FANZINE

Before leaving for a year abroad in South Korea, I used a razor blade to cut my copy of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest into four sections: three sections of text and then end notes. I made make-shift covers for these new volumes using cardboard Fed Ex envelopes. This made it much easier to read while laying in bed or for carrying around for a day on the town. I highly recommend a similar method. While living overseas the book became my closest English speaking companion over several months. If you haven’t yet read this book perhaps it is time. Thankfully the good people over at Infinite Summer have set up a support group to help you do so. They’ve created an online book club reading the book at the moderate pace of 75 pages per week. The summer of 2009, which is already proving to be full of sun and other pleasures, can only be enhanced by the addition of your first reading of IJ. It will make you laugh, cry and live in mortal fear of becoming a paralyzed, voiceless extra on the hit sitcom Cheers. -Ben Bush

http://www.infinitesummer.org