Surface Questions about M&D

[GreatNicculus at aol.com]

Greetings All,

I've been a member of this mailing list for some time... and have been a 
Pynchon fan for just less than a year now.  It was then that I accidentally 
stumbled upon Gravity's Rainbow, started it, fell in love, put it down, and 
picked it back up soon after and finished it with help of the GR Companion.  
I am about to finish Crying of Lot 49... in leiu of giving a full review of 
the book, let's just say, "I liked GR a LOT more..."
Anyways,
I'm want to start M&D soon... but I want to know if there are any definitive 
collections of information, much like the GR Companion, that I should have 
along with me on my journey.  When I started GR, I had NO idea about what I 
was getting into... now I know that M&D will probably be much like GR... very 
dense, and full of allusions that will blow right by me if I don't have some 
kind of context.  
Now, I see that all the regulars on the list are always posting 
chapter-by-chapter (or page-by-page) analysis of M&D... I was wondering if 
there is some sort of definitive collection, online or otherwise, of that 
type of analysis, and more importantly, historical context, to help me get 
the most out of the book.
Any reccomendations or general directions that I should go in?  And, out of 
curiosity, is M&D as enjoyable as GR?  I guess I am asking that a bit 
tounge-in-cheek... a thousand people would have a thousand differenent 
responses, eh?

Thanks,
     - Nicholas from Milwaukee (ah yes, I have never been so proud to live 
just 30 minutes from Kenosha...)