The Infinite Rainbow

I've now decided that my current book, Gravity's Rainbow, is my toughest assignment so far. And I can't imagine any of the remaining 20 book will be this difficult either.

I'm currently sitting on page 605 of 776, and feel completely helpless. I'm not really sure what is going on, nor who the main characters really are, which makes it difficult to pick it up. For the past six weeks, this book has rarely been more than five feet away from me, but has spent more time as a paper weight than an open book. I just can't bring myself to open on most days. This results in me not reading anything else either, as I feel guilty when I do so, knowing I should be reading Gravity's Rainbow.

Sadly I think I am now at a point where my only goal is to finish the book, even if that means my eyes are only glossing over the words within. I'm still reading it, but I don't think very much of it is sinking in. This is a book, perhaps the first from the list, that I definitely would not finish, were it not for this project. And I don't think I can really imagine anybody finishing it voluntarily.

A Big Ol' Pile of Books

This past Friday marked the 5th anniversary of my first book review on this blog about The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. It's hard to believe it's already been five years, as it really doesn't seem that long ago that I decided to embark on this mission.

For the longest time, I had expected to be finished after five years. In fact there was a time I thought I'd be done in four! Now that I'm older and wiser, I figure I might be done in a year and half, and that two more years is probably more realistic. I've read 76 books from the list in those five years, which is more than one a month. I've also read about 170 non-list books in that time. I guess if I had stuck to only list books, I would have been done quite some time ago, but I also might have succumb to madness. Really, I don't think my pace has been that bad when put into perspective, and 76 books really is a lot of books. 

I am stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.

I've past the halfway mark of The Adventures of Augie March, which really isn't anything too special; I should have finished it long ago. It's a tricky book to figure out. I enjoy reading it, but when I put it down, I don't think I would be bothered if I never picked it up again. It's hard to explain, but it's like I'm interested in the argument, but not interested in the conclusion.

I can't think of any other books like this on the list so far. There are ones I have no desire to pick up again, but I also didn't enjoy reading them in the first place. Again, I enjoy reading this book, but it doesn't have a hold on me. It's like watching Jeopardy; you're interested in the current question/answer, but probably wouldn't lose sleep if you never saw who won that day.

Of that and all the progress, more or less,

I keep spreadsheets on pretty much everything. I really do; airports I've flown to, states and provinces I've visited/flown into/driven in. And it occurred to me, looking at my spreadsheet I use to track my reading of this list, that perhaps it isn't all my fault I've been reading a little slower these past couple of years; this year in particular.

I say this, because I noticed today, the following chart:

Year                      Pages Read            Books               Average Pages/Book

2009                         911                         3                            303.67

2010                        7,503                     23                            325.22

2011                        7,233                     22                            328.77

2012                        4,904                     13                            377.23
2013                        3,606                       7                            515.14

Well obviously I've been reading longer books this year and to a lesser extent, in 2012. Of course that doesn't change the fact that I have indeed read fewer pages this year, but it does give me a reason for why I've read so few books this year.

Of course it isn't just that the more pages a book has, the longer it takes to read; that's obvious. But what I find is that the longer a book is, the slower my reading pace. A 250 page books usually takes about 7 days to read, but a 500 page book usually takes about 25 days. Thousand-pagers, 60+ days. I think the sheer size of some books often makes it feel as if you aren't making any progress, which can be quite deflating. This leads to my reading other (read: non-list), less intimidating books.

How much I'm enjoying a book doesn't seem to play a very big role in how fast I read something. The Sot-Weed Factor, at some 800 pages, still took me seven weeks to read, and I loved it from start to finish. Same goes for Gone With the Wind. But, that's also the case for Infinite Jest, which I despised.

On the flip side, Mrs. Dalloway (212 pages) didn't really take any longer to read than Lucky Jim (242 pages).

But again, these are just excuses as to why I haven't read more. Bottom line is, I need to be flipping more pages. My concern is that maybe the reason the books have become longer and longer is that I've left a lot of longer ones until the end, instead of distributing them more evenly amongst all 100 reads. That could be a problem.

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Continue still in this so good a mind,

Well, there's good news and bad news to report. The good news is I finally finished the second book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  The bad news is, I still have another book to read.

I'm happy to report however, that the final 100 pages of The Two Towers were the best yet, and actually had me interested in reading (which is perhaps why I read the final 100 pages today).  This also means that I am keen to continue reading the next book, to see what happens. This is in great contrast to when I finished the first book, and had no desire whatsoever to continue reading the next two books. Having said that, I'm still debating whether or not to continue with Lord of the Rings right now.

My other option is to squeeze in another list read before continuing, just so I can get some forward progress on the list for the first time since November. The danger in this tactic is that I may lose whatever momentum I have built up these past couple of days, and reading the third book will be like starting all over. But I fear that  regardless of having more interest, the final book will take me another month. Currently I have The Sound and the Fury sitting next to my computer, taunting me to pick it over The Return of the King which sits beneath it.

There wouldn't even have been a debate, had I not made a little discovery last week.  The Return of the King is, shall we say, the girthiest book of the three, and measures over 600 pages (compared to 535 for book 1 and 436 for book two). However, as I thumbed through it a few days ago, I discovered that in actuality, it's only 375 pages. I say this because I have no plans to read the over 200 pages of appendices found at the end. My philosophy on appendices in fiction writing is there shouldn't be any; either you want that information in your story or you don't.

This was the same situation I ran into with Infinite Jest, which contains 1,150 pages, but I only count as having read 1,079; there were 70 pages of footnotes. I've tried to imagine Hemingway having an appendix or two in The Old Man and the Sea. I then shudder.

I'm flying to Victoria tonight, and plan to make my decision before I leave for the airport. I will bring both books with me however.

She is too big, I hope, for me to compass.

I've been reading Infinite Jest for a little over two weeks now and my progress has been, well, a little slow.  Which I should expect really, this book is in one word, massive.  It clocks in at a hefty 1076 pages, and they're 1076 giant pages at that.

Infinite Reading

Since I started reading this omnibus, I've been trying to stick to a schedule of 20 pages per day.  At that pace, I would finish it on or about March 1st.  Yes, that means it will take me nearly two months to finish one book, but I figure the books I read after will fly by, reading more like comic books than novels compared to this behemoth.  See to the right for a good comparison between what so far has been the quickest and shortest book from The List, and my current read, by far the longest and biggest read from The List.  Compared to Infinite Jest, the quickest read on the list, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, seems like a mere pamphlet; not a book.  I guess it makes sense then, that while I was able to read that in four hours, Infinite Jest may take over seven weeks.

Of course having said that, I'm not keeping to my pace so far, and am actually 60 pages, or three days behind.  Not too much I guess, but I need to make sure I'm not losing that same amount every two weeks, or I won't be finishing this book until April.  It wouldn't be too good of a start to 2011 if I'd only read two book through the first three months, when I'd planned to read 2.5 per month.

So what are my reasons?  First off, I'm not really enjoying it so far.  Well, perhaps that's not quite right.  There are a few different storylines, a couple of which I'm enjoying and a couple of which I'm loathing.  I find it very hard to slug through I book when I'm not enjoying the story.  Next off, the size of the book is intimidating.  Just seeing it on the table, nevermind picking it up, fills me with a sense of failure and dread.  It really is that big.  After a good reading session, I slip the bookmark back in and realize that I'm not even close to halfway.  In fact, I just hit the halfway mark to the halfway mark.  I figure the size also presents another problem, as it is difficult to carry around.  This book doesn't fit into the average pocket, or even an over-sized pockets.  It really isn't ideal for reading on the train or while you're waiting in line.  I even have trouble reading it in bed, as my arms tire out after a few minutes.  A couple of times, I've felt my arms go to sleep from the sheer weight this book places on my blood vessels.  I haven't weighed it yet, but I doubt my bathroom scale can handle it.

Despite the roadblocks, I will continue to read of course.  I suppose the worst thing that could happen is it takes me a few months to finish.  I can make it up with other books.  It has altered my reading list however, as I had planned to read Gone with the Wind 30th, but it isn't really much smaller than Infinite Jest, so I may delay it until 34 or 35, giving me a little time to squeeze in a few shorter reads.

Despite not enjoying the read that much, there are a couple of things to note about Infinite Jest.  In one story, teenage drug dealers mention William Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, #3 on The List.  That marks the fourth time there is a reference in one book to another from The List.  Secondly, I've come across the first mention of Calgary in a book from The List.  Much the way the crowd gets excited at a concert when their hometown is mentioning by the band, I couldn't help but get excited by this.  Now it wasn't a setting or anything, only a mention.  In fact, it was mentioned on an RCMP list of Terrorist groups.  Among many Quebecois groups, was the 'Calgarian Pro-Canadian Phalanx,' whose only description states it is both environmental and violent.  Sure, it isn' much, but I'll take it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a little light reading to do.