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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Infinite Coverage
David Foster Wallace’s notorious doorstopper Infinite Jest turns 30 on February 1, and you’d be wise to expect the anniversary coverage to last all year. At The New Yorker, Hermione Hoby wonders if we’ve forgotten how to read it. The Atlantic‘s Will Gottsegen looks around the modern world and concludes that Wallace was right about everything. An upcoming event at New York’s 92nd Street Y featuring critics and authors in conversation about the book is sold out, but you can get streaming access. There’s an anniversary edition with an introduction from Crying in H Mart author Michelle Zauner and a whole sub-section of the internet devoted to how to read the book that infamously requires two bookmarks. Perhaps most notably, it’s one of the rare books that has earned its own dedicated subreddit.
Thirty years has proven just long enough for readers to run a whole cycle of love it-hate-it-rethink it, so whatever your take on Wallace’s legacy, it’s going to be an interesting phenomenon to watch.
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A Handy Guide to Book Club Etiquette
A few years ago, after realizing I’ve never joined a book club that I didn’t ultimately ghost, I decided to practice a little radical acceptance and just. say. no. No, I’m not actually down for trusting someone else’s taste to pick my reading, and no, I never want to talk about what I would have done in that character’s position. That’s just not how books work for me, and it’s fine. Would my experiences have been different if the folks running the book clubs I failed out of had read these tips for successful book clubs? We’ll never know, but I’m glad they’re out there for those of you still trying to make it work.
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