Day 1 – Well, at least I won’t be wasting any paper…

…though a lot of trees probably died to make this 1,079-page book.

A few months after I left for college, I discovered the blog of a friend who had joined a sorority (I only mention this because it seemed so out of character), took on the name moonlightgem and shared her subsequent adventures with the online world in a bizarre mall-rat/””urban””/barely decipherable dialect that I have never seen since. I was so fascinated by it that I started a parody blog in a similar style. Perhaps because I found imitating moonlightgem’s language so exhausting, or perhaps because it felt a little mean, that blog lasted all of one week. And no, I wouldn’t give you the link even if I could find it.

I haven’t had a blog since, mostly because I haven’t felt like I had anything novel to contribute to cyberspace and have a hard time sticking with these sorts of projects. Fortunately I did a little research this afternoon and think that I have uncovered the three most important keys to success this time around:

1. Something to write about. I have the book, detailed day-by-day reading schedule, and plenty of time to read.
2. A good profile picture. This was the bloggiest profile photo that I could come up with. It’s poorly framed! It’s narcissistic! But would it be even better in black and white? Sepia?
3. A co-blogger, *ahem! show yourself!*, who will hopefully carry not only his own weight, but mine as well, when it comes to insightful commentary and stimulating discussion. This is the only time I’ll say this, but I never even took an English class in college, so have mercy.

On the up-side, avoiding deep analysis should leave me free to make less literary, but still valuable, observations like this one “David Foster Wallace totally looks like John C. Reilly with long hair in the photo on the back cover!” (He does, but only there. I checked.) and generate some good activities (I’m very excited about this) for us to complete.

Anyway… I was a little intimidated when I first picked up the book. That intimidation fell away in the first few pages and returned on page 31, which marks the end of the “professional conversationalist” chapter. I can deal with this sort of thing if it eventually makes some sort of sense, but Eggers’ characterization of Infinite Jest as a UFO of novels in the Foreword does have me a little worried. I really did enjoy what I read today, though. Very funny.