Having a hard time reading ? You are not alone !
https://lithub.com/how-to-pay-attention-in-a-time-of-crisis-a-reading-list/
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The Pale King | 
Having a hard time reading ? You are not alone !
https://lithub.com/how-to-pay-attention-in-a-time-of-crisis-a-reading-list/
Today‘s author spotlight: David Foster Wallace! Born in Ithaca, NY, he died in 2008 at 46 in Claremont, CA, from suicide after struggling with depression 😔. He was the first Roy E. Disney English and creative writing professor at Pomona College. He received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer, and TIME ranked “Infinite Jest” as one of the
English language‘s 100 best novels between 1923 and 2005. #AuthorPotpourri #TheMoreYouKnow
pick⭐⭐⭐⭐ I liked it alot! I wonder what it would have become if he hadn't died prior to finishing.
pickIf you‘re not already a fan of DFW, this book is probably not for you. But if you ARE a fan, read it. I miss his mind so much, and I‘m still very, very sad about his suicide. This novel would have been fantastic had he finished it.
pickThis is obviously unfinished as the editor assembled it from about a ton of handwritten notes after DFW passed away. Typically not an easy read, especially as the author captures the boredom of working in the IRS with reams of tax info, but the characters and situations are beautifully drawn. I particularly liked Leonard Stynck, the boy who tortures everyone by being obnoxiously gratuitously nice to everyone!
I've got a cardigan, a peony candle and a glass of wine. Time to put the conservatory to good use (conservatory does make it sound posher than it is though).
Was staying with my parents again this weekend and uncovered an old Barnes and Noble back FULL of unread books. 😍 (like my #TBR needed any more books!!!)
Such luck! Was actually thinking about the Salt, Sugar, Fat book the other day and how I never read it.
#BookHaul (sort of)
pickDavid Foster Wallace‘s final, incomplete novel is literally a book about boredom, dullness and the IRS. Why would anyone ever bother reading about that? Well, partly because Wallace had an knack for making anything transcendent. But the main reason, perhaps, is one that Wallace presents as one of the books main theses: there‘s virtue in enduring dullness.
Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1357442581
This chapter just fucked me up so bad. The New Yorker released it as a short story a few years ago, so if your interest has been picqued, have at it: https://www.google.com/amp/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/03/07/backbone/amp
Came across this beast of a quote randomly nestled in a tedious chapter about IRS agents turning pages (ha). Stood out to me because a) quintessential DFW to make you work for your reward and b) I recognized it as the title of the biography written about him. Then I found this interesting article about the origin of the quote: https://www.google.com/amp/www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/d-f-w-tracing-the...
I'm doing a slow read of The Pale King currently (over the course of the month so I can really pace myself and absorb it) which means I'm reading other less challenging books simultaneously. This is literally a book about dullness and the IRS and yet when I'm not reading it I wish I was. Testament to DFW's brilliance/how deeply satiated I am by his writing.
New England decided to give us one nice day and boy was it a doozy. Here's my daughter at Brown U campus facing off against a creepy bear
DFW makes shit up that at first sounds so convincing until it hits you that he made it up and then you're laughing at yourself and shaking your head at him for being so damn good. RFI = ESP for mundane bullshit. Come on, that's hilarious.
IJ was about the Entertainment. The Pale King is about the opposite: dullness.
Doing my buddy read of Pale King with @mauveandrosysky and on page 68 we get our first 4th-wall break as well as our first footnote. We're officially in David Foster Wallace territory!!
Today begins my buddy read of DFW's final book with @Eamann ! I'm feeling Claude, so far.
pickThis may well change over the coming days but here are some initial thoughts! Probably the hardest David Foster Wallace book in my opinion. Sections that are staggeringly brilliant but almost all of it is buried deep (this must be the biggest culprit for having to start a sentence/paragraph/page again because I'd drifted off) but I'm so glad I persevered, I think I prefer Infinite Jest the notes at the end make you so wish he'd finished this.
Back to this interesting thing of a novel, starting to form some ideas about what's going on but still have a long way to go
The re-read of Infinite Jest is not working for me, I haven't got the time I'd like to do all the reading I'd like to so I'm postponing it until Summer or Christmas but in the mean time I'm going to tackle this with some sadness as once this is done that's it for DFW fiction but fortunately there are still a couple of his longer essays left afterwards
The next suitable person you‘re in light conversation with, you stop suddenly in the middle of the conversation and look at the person closely and say, “What‘s wrong?” You say it in a concerned way. He‘ll say, “What do you mean?” You say, “Something‘s wrong. I can tell. What is it?” And he‘ll look stunned and say, “How did you know?” He doesn‘t realize something‘s always wrong, with everybody. Often more than one thing...
#deckleedge
Has anyone read this? I've had it for years and I haven't read it yet.
Also in this post, All Things Cease to Appear... One of my favorites from last year.
The next suitable person you‘re in light conversation with, you stop suddenly in the middle of the conversation and look at the person closely and say, “What‘s wrong?” You say it in a concerned way. He‘ll say, “What do you mean?” You say, “Something‘s wrong. I can tell. What is it?” And he‘ll look stunned and say, “How did you know?” He doesn‘t realize something‘s always wrong, with everybody. Often more than one thing...
“True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care—with no one there to see or cheer. This is the world"
To be, in a word, unborable.... It is the key to modern life. If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish.
