People I've Met From The Internet

by Stephen van Dyck

"Unputdownable. Young gay sex and super mundane details--two things I love, together."
--Miranda July, author of The First Bad Man

"Stephen van Dyck's meticulous sexual records reveal the true recent histories of America, the Internet, the nearly-defunct nuclear family and the author himself. Surprisingly touching, People I've Met From the Internet is a brilliantly written, taxonomic account of growing up queer in turn-of-the-millennium Albuquerque, Los Angeles, and beyond."
--Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick

"This is an impressive work, modern, relevant, powerfully startling in its effect."
--John Rechy, author of City of Night

"Bold, brave, sexy. . .This annotated bibliography of encounters bridging the virtual and real worlds of desire feels like a nineteenth-century erotic novel transposed onto the present, filled with salacious stories and characters. A truly remarkable adventure."
--D. A. Powell, author of Cocktails

"A brilliant, deadpan account of sexualized youth. . . If it wasn't so effortlessly funny and wry, People I've Met From the Internet would horrify; as it stands, every sentence--every checked-off box of kissing? oral? anal?--brings on the warm flush a real writer gives you."
--Dodie Bellamy, author of When the Sick Rule the World

"As the internet transformed the gay world from a limited number of spaces to a virtually unlimited homotopia, things were gained and things were lost, but van Dyck was one of its argonauts. . . There's a new kind of queer text here, one needed for a new queer age."
--Matias Viegener, author of 2500 Random Things About Me Too

"A glowing diorama that is continuously unfolding with mountains, living, men, cities, and sex. I love the sense of absolute openness in Stephen van Dyck's People I've Met From the Internet, how direct it is, how witty, and at times how sweet."
--Amina Cain, author of Creature

"Stephen van Dyck's People I've Met From the Internet is a wholly original, brilliant and engrossing book. I couldn't put it down."

--Kate Durbin, author of E! Entertainment

"This is no ordinary memoir. It's a moving, funny and rigorous attending to technology, desire and community as experienced by a whole generation. . . A tour de force of post-internet life writing."
--Janet Sarbanes, author of The Protester Has Been Released

Stephen van Dyck's PEOPLE I'VE MET FROM THE INTERNET is a queer reimagining of the coming-of-age narrative set at the dawn of the internet era. In 1997, AOL is first entering suburban homes just as thirteen-year-old Stephen is coming into his sexuality, constructing selves and cruising in the fantasyscape of the internet. Through strange, intimate, and sometimes perilous physical encounters with the hundreds of men he finds there, Stephen explores the pleasures and pains of growing up, contends with his mother's homophobia and early death, and ultimately searches for a way of being in the world. Spanning twelve years, the book takes the form of a very long annotated list, tracking Stephen's journey and the men he meets from adolescence in New Mexico to post-recession adulthood in Los Angeles, creating a multi-dimensional panorama of queer men's lives as he searches for glimpses of utopia in the available world.

Genres: Queer, Memoir, LGBT, Nonfiction, Gay, Biography

155 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2019

About the author

Stephen van Dyck is the author of People I've Met From the Internet, published in 2019 by Ricochet Editions.

Reviews

[Reid Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never read anything like this before, and I ended up really enjoying it. This is a queer coming-of-age memoir told through chance encounters in the virtual world. I laughed (and occasionally cringed) at these stories. Dyck's honesty is aggressive and stimulating.

[Stephen van Dyck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some reviews of PIMFTI:

"Delight in the Details," Julia Matthews, Zyzzyva Magazine: https://www.zyzzyva.org/2019/07/01/pe...

"Memoir Log In," James Chapin, Atticus Review: https://atticusreview.org/memoir-log-in/

"4 books I read recently and loved," Dennis Cooper on his blog: https://denniscooperblog.com/4-books-...

"Grindr World," by Chris Freeman, The Gay & Lesbian Review: https://glreview.org/article/grindr-w...

"Trending Again," Allison OKeefe at Full Stop Magazine: https://www.full-stop.net/2019/09/18/...

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This postconceptual memoir is made up of the titular list and its annotations: notes on each person and scenario that accumulate to form a personal narrative through brief encounters. Van Dyck meets people from Gay.com, from Craigslist, MySpace, etc., often to hook up (in a variety of ways including "massaged my butt, slept over" and "sat on his very hairy lap"), sometimes to buy or sell furniture, occasionally to go river tubing or talk all night about the universe. In archiving new modes of queer cruising, initiated online but also very localized (set predominantly in Albuquerque and Los Angeles) this memoir offers something of an update to Delany's Times Square Red, Times Square Blue though without much in the way of theory/analysis. It's a document of experience from 1998 to 2009, covering the author's first queer encounters, his mother's death, and his coming into an identity as gay and as a writer amid a range of fleeting and not-so-fleeting intimacies made possible by digital spaces. Here's a short example: "Pcvrx670 wanted to meet, and I said I couldn't. Pcvrx670 repeatedly asked if he could come over, and then I gave him my address. I warned him that I was busy, but it didn't matter to him. Pcvrx670 sat on my bed for a while."

[Dany Salvatierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having grown up in a 1990s Catholic household as an overly conspicuous bespectacled teenager with severe acne, I always regarded the internet as a vast obscure world meant to be explored by other similarly confused kids in search of the Holy Grail of anonymous m4m encounters to satiate our guilt filled lust. In those days we didn’t have AOL in Peru and the internet itself was a luxury. What we had were IRC channels, a chatting platform that required downloading software and ran on Windows95. If you didn’t have a computer at home, which was the case for the majority of our generation, you were forced to visit seedy internet cafés such as the infamous Dragon Fans chain in Lima. You would arrive and log on to the "#gayperu" IRC channel or peek at personals in "Latinchat", another website that also offered their own chat rooms. One way or another you would later find yourself spending a couple of hours at one of the many aptly named "love motels" or having sex in a public restroom. Stephen Van Dyck’s “People I’ve Met From the Internet” is a fascinating non-fiction book that recounts the author’s hookups and sexual pickups around the American Midwest; a collection of memories that took me back to my own early adolescence and the many lonely nights spent in my bedroom fantasizing about anonymous sex with strangers while listening to 90s girl rock bands and post-grunge acts such as Garbage (yes Stephen, we were all obsessed with Shirley Manson). A highly recommended read.

[Leo Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quite brilliant comedy memoir of sorts, structured by a list of the author's internet meetups over so many years. It documents the hapless adventures of nearly countless men (and sometimes women) to find—sex? Connection? Not sure what they were looking for, or how even to label that interaction?

I always wondered where other young men got the boldness from that allowed them to meet up with one another. Me, I first went to a school where I was the only one who'd come out (that anyone could tell) and then another school where I tried to go back in the closet because of how badly it had gone at the first school, and where there was one other gay guy that I wasn't attracted to. Only to, unluckily, have a rumour started about me in the first week at this new school that I had hooked up with this other gay guy. Really we just talked, but perhaps that was the tell: it was more intimate than any self-respecting straight boy would allow themselves. So I just shrugged and thought, "Oh well! Better luck at uni, I guess."

I probably regretted not making much effort early on. But this book I think has managed to ease that a little. It has reminded me that, sure, you can meet people, and you might think the more you meet the greater the chance you have of connecting—but these are still real, live human beings you've met. This, I suspect, is where the dryly funny book's title comes from. People you meet from the internet are and are not a special breed of person. Perhaps more special in the late 90s early 00s era documented here, where it was a much weirder-seeming occurrence to meet internet people than it is now. But they will be just as unknowable and awkward and with as much potential for disappointment as people you've already met.

So I appreciated this much braver odyssey than I ever took for the ultimate lesson I took from it. Adventure as much or as little as you are comfortable with, because it's just life: it'll forever make as much sense as it ever has.

Incidentally, though I am not sure why (but I am thankful!) the author and I are friends on this site! Maybe I will be the next person he meets from the internet. If so, I will shake his hand and maybe we will talk about books and trade some :)

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a refreshing and interesting read. The simplest thing to comment on is the intriguing format: an excel spreadsheet lines the edges of the book, telling you about the titular people from the internet van Dyck meets along his journeys.

More intriguing to comment upon, in my opinion, is the time capsule this represents of the naissance of internet culture. This book’s pages are filled with defunct websites where people once congregated in droves to find community in ways that were impossible before the dial-up modem.

Van Dyck navigates a queer world at the turn of the century that now seems quaint in some ways but exceedingly dangerous in others. The author writes of a man lamenting the dying of cruising culture and in a later selection poignantly provides that Craigslist was sanitized in 2018. Van Dyck’s book sits in the middle of these phenomena, describing a time when anyone could arrange to meet anyone, but before apps allowed you to do such things on-the-go.

While there are certain editorial changes that could have been made to make this a slightly more informative reading experience (e.g., Xanga.com was explained by the author many stories after it was first introduced), this was a thoroughly enjoyable read that left me wanting to know more. Four stars.

[Rodrigo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed every word, every place, every story told in the book. It is written with authenticity and wit. Van Dyck’s project of writing about his encounters with people—most of them strangers—lets the reader get to know the most superficial detail about a person or an event, which may seem irrelevant at first sight, as well as the the deepest secrets and its possible effects on the author’s life. He knows how to master tension and intimacy in a non-fiction book in a way I had never read before.

And what about the edition? What a clever idea the way in which the information is laid out. And that gorgeous cover—love it!

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

People I’ve Met from the Internet is honest and brave and sweet, and it’s very hard to be all three of those at once. Stephen van Dyck gets at the feeling of sweaty omniscience that comes from growing up online, that I feel so strongly and yet don’t see reflected in media. This book makes me want to call my dad and dig up my xanga.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm blown away by how Van Dyk's unassuming diary-like vignettes can cover so much emotional and sexual terrain. It's like a memoir in list form and it beautifully/hilariously/awkwardly documents his early adulthood through the people he's met on the Internet. There's a lot of sweetness throughout, as if the author is still in love (or still boyfriends) with many of the men and women described. His descriptions of the early AOL chatrooms and gay.com era are like sly glimpses into a secret world. The parts about his parents are also charming and then ultimately tragic. I fell in love with Stephen and his expert storytelling skills as I read this. This is the kind of book you read out loud to people--for laughs, for surprises, and for human connection.

[Levi Huxton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This queer memoir chronicles a dozen or so years in the life of American writer and artist Stephen van Dyck as he charts, chronologically, dispassionately, all of the people he's met on the internet from age 13 onwards. Many are hook-ups. All are described anecdotally in a formal, factual prose seemingly devoid of feeling or judgement.

It's not for everyone. It certainly took me a while to get into it. As an art project, if felt facile and self-indulgent. The parade of names, faces and body parts seemed monotonous and confusing. The writer's detachment was challenging. As a reader, I kept asking myself, why should I care?

And then about halfway through, the power of the work - which had been accruing discreetly, in thin layers - began to make itself known. At first it took the form of an uncomfortable feeling as I realised that while the writer refrained from judging these people, I was doing just that. I began to question my own reactions not just to the text, but to the queer bodies and identities in my own life (mine included).

The cohesion and rigidity of the format means that stories don't feel edited to serve a narrative. This allows the randomness and contradictions of this cross-section of humanity to make it onto the page, raw and real. It also means that when a sliver of unmanufactured beauty, humour or sadness shines through the list, its impact is naturally amplified.

Like the best memoirs written early in life, this is less about the writer than it is about the times in which the writer formed his worldview. It charts nothing less than the transformation of queer culture as the internet began to permeate our lives, our thoughts, our social structures and our sexualities.

People I've Met On The Internet updates the raw, gritty honesty of a Dennis Cooper or Guillaume Dustan for the age of Craigslist. As an arts project, it’s both self-absorbed and – as the brilliant final sentences make clear - dizzying in scope. In casting its unflinching gaze inward, (genital) warts and all, it also holds up a mirror to the reader. Whether we are prepared to stare back as unflinchingly is entirely up to us.

[Joe Milazzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Full disclosure: the author of this book was a classmate of mine at CalArts (2006 - 2008), and I was a member of an editorial team that published some of his work in a literary journal in 2010.] As my friend/mentor Joseph McElroy once said, "memory is an artist." He did not gloss this observation, really, but he meant (I think) that memory is simultaneously selective and comprehensive. That it operates according to principles of association and condensation — or, if you prefer, metonymy and metaphor. That it curates and is its own oeuvre. (I think Joe also asked me to imagine how even a poor memory, if externalized/materialized, would dwarf its remember-er.) PIMFTI (if you will pardon the acronym) is a wonderful example of just how artistic memory can be. The book contains so much: tangible detail, psychological insight, honesty, romantic longing even more romantic for being relatively understated. But it is also full of what it cannot contain. It does not show off its gaps or wear them proudly. Rather, it very gradually draws your attention to them, and after first satisfying your prurience. What is to be found in those spaces between encounters? The peculiar loneliness of our over-connected age, one that is shared but for which we have a very limited common language (or a vocabulary that is not itself promoted/owned by the social media oligarchies that by and large post-date the events of this book). Stephen, like Joe Brainard did before him, has, via a very simple generative premise, demonstrated one way in which we all might begin to talk about what has happened and is happening to personhood.

[Gael Anaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so much fun! Sometimes it reads as if Samuel Morris Steward -- the 20th century gay tattoo artist, writer, and sexual record keeper -- had access to Gay.com and unlimited AOL dial-up minutes. Van Dyck chronicles his meetups with men from online, capturing the spontaneity, humor, strangeness, and humanity of this pre-smartphone era. Parts of the book were also surprisingly poignant, especially when van Dyck writes about his parents.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the strangest things I have ever read, yet utterly fascinating! Simultaneously hilarious and horrifying, this project brings back a flood of memories from the late high school/early college years.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen van Dyck’s novel evocatively tells unique and lovely vignettes of intimacy in the transition to the Information Age.

Stephen van Dyck takes the reader on a journey of a singularly American experience of the late 90’s and early 2000’s coming of age. People I’ve Met on The Internet brilliantly captures a generation’s youth and development. It's a time capsule of how a whole generation discovered themselves, their sexuality, and defining experiences through a uniquely defining device - internet chatrooms. Stephen van Dyck shows us in rich and delightful detail the precursor to social media - back when it was free and wild and somehow more joyous than the internet we know now, when the world wide web was vast, instead of the finely tailored stream of information we receive today.

van Dyck captures the tenderness of youth while unabashedly sparing no details. It reads like a letter sent from your best friend, a confessional at once proud and honest. Stephen van Dyck chronicles his interactions with each person in its own way, revealing their impact on his life and his character. He captures these relationships in beautiful tableaus rife with humor and a reverence for their individuality and the intimacy shared between them. It is a beautiful and vivacious look at the human experience of connection.

[Ruben · Rating 4 out of 5]

<3 <3

[Fabio · Rating 3 out of 5]

We’re gonna talk about this book in our upcoming group read organised by “Gays of goodreads”, there will be a Zoom call + a Q&A with the author. If you’re interested, feel free to join our group!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up in the same city as the author during the same time. It was fascinating to become involved in a world that I have no experience with and, at the time, had no idea existed.
Coming of age at the beginning of the millennium has its own unique quirks as our generation embraced the Internet to communicate very quickly. The LGBTQ+ community of this age had the need to utilize it even more. As the straight, naïve friend, I was only privy to the song lyric inspired AIM names.This book made me realize how much people can live dual lives and how much you can know about someone without knowing some of the most important things that are happening in their lives. Stephen van Dyck presents his story in a unique way showcasing vignettes and snapshots of encounters as he learns to navigate his own duality. He’s assertive in his reflections on his youth and allows you into his story through details both mundane and explicit. In many ways, this is the story many of us have as we explore our sexuality and become comfortable in who we are in our relationships with others.

[Jason Conrad · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a letdown — at first, the format felt unique and interesting, and I thought the concept had a lot going for it. And then it got old really fast. The writing was just … not good. The attempts at humor often fell pretty flat. There were some absolutely pointless entries. I was so bored at least 60% of the time.

There were some people mentioned in the annotations that didn’t get their own vignette — but the brief details in the annotation made it sound like vignettes about them would be more entertaining than the ones that were actually included.

Vanity projects can be fine, but this felt a little too self-important. And I’ll just say it — some of this felt incredibly embellished.

[Bruno · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked it up and didn't put it down until I was finished. It felt like reading someones diary without them knowing and this was thrilling. It wasn't quite what I imagined it would be but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fragmented / experimental form memoir about coming of age as a gay youth from the dawn of home internet through the 00's.

[Brynn Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely, unique memoir that takes you along to peer into the ride of the writers past. You can’t help but be reminded of your after school chat rooms and phone calls. It felt like a delicious teleportation back to childhood and, for some, pre cell phone days.

[Nolan Nicaise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this project, an autobiography written through interactions with people from AIM, gay.com, Myspace, etc. Really enjoyed this book.

[Rey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Iconic, queer, raw, and emotional.

[Mike Tadlock-Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite one of the reviews on the book claiming this is "unputdownable," it took me nearly two months reading this in segments.

[Sara Gerot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the reviews that said a lot of smart things about this book. So yes, this is an interesting book. Also, it is fun to read. The writing is crisp and clean, and at the same time warm and welcoming. It gave me a feeling of closeness. All the gifts of reality tv done up in Lit. It made me think of Megan Boyle's LiveBlog. This was the first book, since hers, that I had that sensation of completely inhabiting another life. Experienced as real time. It is such strange effect. Totally wonderful.

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the oddest books I've ever read, yet it's also incredibly relevant to the times we live in. In other words, the book is made up of vignettes about people the narrator met online. As strange as it may sound, the story is eerily contagious and reads a lot like diary notes. The material tells a sort of coming-of-age tale through numerous different types of sexual interactions. Because of its originality and straightforward, honest style, I cannot recommend this book enough.

[George Touma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I met the author at a party, where he was kind to gift me his book. I was instantly curious by the voyeuristic component of reading a stranger’s diary after a night of small talk. To go from polite pleasantries to learning more about his personal pain, struggles and sexscapades was a fascinating component on its own. The book captures a unique period of learning how one meets people from the early days of the internet. Ready for volume ii….People I’ve Met From Social Media?

[Alexandria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no idea where to start and while that's not unusual for a review for me, it's also a bit daunting given I know - or perhaps more specifically used to know - the author. (It begs the question of if you can still know someone you haven't really spoken to in like 20 years. You knew who they were and they knew who you were, but neither of you are those people anymore. Do you really still know them or just some shadow of who they once were?) In any case it makes it difficult to know how to really review the book, doesn't it?

On a personal level, I think seeing myself and things I knew on some of those pages struck something I maybe didn't want touched inside me. But I knew that going in, knew it'd be hard for reasons I'm sure Stephen never would have guessed, had me dealing with some of my own shit from when I was a mere kid; the kind of thing you bury and never unearth again. Daunting. More accurately, haunting. A few simple words that held my truth (at the time) surrounded by thousands more of his truths and no more of my own. Our brains are rather poor substitutes for the pen and paper of record and it occurs to me perhaps my own mind is rather like a goldfish.

I think perhaps on the personal level the best way to review this is to give Stephen a version of something from our past in the same format.
**
We sat at his dining room table. The chairs were wooden, if my memory serves. I cannot recall what his mother was serving for dinner but I know she asked me what I wanted to drink. "Milk," I responded in a rather decisive tone. She served me milk and I tasted it several times, nearly certain it had gone bad. When I quietly commented on it, I think may have ruined her impression of me for the rest of the time we knew one another as things were strained after that. It was my first time trying skim milk and I did not know until I saw the jug months later and he said they always drank skim.
**
Another time I recall standing by his fridge, both of us with cold metal spoons, eating directly from a container of orange juice concentrate. He said he liked it and did it often. I'd never done it before. It was a thing I'd repeat occasionally for years and I'd think of that moment each time: at first with regret of a friendship gone and later in life with a laugh.
**
I remember the last time I saw Stephen in person. I sat in a Denny's with my boyfriend across the table from Stephen. We were settled in a corner booth, the table rounded between he and I. Time stretched between us just as much and part of me wondered why we were even there. I believe it was his version of telling me his truth when I look back on it now and a goodbye of sorts, one of his first adventures in leaving Albuquerque coming to fruition. I let go of a lot that day without even realizing it: misconceptions and illusions as to why our friendship had been pulled away, the clingwrap of thoughts that plague a teenage mind. I wonder if he'd have let me in on all of his truth if I'd been then who I am now. Probably. Perhaps that version of me, so many years before that meeting in Denny's wasn't even the beginnings of the kind of person I am now. I don't recall that we ordered anything, which seems an affront to the waitress whose table we were taking up. Ah, youth.
**
He added me on Facebook and I accepted the request with curiosity. He's remained on my friends list since that day. We don't talk but we sometimes like each other's posts. I bought his book, I wonder if he'll buy mine when it comes out: if his curiosity will be the same as mine was. It will be whatever it is; I find it interesting we both ended up writers.

From a professional level:
I like the format of the book even if it was a bit odd to get used to at first. It truly is part art project, part book in that regard. The text sinks in deep and plucks at you in a way that has you reading more but also almost not wanting to. I have no way of telling if part of that is knowing the author or not. It feels open ended and raw and that, too, is a part of it. A life still rolling, still progressing forward without the final chapters written. Life in art, art in life.

It has the same sensation as the Heroin Diaries did for me. It makes me need to read something else to pull myself back together. It has been read without regret.

[Danyell Aston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet and slutty nostalgic romp through the early gay internet. Also, having moved to LA in 2008, many of the entries included are friends or acquaintances which brought about memories of my early life in LA.

I, too, met Stephen from the internet in those early years. As my story was not included, I’ll include my memories of it, though I didn’t keep records so I may not have all the details correct.

Stephen and I met in 2009or10 on D-List, a short-lived internet platform for gays during the oughts. His profile picture was of him and a hedgehog, a pet of his at the time. We chatted for a bit and, when it came out that I had majored in theatre in school, he recruited me for an acting job of sorts. He was going to a friend’s house for a dinner party and wanted a date, and he wanted this date to pretend to be his boyfriend. At the time, I was in a relationship that was a bit short on excitement, so I agreed to be his boyfriend for the night but was clear that it would be a platonic affair. I picked him up in my little black pickup and we drove to his friend’s home, which was a small apartment, studio or one bedroom, with the dinner table directly in front of the front door. There were maybe 6-8 guests for dinner. I forget if we had discussed our supposed history beforehand but I think we must have hammered out a few of the details. It was strange and sweet to have dinner with these strangers who were all excited to get to know me, and I’ve traditionally impressed upon friends of boyfriends on initial meetings. Partway through the evening, Stephen started feeling bad about lying to his friends and became quiet and a bit detached. I tried to pull him back in but the last part of the evening was a bit of a bust. I can’t remember if he ended up coming clean that evening or if he waited until later, but he did tell his friends the truth. I don’t think anyone was especially surprised. At some point in his book, Stephen records his 11th Daniel met from the internet. I wonder what number I was.

[Nico Wilkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an incredibly exciting reimagining of the memoir / coming of age novel. It's a book you're forced to really engage with, turning it on its side to read footnotes and flipping between pages to connect the dots. Equal parts art project and literary work.

I came of age in the 2010s in the rural South, so while the days of AIM were long gone, Craigslist M4M wasn't. I unexpectedly found myself identifying with the queer digital experiences of an author who entered the AOL scene before I was even born. That sense of continuity is what I found most appealing about this text. Because of the wide variety of people described, it's hard not to map your own life on top of the narrative. There's something extremely accessible and familiar about the writing.

My main complaint was that this book, by its nature, didn't feel extremely cohesive. It read as a collection of mostly-related vignettes. While not an inherently bad thing, and perhaps even the intention, it's not exactly what I'm looking for in a book-length project. In some sense, it feels most appropriate as a coffee table book (but one you actually read!). I think I would have much rather come back to this book repeatedly over the course of months, reading a section or two at a time, than sitting down and reading it all at once.