Should I Finish Infinite Jest or DNF It For Good? (like the author)

Page 100 is not nothing. With Infinite Jest, it is also not exactly “being underway.” I bought it on Kindle because the paperback was too large to haul around, and because I did not want strangers clocking me as That Person. I wasn’t that smug.

A less performative way to read a very performative book.

Five reasons I should finish it

1. Curiosity has earned its payoff.

If a book keeps calling me back, even after failed attempts, something is happening.

1. The difficulty is part of the experience.

The confusion, footnotes, tonal shifts, and sprawl are not accidents. They are the terrain.

1. Page 100 is enough to know I care a little.

I may be annoyed, but annoyed is still engaged.

1. It might click later.

Some books do not seduce. They accumulate.

1. Finishing would settle the question.

Not for the internet. For me.

Some books feel like gym equipment with a plot.

Five reasons I should not finish it

1. Life is short.

There are too many books that do not require a hostage negotiation.

2. Dread is data.

If opening it feels like homework, that matters.

3. The Kindle solved the weight, not the will.

Portability is not the same as desire.

4. DNF is not failure.

Stopping can be a clean reading decision, not a moral collapse. As far as I'm aware, I only know one person who actually finished it, and he regretted and did not recommend it.

5. I already know the vibe.

Maybe page 100 gave me enough: brilliance, exhaustion, comedy, dread, tennis, footnotes.

The unread pile always has other arguments.

My verdict

I should give it one honest final trial: 50 more pages, no guilt, no performance. If momentum appears, continue. If not, DNF it and mean it.

The real question is not whether I am smart enough for Infinite Jest. It is whether I want to spend my reading life proving that I am.

And maybe, I'm not.