to wonder how many people have read Infinite Jest after having children?

[vezzie]

I asked this question months ago on the Infinite Jest thread but it was deserted. So I am being an attention seeker and asking here.

I haven't read it - I read about the first 200 pages when pg. I have a baby. Will I ever read it?

I miss reading terribly. I dream about reading. And when my daughter is older she will despise me for being stupid and ill read [sob]

Oh, I feel for you. I read Infinite Jest in my pre-baby days and glad I did because everytime I see it on the bookshelf, I know I will never read it again.

I have read precisely ONE book in the ten months since giving birth (apart from all the childcare books.)

YANBU. I miss it too. I would maybe advise something lighter/less long to begin with so you can feel a sense of accomplishment about getting back into reading again.

(I've actually forgotten which book it was that I read. Am about to re-read Rachel Cusk's 'A Life's Work'- about having babies, aaaaagh.)

*If it's any consolation a childfree friend of mine is reading it and he is only 50 pages in after a month.

Have you read any other Rachel Cusk? I have been vaguely wondering about reading A Life's Work, but then I was made so angry by her snotty attitude when I read The Temporary I am not sure if I want to. I might enjoy the rage, if any, though.

Thanks for the sympathy. What is the one book you have read, out of interest?

Oh sorry, just saw you have forgotten which book you read - see, I really can't read any more!

How old is your baby? I used to read whatever I was reading out loud to DD when she was very small. She seemed to like it.

Vezzie, I sort of gave up on Rachel Cusk after her snotty articles about hating being a member of a book club but I read an interview with her in The Observer on Sun. and remembered why I liked her- the rage, as you say, and the honesty.

I remembered! Linda Grant's 'The Clothes on Their Backs', which I enjoyed. (Have owned it for about 2 years though.) Bizarrely I am about half way through Marcus Trescothick's autobiography, despite not being a cricket fan. Half-way through a book about children and language too. Another unfinished one.

I have about 30 books on my Amazon wish list and it's just so depressing- when will I ever read them?

Hi Horton - good idea, I have done this a little with poetry as it suits a slower pace of reading than "in the head" and she likes the rhythm. But I kind of forgot... good point. She is 4 months old.

Ruby - what I found annoying about The Temporary (well, enraging actually) is its horrible snobbery about "ordinary" people, but women in particular. At roughly the same time I was reading a novel by Jenny Turner which dealt with young women working in offices in a much more thoughtful, realistic and respectful way. It was as if Cusk believed, as certain ages and classes of men do, that all admin workers are thick, cheap and lazy. It made me furious. Come back and tell me about A Life's Work when you have read a bit of it!

Childcare manuals - ggggggggrrrrr shoot me if I take any more out of the library. They are a waste of our valuable time, my obsessive reading of them is a response to panic and obsession but really I should chill the fcuk out and if I am going to read, read something good.

Read it about ten years ago, it took me about three months then! I have been reading the same (short) book since April when DS2 was born...

Stick with it though, tis an amazing book

i've just received my copy of infinite jest which i ordered after reading all your comments on it!
now, i don't shy away from the 1078 pages, but the print is soooo very tiny that if it were normal size the book would run into 2000 pages i reckon!
why did noone tell me this?
it's going to take me years to read it!

to the OP: you might have finised it before your child starts university.