Today in the mail from Amazon.de: The exquisitely-designed 1547-page German-language hardcover edition of DFW’s Infinite Jest, just released, translated over the course of six years by Ulrich Blumenbach (translator of Stephen Fry’s books!) and published as Unendlicher Spaß. I can’t read German, of course, but I had to have this. (Was inspired by Matt Bucher.) The minimalist cover design has a somewhat sepulchral quality, drained of color, black type on otherwise blank matte white boards, black endpapers, the back cover a mirror image of the front. With a thoughtful touch: Sewn into the binding are two bookmark ribbons. (One for the main text, one for the 134 pages of endnotes.) Seems a shame to not be able to read it, but I shall just pretend it’s in English and consider it a special edition that stays on the shelf. Our four actual English-language copies of IJ should be able to take up the slack.