An 'Infinite Summer' for bibliophiles

The task at hand. Source: Amazon.com

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On June 21st, bibliophiles across the nation will unite in a web-coordinated effort of endurance: they will commence reading Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace's cement-block-sized opus. And they have until September 22nd, the last day of Summer, to turn the final page.      

    Infinite Summer is the namesake of this internet hurricane. And a hurricane it is: sprawling from the site's navigation menu are links to the project's forums, Facebook page, Twitter account, and Tumblr blog. "Unofficial" arms of this digital storm include a Livejournal community, a Shelfari group, and a goodreads page. As of this moment, the Facebook page has over 3,000 fans - about 3 per every page of Wallace's novel.

    And if that were not enough, the main site features a blog with weekly contributions from four authors who have not read the novel before. This includes Infinite Summer's progenitor, net Renaissance man Matthew Baldwin, of defective yeti and Morning News fame.

    Baldwin provides no specific reason for people to become what the site calls "endurance bibliophiles."However, located on the website are two essays advocating for the book, as well as the rationalization that its 1000 pages divided by the 92 days of summer come out to a very doable 75 pages a week. Above all, timeliness is doubly important: most literary-minded folks are aware of Wallace's passing last fall, and the seasonal constraints of the project suggest that readers rise above typical beach books this summer and take on something that calls for...well, endurance.