Infinite Summer was an online
book club–style project started by writer Matthew Baldwin. Sponsored by ''
The Morning News'', participants were challenged to read
David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel '' Infinite Jest'', whi ...
's novel ''
Infinite Jest
''Infinite Jest'' is a 1996 novel by American writer David Foster Wallace. Categorized as an encyclopedic novel, ''Infinite Jest'' is featured in ''TIME'' magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.
...
'' at a rate of about 75 pages a week from June 21 to September 22, 2009.
Baldwin and three other writers acted as "guides", providing commentary on Infinite Summer's website. Participants also contributed commentary over a variety of
social networking
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for a ...
services, including
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...
,
Tumblr
Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a ...
, and
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, where related posts were marked with the hashtag #infsum.
Baldwin said in interviews that the project was prompted in part by Wallace's death in September 2008.
Notable participants included
Colin Meloy
Colin Patrick Henry Meloy (born October 5, 1974) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and author best known as the frontman of the Portland, Oregon, indie folk rock band The Decemberists. In addition to vocals, he performs with an acoust ...
of