Progress Report: Infinite Jest

Currently on page 272. I know, not a helluva lot of progress after a full month, but I'm hoping to knock out most, if not all, of this great [big] novel by the end of the month.

One of my other resolutions this year is/was[?] to slowly ween myself from reading multiple books at the same time. Perhaps one can't change his reading habits after reaching two decades' worth of indoctrination, but I'm trying--and, well, failing miserably.

So far this year, i.e. in the interval between starting I.J. and , uh, now, I've also read the following books:

American Noise by Campbell McGrath
Home Land by Sam Lipsyte
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
District and Circle by Seamus Heaney

Granted, two of those books are volumes of poetry, one's a short story collection and the last one's a slender novel, but...See! This is what happens! This is me rationalizing my behavior! This is me, bargaining in my head, saying things like, "Well, if I have just one BIG book to concentrate on at a time, then I can read several little books..." Crap.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I also abandoned The Sportswriter (by Richard Ford) at page 143. Great writing, but nothing was going on. Maybe when I get older and domesticated, I'll pick it up again.

Anyway, I'm really, really enjoying Infinite Jest--more so than I ever did in my previous attempts at reading it--and so maybe I should honestly attempt a monogamous relationship with the novel (With the explicit caveat that I do, as has been my habit for a long, long time, read a short story every day). We'll see how it goes.

I'll keep you posted.