Had to choose between finishing 'Infinite Jest' or giving it up after 300 pages

I picked quitting it because the footnotes felt like a second book I didn't sign up for, and honestly my time is worth more than trying to impress strangers at a book club.

2 comments

2 Comments

lisa_brown16d ago

300 pages is a lot of work to just toss aside, but those footnotes are a killer. The book has almost 100 pages of footnotes alone and that's just absurd for a novel. You made the right call, life's too short to read two books at once.

evaperez16d ago

The "life's too short to read two books at once" line really hits home. I picked up a book last year that had 50 pages of footnotes and I felt cheated. It's like the author is showing off how much research they did instead of trusting the story to stand alone. I actually skipped all the footnotes halfway through and I don't think I missed anything important. You made the better move by just abandoning the whole thing. If I have to work that hard to get through something for fun, I'm out.