Why “somewhat” difficult?

Partly it’s about humility: Not everyone will agree about what qualifies a book as “difficult,” and occasionally we’ll read something that you don’t struggle with at all.

But no matter what your opinion of, oh just for example let’s say Slaughterhouse Five, most people can agree that it at least requires more concentration, more analysis and more reflection than The Notebook (nothing against The Notebook if that’s your thing). Maybe Vonnegut -- or Great Expectations, or Dune, or Don Quixote -- is difficult for you and maybe it’s not, but at the very least it’s somewhat difficult. Right?

This group -- originally formed to read David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, which is significantly more than somewhat difficult, I don’t care who you are -- is dedicated to reading those novels that take a little more effort. If you were reading these books on your own, you might be tempted to put them down when the going gets dull, or overly complex, or just generally arduous. This group’s lone article of faith is that quite often -- not always, but often -- those parts are worth enduring, and they’re easier to endure when you have people to complain about them to. That’s us.

We’ll meet on the second Saturday of each month at 1 p.m. Sometimes it’s a coffee shop, sometimes it’s a bar, sometimes it’s a park. Usually it will be in DC or somewhere between Alexandria or Arlington, and I will try very hard to always find places close to a Metro stop. I’m picking the first novel, but I propose that anyone who joins (or stays over from the IJ days) post a list of novels they personally find daunting and would like to read in this discussion thread. We’ll keep a running list and work through them, one soon-to-be-conquered work of great fiction at a time.

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    February: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

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    January: Snow Crash

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  • December 11, 2011 at 3:00 PM, 3 Readers attended

    December: The Sound and the Fury

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    From the book's Amazon page: "The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful,... Learn more

  • November 13, 2011 at 3:00 PM, 6 Readers attended

    November: The Stranger

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  • October 9, 2011 at 3:00 PM, 3 Readers attended

    Week 17: The End

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    This is it! If you made it this far, give yourself a hearty pat on the back. On Sunday we'll talk about the last 50 pages of Infinite Jest (and probably spend a minute... Learn more
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DMV Somewhat Difficult Novels Reading Group http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/4/5/e/e/global_64697902.jpeg
Alexandria, VA 22312
Founded May 15, 2011
20110515
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