PicoBlog

I have crossed the 100 page threshold on Infinite Jest. It has been a very slow burn of a book, but I had the first section of the book that really moved me. I’m realizing an interesting issue as I move forward: how do I count how much of the book I’ve read?

I’ve never totally been someone that really cares much about the quantity of the books that I’ve read on an individual basis. I never read a book on a Kindle, therefore I haven’t sat down and said “I’m this percentage finished with the book.” I have friends who do read in that regard, and I do understand it. While I try to not be a stickler about how much of a book I’ve read or how many pages something that I’d like to read has, it does occasionally play a factor in what I’m deciding to read.

I try to not read so many long books back-to-back. It can get discouraging to go from one massive novel to another. Once I finish Infinite Jest, don’t expect to see me walking around with a copy of War and Peace. If I read something really huge, I try to balance it out with something smaller, and if something was more slow-moving, I’ll go to something that I expect will be fast afterwards. I’m trying to keep my books at a decent clip for now. Balancing out David Foster Wallace’s monster of a novel with shorter, lighter reads, like poetry and music books.

Even though I may not try to discriminate against big books or small books, it’s impossible to pretend that especially during something slow and menacing as Infinite Jest, I find time periods that I’m looking to see how much that I have left. As of now, I’m at about page 121. About 1/11th of the page count.

That being said, I’ve run into a small issue. As anyone who’s even glanced at Infinite Jest knows, there are about 200 pages of footnotes at the back. And some of those footnotes instruct to read even further to later footnotes. I’ve been reading with two bookmarks. Now realistically, I’m not sure how much of the book I’ve really read. It’s a little freeing, especially because Infinite Jest can be slow and frustrating.

I’m in a place where I really have no idea how much more of the book I have left. Of course, I am reading on the side. I’m about to dive back into some Hemingway, and I’m hoping that’ll be quick. It’ll be nice to fall into something familiar. Another old favorite. I’ve also recently found some resources to help along the way with Infinite Jest. So hopefully the rest of the read moves faster.

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