Calling my bluff

From time to time last summer I mentioned the Infinite Summer collective reading experience. Participants read David Foster Wallace's masterpiece Infinite Jest, and various bloggers posted thoughts about it as the project progressed. Having reread IJ not that long ago and foolhardily decided to read Ulysses (with a new baby at home) instead, I didn't read or blog along, but simply followed the discussion on the various blogs.

It was in this matter that I happened upon fellow blogger/David Foster Wallace devotee/parent of a small person over at Naptimewriting. It's always a delight to make new friends, virtual or otherwise, and I've been particularly grateful for her post on ambivalent parenting, which was great comfort to me on those nights when the Critter seemed impossible to soothe without protracted sessions of high-velocity bouncing on the exercise ball.

Anyhow, the same people that brought us Infinite Summer have planned for a similar online collective reading experience centered around Roberto Bolano's much-lauded 2666. (Thus far I have not seen a schedule for reading and posting comments, but I'll keep checking in.) The Naptimewriter expressed some diffidence about participating, and I told her that I'd do it if she did.

And lo, it seems I will be a participating blog in the 2666 reading experience. I have hastily finished (the superlative) Sacred Games, and will put aside Changing My Mind (with a sigh) for another day. Anyone who would like to read along, I would be thrilled to have your comments and thoughts as I dive head-first into another gigantic literary work.

And, of course, I plan to continue with regular helpings of political snark, meaningless celebrity musings, and other blog-related flotsam.

Update: Ah, ha! A schedule has been located. Off we go, I suppose.