In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
One Book You’d Want on a Desert Island
There are two ways one can go when choosing a book to bring to a desert island. There’s the practical route that many have chosen: How to Get Off A Desert Island, How to Live Comfortably for the Rest of Your Life on a Desert Island, etc. It seems like this might be a good idea, but I have given it some thought and have come to the conclusion that while books may be good for learning how to garden, how to frame pictures, or even how to write songs, they may not actually be of any use in getting rescued from a desert island.
The other school of thought that many more have followed is the LAB (Long-Ass Book) approach. War and Peace and Moby Dick have been popular choices. I believe that given only the remote possibility of being rescued (I’ve seen Lost, thank you), having a REALLY long book is the way to go. My choice is Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. The whole thing.
OK, I understand that it might be cheating a little bit because In Search of Lost Time is actually six volumes (or seven, depending on how you count), but it does come packaged in the handsome boxed set with a slip case that can be lifted in one hand and used for cracking the coconut in the other. Shouldn’t that count for something?
Of course, I haven’t read any of In Search of Lost Time before, so I can’t be sure that I would enjoy it. However, I couldn’t very well take a book I had already read, could I? Besides, I think Proust is a pretty safe bet, though, as far as LABs go. Many of the authors I admire have either cited Proust in their work or as a great influence upon it. And anyone who can find such pleasure in a single madeleine has got to be a kindred soul.
Which reminds me: I must ask the cruise director: there’s no limit to the number of cookies I can bring, is there?
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
tags: books book reviews desert island madeleines Marcel Proust
There are two ways one can go when choosing a book to bring to a desert island. There’s the practical route that many have chosen: How to Get Off A Desert Island, How to Live Comfortably for the Rest of Your Life on a Desert Island, etc. It seems like this might be a good idea, but I have given it some thought and have come to the conclusion that while books may be good for learning how to garden, how to frame pictures, or even how to write songs, they may not actually be of any use in getting rescued from a desert island.The other school of thought that many more have followed is the LAB (Long-Ass Book) approach. War and Peace and Moby Dick have been popular choices. I believe that given only the remote possibility of being rescued (I’ve seen Lost, thank you), having a REALLY long book is the way to go. My choice is Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. The whole thing.
OK, I understand that it might be cheating a little bit because In Search of Lost Time is actually six volumes (or seven, depending on how you count), but it does come packaged in the handsome boxed set with a slip case that can be lifted in one hand and used for cracking the coconut in the other. Shouldn’t that count for something?
Of course, I haven’t read any of In Search of Lost Time before, so I can’t be sure that I would enjoy it. However, I couldn’t very well take a book I had already read, could I? Besides, I think Proust is a pretty safe bet, though, as far as LABs go. Many of the authors I admire have either cited Proust in their work or as a great influence upon it. And anyone who can find such pleasure in a single madeleine has got to be a kindred soul.
Which reminds me: I must ask the cruise director: there’s no limit to the number of cookies I can bring, is there?
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
tags: books book reviews desert island madeleines Marcel Proust
posted by Renee at 10:36 AM
feed me
3 Comments:
Hah! Have you copyrighted that term? I'll have to remember that in future.
And based off your post, I officially change my answer. I would take along the complete, unabridged set of Samuel Pepys's diaries. I've wanted to read them anyway, and being trapped on a desert island seems as good a place as any to do so!
Won't you come join us in reading this fabulous LAB at http://involuntarymemory.blogspot.com/
...and for a bonus of "new pictures"....
http://www.gerard-bertrand.net/aproustprem.htm
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