on, I've read a collection of DFW short stories, but Infinite Jest always intimidated me.  I'm wondering if it would be more artsy and less fun then Stephenson.  The thing I love about Stephenson is that he is such an incredible storyteller.  He keeps the plot moving along, and manages to make the book a page-turner without sacrificing any of the arts & sciences density. 

Yup, read Cryptonomicon, great book.  Diamond Age is great as well.  I'm thinking of picking up Pandora's Star (Peter F. Hamilton) next.  Looks fat and dense and I could use a straight sci-fi space opera.

Wallace's short stories are way more artsy fartsy and a lot less fun than Infinite Jest is.  Infinite Jest is great.  You should really not be intimidated by it.  Once you are about 50 pages in, you'll forget the fact that you were ever scared to read it.  It is insanely entertaining and hilarious.  It's truly a work of genius and you will constantly attracted and reppelled by it (simultaneously).  Have fun!

[postjack]

Infinite Jest would be the obvious choice. 

Have you read Cryptonomicon yet?  That's a corker too. 

Right on, I've read a collection of DFW short stories, but Infinite Jest always intimidated me.  I'm wondering if it would be more artsy and less fun then Stephenson.  The thing I love about Stephenson is that he is such an incredible storyteller.  He keeps the plot moving along, and manages to make the book a page-turner without sacrificing any of the arts & sciences density. 

Yup, read Cryptonomicon, great book.  Diamond Age is great as well.  I'm thinking of picking up Pandora's Star (Peter F. Hamilton) next.  Looks fat and dense and I could use a straight sci-fi space opera.

Wallace's short stories are way more artsy fartsy and a lot less fun than Infinite Jest is.  Infinite Jest is great.  You should really not be intimidated by it.  Once you are about 50 pages in, you'll forget the fact that you were ever scared to read it.  It is insanely entertaining and hilarious.  It's truly a work of genius and you will constantly attracted and reppelled by it (simultaneously).  Have fun!

Right on, sounds fun!  it's definitely back on the to read list, thanks for the recommendation.

[mattstick]

Finally finished James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man".
Took about 2 months and it's only 350 pages... slow reading - and frankly, I didn't follow most of the 2nd half of the book.

Picked up "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius".

[gah]

Finally finished James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man".
Took about 2 months and it's only 350 pages... slow reading - and frankly, I didn't follow most of the 2nd half of the book.

Picked up "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius".

Excellent book. It was a little slow getting into it, but once I did, finished it pretty quick. Might want to consider skipping the intro part (you'll see what I mean) and read the story then go back and read all that.

[kellerb]

Finally finished James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man".
Took about 2 months and it's only 350 pages... slow reading - and frankly, I didn't follow most of the 2nd half of the book.

I think he mostly bums cigarettes and drops out of college.  Argues about random stuff with people a bit.

[rowjimmy]

Finally finished James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man".
Took about 2 months and it's only 350 pages... slow reading - and frankly, I didn't follow most of the 2nd half of the book.

Picked up "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius".

Excellent book. It was a little slow getting into it, but once I did, finished it pretty quick. Might want to consider skipping the intro part (you'll see what I mean) and read the story then go back and read all that.

That book makes me want to punch dave eggers in the mouth.

[gah]

Finally finished James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man".
Took about 2 months and it's only 350 pages... slow reading - and frankly, I didn't follow most of the 2nd half of the book.

Picked up "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius".

Excellent book. It was a little slow getting into it, but once I did, finished it pretty quick. Might want to consider skipping the intro part (you'll see what I mean) and read the story then go back and read all that.

That book makes me want to punch dave eggers in the mouth.

Really? I don't know anything else by Eggers, but why the strong hostility towards him? I thought the way the characters sometimes broke out of the story was a pretty neat concept that I hadn't seen done elsewhere.

[rowjimmy]

It struck me as well written, self aggrandizing, bullshit.

[khalpin]

It struck me as well written, self aggrandizing, bullshit.

Had to look that word up.  My vocabumalary sukz.

[gah]

It struck me as well written, self aggrandizing, bullshit.

Had to look that word up.  My vocabumalary sukz.

Ha ha, yeah I was just going to say, I have to admit, I had to look up self aggrandizing. Well, its been a couple years since I read it, but I think that might have been part of what he was trying to get across, just how ridiculous and self centered people of a certain time and age group could have been (for example, the whole thing with him trying out for mtv's real world, or some such show just for exposure, just to be famous for nothing at all). But, I agree there was a lot of bs in there too.

[mattstick]

Finally finished James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man".
Took about 2 months and it's only 350 pages... slow reading - and frankly, I didn't follow most of the 2nd half of the book.

I think he mostly bums cigarettes and drops out of college.  Argues about random stuff with people a bit.

Wow, I missed that part about dropping out of college.  At one point he was thinking about being a priest?

I guess I should try and read Ulysses but I'm not too stoked about reading more James Joyce at this point.

[postjack]

It struck me as well written, self aggrandizing, bullshit.

when I read it several years ago I thought it was the best thing ever, but I was also way into chicken finger sandwiches and amphetamine.

[Hicks]

Infinite Jest would be the obvious choice. 

Have you read Cryptonomicon yet?  That's a corker too. 

Right on, I've read a collection of DFW short stories, but Infinite Jest always intimidated me.  I'm wondering if it would be more artsy and less fun then Stephenson.  The thing I love about Stephenson is that he is such an incredible storyteller.  He keeps the plot moving along, and manages to make the book a page-turner without sacrificing any of the arts & sciences density. 

Yup, read Cryptonomicon, great book.  Diamond Age is great as well.  I'm thinking of picking up Pandora's Star (Peter F. Hamilton) next.  Looks fat and dense and I could use a straight sci-fi space opera.

Stephenson is definitely a little more entertaining, but I didn't find the Baroque Cycle necessarily "fun".  I actually bailed on it half way through the first book, but I still plan on trying it again one of these days.

If you give Infinite Jest a shot, I'd suggest skipping the footnotes as they can really bog you down since some of them are actually 10 page short stories and they aren't completely integral to the plot.  Either way it's definitely a staggering work of genius that I would recommend to anyone who has the patience to read "serious" literature.

[kellerb]

Finally finished James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man".
Took about 2 months and it's only 350 pages... slow reading - and frankly, I didn't follow most of the 2nd half of the book.

I think he mostly bums cigarettes and drops out of college.  Argues about random stuff with people a bit.

Wow, I missed that part about dropping out of college.  At one point he was thinking about being a priest?

I guess I should try and read Ulysses but I'm not too stoked about reading more James Joyce at this point.

Okay, maybe it was seminary, not college.  Been a while since I read it.  I have the same problem with Ulysses--it sits there on my shelf and taunts me.  I got about 30-40 pages into it once and abandoned it.  I read other books to procrastinate about Ulysses.

[cactusfan]

Infinite Jest would be the obvious choice. 

Have you read Cryptonomicon yet?  That's a corker too. 

Right on, I've read a collection of DFW short stories, but Infinite Jest always intimidated me.  I'm wondering if it would be more artsy and less fun then Stephenson.  The thing I love about Stephenson is that he is such an incredible storyteller.  He keeps the plot moving along, and manages to make the book a page-turner without sacrificing any of the arts & sciences density. 

Yup, read Cryptonomicon, great book.  Diamond Age is great as well.  I'm thinking of picking up Pandora's Star (Peter F. Hamilton) next.  Looks fat and dense and I could use a straight sci-fi space opera.

Wallace's short stories are way more artsy fartsy and a lot less fun than Infinite Jest is.  Infinite Jest is great.  You should really not be intimidated by it.  Once you are about 50 pages in, you'll forget the fact that you were ever scared to read it.  It is insanely entertaining and hilarious.  It's truly a work of genius and you will constantly attracted and reppelled by it (simultaneously).  Have fun!

one page back on this thread you were asking what DFW was like and had to read up about him on amazon to find out. you must read fast.

for those interested in DFW, there was a really good and long article about him in the New Yorker in march, which you can dig up on their site. he was working for years on a new novel he never finished, but some chunk of it is going to be published next year.

It struck me as well written, self aggrandizing, bullshit.

i remember being into it for the first half, then the book really fell off a cliff.
i haven't read any other books by eggers.
but for quite awhile i was enjoying McSweeney's, which he edited. collections of short stories published every few months. but even that got to be a little too full of itself.
he also started a foundation called 826 Valencia that's all about teaching kids to write, which is really great. so at least he's put his money to good use.