Sunday, July 5, 2009

Yin

I took my Yin Yoga practice to the park today and enjoyed an hour of gentle stretching in the happy, happy sunlight. It was wonderful! Then I read a book and dozed for another hour. Due to the rain and a lack of mowing, the grass in the park is getting very long, so it feels like a feather bed. I initially had trouble motivating myself to go out, but once I arrived there I didn't want to leave.

The reading was logically followed by dozing because I'm currently reading David Foster Wallace's book Infinite Jest. I would love to put on my intellectually superior mantle and make sophisticated remarks about the novel's merits, but the truth is, it's been tough going so far. If caring for a newborn is the '7th Series' (*waves at Patrick*), maybe slogging through a 1000 page novel full of bizarre characters, a meandering plot and a zillion pages of endnotes could be a series of its own. Reading this book is pure effort.

No, I didn't just pick it up - not exactly. An online reading group called 'Infinite Summer' sprung up in early June and word of it spread like wildfire around the Interwebz. I stumbled across the website via Twitter and thought, “Gee! What a pretty book! It has clouds on it! This sounds like fun!” Aside from Michael Grant's 'History of Rome', I've encountered few books I haven't liked, so I thought: “Why not?”

The website and resulting online community has been helpful in keeping me motivated and that's saying a lot. There seems to be a cult following around this book and a chorus of reassurance that although the first 200 pages kind of suck, it's ultimately rewarding.

Where have we heard *this* line before?

So I'm going to persevere and hope that it will eventually make sense. 'Read, and all is coming' Or something like that.

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