Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace
75 people recommended it in 42 threads, 2007–2025.
6 commenters pushed back on it — worth reading the threads.
What people on Hacker News said
Reading the book is like entering an intimate communion with DFW's mind and it reinforced in me the importance of inter-human connection in that way.
Infinite Jest -- takes 300 pages to "get" David Foster Wallace's style and 500 pages to enjoy it, but well worth the investment.
(certainly some books here fit the bill, e.g. Infinite Jest, Pride & Prejudice, etc.). Again, interests are subjective.
Something about DFW’s writing and train of thought (in his short stories) hits me just right. The musings on how he related certain math concepts to playing tennis in the wind specifically blew me away, as literally nothing about that should be relatable to me (neither from midwest nor play tennis nor have any interest in it), but it feels like it is.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace has been the most impactful, but due to the length of the book it's hard for others to compete on the impact-per-page metric.
I think DFW was swimming in so many ideas & feelings that Infinite Jest was a way of letting it all come out in a Kerouacian-stream without much thought for concision.
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