Favorite Books and Authors

[elevenism]

@halloween did you see "The End of the Tour?"

i've been searching for a copy of Infinite Jest for under $20 and finally found one today. A couple of my friends described it as "life changing" and one in particular is now utterly fascinated with anything IJ and David Foster Wallace.

I have been told that it's something that you "live with" and "integrate into your consciousness," which is how House of Leaves was for me. I don't exactly even consider House of Leaves a novel, because in my opinion, its style managed to transcend the genre. (i meant medium)
I bought Danielewski's "Only Revolutions" and was so excited to crack it open, only to find it utterly fucking unreadable. I'm FORCING myself to read it, but it damn sure wasn't the follow up i was hoping for.

I hope that Infinite Jest fills that gap. I want another massive vehicle for metaphor that permeates my every waking moment for a week or two.

edit: i loved poisonwood bible too. Evil all its sin is still alivE

[halloween]

Well, I'm not good at articulating myself, but Infinite Jest was something very new to me and I have not read anything else by Wallace before or yet. Knowing your history from what you post here, I think Infinite Jest is going to be particularly marking for you, considering the stories it goes into.

I took me a few months to get through the book and that was with consistent reading, anywhere between thirty minutes to two hours every day or every other day at worst. So it definitely felt like I was living with it, because I was within this world for so damn long. I'm a slow reader though, and also the book has it moments where I just need to pause and just go through a "what the hell did I just read?" It's good not to take long breaks with this book because there will be elements in the beginning of the book that will come up again waaay later which is why I want to read it again one day because there's a lot to take in.

p.s. I did see The End of the Tour, when I was on the airplane last month, I wasn't aware there had been a movie made about him. It was definitely interesting to watch but after having see so many interviews of Wallace, I cringed a little at Jason Segel's interpretation of him, because it didn't look so natural, haha. I closed my eyes a few times just to hear his voice acting and that helped a lot actually because I could start to believe it as Wallace talking, heh.

[elevenism]

Well, I'm not good at articulating myself, but Infinite Jest was something very new to me and I have not read anything else by Wallace before or yet. Knowing your history from what you post here, I think Infinite Jest is going to be particularly marking for you, considering the stories it goes into.

Dear sweet god, you were right about Infinite Jest marking me. i ALMOST gave up on it due to its density, but once it finally opened up to me, like i said in the "what are you reading" thread, i think that it's the best writing i've ever read.
And of course, the recovery stuff hits insanely close to home.
Also, i scoffed at your 2 months, because i had no problem reading, say, the stand, in like 5 days. But this is a whole different ballgame; i realize that now. I took a lot of short breaks, so i probably put in like 6 weeks of reading days on this (over like 3.5 months!) I read 5 other books during the breaks.
This book was so tedious and it seemed as though the author was TRYING to piss me off, and he did, but once it finally "opened up" to me somewhere between 4 and 500 pages, i fell madly in love with it.

I plan to re read at least the first 300 pages or so like very soon.

[ldopa]

i've just discovered jack london, and i'm in literary love. he wrote so much content too!

[elevenism]

yeah well you're no fun to talk to, so I still give up. I'm not into really overly sensitive people.

damnit @allegro , you ARE fun to talk to. Don't give up... i am not overly sensitive...i'm hard as a motherfucker. I've just been awake for too long and i get spacy and strange after the 24 hour mark.