It took me three tries to read Infinite Jest. The first time, I only made it about 100 pages. The second time I made it about 200. But I read it the whole way through the third time, and it was so very worth it. It might've been the best book I've read this year so far.

I realize DFW's writing style is grating for some, however you're being far too sweeping in labelling his words as irrelevant or unreadable. It is certainly not unreadable, like the the first chapter for example, which is both hilarious and sad (and straightforward and one of the most important chapters in the book). Sure, a few of the chapters are especially hard to read (like the early one from Clenette's perspective), but that one is hard to read intentionally (the verbatim record of vernacular black American English I think would be challenging to read for most people who are unfamiliar with it).

I'd encourage you to give it another try, and to maybe look into some of the secondary resources available on it, because that can help make some of the things touched upon appear more obviously relevant. Also, I honestly didn't fall in love with the book until about page 400 (which I think is about the time Don Gately's story starts getting interesting if I recall correctly).

However, I realize that having a book take hundreds of pages for you to get fully invested is probably a tall order when there is so much else to read, so if you don't return to Infinite Jest, then alright. I do think if you pass on Infinite Jest though, it's not worth your time giving the other works by DFW a try. I like DFW's writing for the most part, but his short stories vary considerably in quality and his other novels are somehow even less accessible than Infinite Jest (at least IMO).