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I tried to read Infinite Jest once but eventually gave up because I found it kind of exhausting to read and I couldn’t really follow along. After reading your

I tried to read Infinite Jest once but eventually gave up because I found it kind of exhausting to read and I couldn’t really follow along. After reading your comment I decided to have another look at it. I knew last time that it was a weird book, and that it was enjoyed by a lot of people. But even looking at the first page of it again I just don’t feel compelled to read it. Maybe some day.

1MachineElf 6y ago
There's a decent audiobook too, if that helps.
- thedanbob 6y ago
  As someone who has done a little work on the side recording audiobooks, I hope they paid that guy well. That sounds like a nightmare.
  - sixstringtheory 6y ago
    How do you handle footnotes in audiobooks?
    - thedanbob 6y ago
      I was told to read them right after the sentence in which they appear. It sucks when there's one in the middle of a sentence or multiple in one sentence, really breaks the flow of the thought. On the other hand, I can't think of a better way to handle them without omitting them entirely. There's a few things like that which have really made me realize how visual books are, and how challenging they are to translate to the spoken word (simple example, imagine how to express with your tone of voice that this is a parenthetical rather than a new sentence).
sixstringtheory 6y ago
I hear you. It took me around 2 years to finish, with a few other books interspersed as breaks from it. There were many nights in bed where I didn’t make it through a single whole page before passing out. In the end I came away from it more with a feeling I had lived a part of life in another person’s (really several peoples’) shoes, less that there was any particular climactic aha! moment. Life, as wonderful as it is, still has its banalities and mundanities. You’re not missing out on a great truth, just a quirky story. Plenty of those to go around. Hope you find a good one!

1MachineElf 6y ago

There's a decent audiobook too, if that helps.

thedanbob 6y ago
As someone who has done a little work on the side recording audiobooks, I hope they paid that guy well. That sounds like a nightmare.
- sixstringtheory 6y ago
  How do you handle footnotes in audiobooks?
  - thedanbob 6y ago
    I was told to read them right after the sentence in which they appear. It sucks when there's one in the middle of a sentence or multiple in one sentence, really breaks the flow of the thought. On the other hand, I can't think of a better way to handle them without omitting them entirely. There's a few things like that which have really made me realize how visual books are, and how challenging they are to translate to the spoken word (simple example, imagine how to express with your tone of voice that this is a parenthetical rather than a new sentence).

sixstringtheory 6y ago

I hear you. It took me around 2 years to finish, with a few other books interspersed as breaks from it. There were many nights in bed where I didn’t make it through a single whole page before passing out. In the end I came away from it more with a feeling I had lived a part of life in another person’s (really several peoples’) shoes, less that there was any particular climactic aha! moment. Life, as wonderful as it is, still has its banalities and mundanities. You’re not missing out on a great truth, just a quirky story. Plenty of those to go around. Hope you find a good one!