How do you get past the hump with long books?

Been reading Infinite Jest on my Kindle for the past couple of months. I'd heard that the footnotes were the same length as the actual text for the book (slightly longer, in fact) so at 47% through I assumed I was very nearly finished. Now I've got the horrible suspicion that my Kindle version doesn't include footnotes at all, and I'm still not even halfway through the book at all.

Maybe I'm just not /lit/, but I really can't see the purpose of the book being this long. It's neatly written and humorous, but to my mind there seems to be many passages or even chapters which are completely superfluous. But I'm not all the way through yet, maybe it will all come together at the end. If I still do have 500 pages to read, I guess I'll get through the hump by setting myself a 50 page per day goal and sticking by it, even if I'm not really enjoying it. I hate starting a book and not finishing it.

>>8503521
Yep, the footnotes are like 10% the size of the rest of the book. The book doesn't get "better" per se, but its good. Don't feel like you have to get through it asap. Take it slow, read it alongside other books. Even if its like 10 pages a day thats still only 3 months to finish

opie here. I'm enjoying it a whole lot, but I worry that I'll hit a wall with all of the doorstoppers I want to read. GR, The Recognitions/JR, The Tunnel, are all on my docket, but I don't want to be slogging through each one just because they're long. Any advice on getting over the mental fatigue, or is setting a page count per day quota the best way to go about it?

just keep reading

>>8502694
It literally took me over a year to read IJ.
Of course there were multiple 3-4 week periods where I just refused to pick it up due to not wanting to push through the next footnote, or stream-of-conciousness chapter, or more inane conversation about patriotism between two spies. I read at least 5 other books in the time it took me to read the whole thing

>>8504379
Do you think the footnotes are necessary for saying you've completed IJ? My version doesn't have them, and I'm not exactly inspired to try and find them after I'm done.

I'm currently on a 'break' from IJ that's lasted over a year

I'll pick it up again after I'm finished with my current book I swear

>>8504562
They're super great though, and offer a lot of backstory. If you don't like the footnotes then you don't like IJ, they're so integral to the book.

>>8504562
yes they are important, there's a lot of content in them. i don't understand what kind of version you have.

>>8502694
That aint funny. IJ isn't exactly a breather, and other books come a calling. Mine's probably right on the one third border, but it remains at my side, all at the ready for whence i choose to commence again

You have to read 50+ pages of 1000 page books a day to actually make your way through.
If it starts to take you 3 days or even more for each 100 pages you feel like you are stagnating and hrdly moving. With Musil or Brothers K its only once you finally commit to it and give it the time it needs every day that you can get through it.
For Ulysses all episodes are possible in a day, so you can read in under 3 weeks, helps keep the book whole as well, reading only in small chunks really dismembers the experience.

>>8504994
Cool. Is there a window of time before the mental fatigue sets in, where it won't feel like slogging to hit a page count every day? Or do I just need to read more and train my mind to get used to it?

Think of it this way: if you're committed to reading a 1000 page book, no subsection of it will be too great for you to conquer. What's 50 pages when you've already decided to finish the whole thing?

Funny enough, there's actually a chapter in Infinite Jest about this very subject. Gately's in great pain and doesn't think he'll be able to get through days or maybe weeks more of it without taking drugs again. But he resolves to take it one moment at a time because no single moment is unbearable. And of course there's the AA connection: you only have to choose not to take your Substance one day at a time, and you'll end up with a Substance-free life.

Keep Coming.

>>8506996
>Keep Coming
I got to that section yesterday c:

>>8504562
you have an incomplete copy

>>8504562
>>8507011
The only version I'm aware of (other than some pointlessly pirated version I suppose) is the audiobook. I mean, it was already 56 hours long, what's a few more tacked on?

>>8507016
You are not mentally capable of reading this book

>>8504960
>>8507016
My Kindle version (which is pointlessly pirated, yes) has the whole body of the main text at the start and then the footnotes at the end (or, at least, I assume it does, because I haven't got that far yet). Whenever there's a footnote, there's a numbered link which directs to the relevant footnote at the end. I've got the earliest version of the Kindle though and the navigation on it is really shit when you try and go back and forth between these pages, so I've not bothered with them so far, and when I come to them at the end it'll be hard to put them in any sort of context.

>>8507025
lol why

>>8507165
>>8508246
For one, is there any other novel where you would intentionally skip 10% of the text and still claim to have read it? Who are you to decide how much of a text is relevant WITHOUT reading it? Do you really think you know better than DFW himself?

Second, the endnotes are arguably the defining feature of Infinite Jest. You can't say you've really experienced Paris if you don't see the Eiffel Tower; you can't say you've really read IJ if you skip the endnotes.

>>8508535
One last point: these posts just reek of laziness. A great part of the endeavor of reading this book is the amount of effort it requires. It's not 1000+ pages long for no reason; there's something to be gained from committing to so much reading and work that plays a huge role in the themes of the book. Being so ready to cut corners suggests that these themes will be lost on you entirely, so what's the point of reading it at all?

>>8503521
the kindle version i have links me to the footnotes then links me back, i got it from libgen so find a better version

>>8502694
Read a different book
Stop forcing yourself to read shitty memeliterature because /lit/ told you to

>>8508535
I'm >>8508246 & and not the guy with the incomplete copy. Which is why I said "pointlessly pirated", since the print version is pretty cheap.

>>8508572
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