oh, you going for a reread?
always thought that might be good with a companion book to get the countless references
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My reading has been terrible recently but yeah I’m still up for it, starting around Christmas would probably work for me
Would be tempted to join in. What sort of pace would we be reading through?
could never get on with this book
If I can finish Count of Monte Cristo by the time you start then I’ll get stuck in.
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I started this yesterday, I don’t read super fast so if anyone else does want to join in now/soon that would be fun - but I feel like if I don’t take advantage of this new new lockdown to make some real headway then I might just never read it
Will keep note of some thoughts as I go, for any future discussions
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I have a couple of trashy airport thrillers I want to get through after finishing Moby Dick, but GR is definitely on the slate for 2021.
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Might be up for this. Just finishing another book but may jump in. GR has been sitting unread on my bookshelf for two decades.
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Snap!
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Awesome cover, I’ve also only made it
to page 60 so hardly miles ahead
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You have the best cover
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Doesn’t look anything like a rainbow
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I’m about 25 pages in and I’m enjoying it so far. More accessible than I was expecting. Haven’t read V first but read TCOL49 years ago.
I just hit page 60 and the bit in the toilet, which was when I started to struggle last time I attempted this. Like you said, until then it was very readable and easy to follow
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I’ve read Inherent Vice and Crying Of Lot 49 in the last few months, was gonna give myself a break but I do already have V and Gravity’s Rainbow on my shelf…
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You read The Cing of Limbs 49 years ago? 
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There’s kind of peaks and troughs where difficulty is concerned. As well as some experimental bits that imo don’t really work (as evidenced for me by the fact that one of them in particular really does work). My last read, I remember kind of chuckling because it kind of rewards you at the start of the second part with a pretty straightforward thrilling espionage thriller.
Just at a bit of Against the Day myself where it’s just not fully going in. Down both to my mood and the fragmentedness of this particular bit
120 pages in
My favourite aspects so far are the very targeted rants he goes on, where he can just write for paragraphs with the sort of cutting accuracy that makes it feel like a passage from a stand-up. Had one about how terrible food “surprises” (no man wants unexpected beetroot in his toad in the hole …) are and one on the awfulness of old British sweets, both of which had me actually laughing out loud, and wishing they would just keep on going.
Then alongside those chunky sections he has a real way with a perfect sentence or simile, which entirely captures a scene with a real economy that I wouldn’t have expected from a book of this size. So far feels like the novel’s size is down to a sheer over-abundance of ideas and strands, rather than just over-writing a smaller number of ideas (which is often my issue with big books)
Definitely finding the really metaphysical stuff to be tricky/off-putting, and not sure I need quite this level of sado-masochism, but going well so far
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Started this yesterday! I’ve had a copy on my shelves for nearly twenty years and it’s always rather intimidated me but I’m taking this thread as inspiration.
20 pages in and I’m getting strong catch 22 vibes.
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