Infinite Summer

Studio 360

This weekon Studio 360 we take a look at F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classicThe Great Gatsby. We might not like to admit it, but Gatsby’s popularity–and its iconic status–has more than a little to do with length.

infinitejest

infinite summer

It’s short (a brilliantly compact 182 pages), easily finished in a weekend. Not so the late novelist David Foster Wallace’s masterwork Infinite Jest. Jest is LONG — a bone fide doorstop at 1,000 pages — and that’s not counting the 100 or so pages of endnotes. (That’s right, endnotes…in a novel.) But for those gutsy enough to take on infinite pages this summer, help has arrived! Infinite Summer an online book club/support group launched last month aims to help you take your summer reading to the next level by harnessing the awesome power of peer pressure. Keep track of your reading progress with page counts and pie charts, and fortify yourself with encouraging words from fellow literary ironmen and women (among them, Decemberists’ frontman Colin Meloy). Happy reading!

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