Would you read 'Infinite Jest' on an iPhone?

Apple's new television ads promote various aspects of the iPhone 4, including iBooks and the iBookstore, as shown above. The books they showcase include the Stieg Larsson bestseller "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" and several by acclaimed author Cormac McCarthy.

And the ad also includes, down on the bottom shelf, David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest." In print, "Infinite Jest" clocks in at more than 1,100 pages. That's got to be a lot of pages -- a lot of lots of lots of pages -- on a palm-sized device like an iPhone.

What do you think -- would you read a book that long on an iPhone?

After the jump, Apple's ad.

One more thing: "Infinite Jest" has footnotes. On top of those 1,100 pages in your palm, you'll also have to contend with the footnotes.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: iBooks on the iPhone.

Comments

[Avi]

I'm wading through it on the iPad. The footnotes are manageable on an ebook but I have no bearing, no sense of whether I'm in the beginning, middle or end and part of me doesn't want know that after spending an hour of reading I'm really only on page six.

[Daniel]

I have read a couple of books on my iPhone and it's not an issue...would rather do it on an iPad but iPhone is good enough...

[Matt]

I actually like how the footnotes exist as their own hyperlinks. So the novel sort of works n this digital format, whether it's the Kindle version or iBooks version or Nook version.

[Alnilam]

You can read the Ten Commandments easily on the iPhone. God handed down the Kindle for 1,000 page works. Really!

[Amy Pearl]

I read War And Peace on my iPhone and I'm currently reading The Brothers Karamazov on it. Not only are these two of my favorite stories, these books are free in iBooks and in the kindle store. Being able to read The Brothers K on the subway or in line at the food coop is a big plus even if I forgot my book. To be fair, I have a hard copy of both books at home so I go back and forth between the iPhone and the real book.

[Megan]

I started "Infinite Jest" on my iPhone but gave up. :)