Reading List

Books, in my estimation, are more important than food. In fact, to appropriate yet another Biblical image, man does not live by bread alone but by every word that appears on the page. I recognize this in my own life as I've missed lunch or dinner in favor of a book, reading until nightfall and looking at the clock to realize it's much too late to eat something now and I might as well go to bed. It's not a healthy choice but it is wise. I've decided to take six books, each from a different type of reading. Quickly now--let's run through them.

1) Balzac (Fiction)

I know next to nothing of this French author save the fact Antoine Doinel lights a votive candle before his austere portrait and rewrites him for school without knowing it. It was between Balzac and Proust and as much as I wanted to read sixty thousand pages on a little boy falling asleep, I settled for the novel that began Balzac's serious career. At least this is what Wikipedia tells me.

2) Dante (Poetry)

Dante goes with me as a companion. I never leave home without him. Who else will show me the way to Love?

3) St. Francis de Sales* (Spiritual Reading)

My spiritual director suggested I bring this book along. De Sales mapped out the movements of the human soul with an acuity that puts to shame much of modern psychological literature, so to read him in the city that boasts a culture rooted in the Incarnation will only deepen the refreshment I seek in Paris.

4) Booth (Lessons in Writing)

It's been on the shelf for awhile now. I hope it fills in some formal gaps in my writerly education.

5) Murdoch (Philosophy)

No relation to Howling Mad Murdoch (unfortunately) but I've been wanting to read this for awhile and the loneliness of a foreign culture promises to leave me with enough headspace and time to actually engage. I'm all yours, Murdoch.

6) Gopnik (Essays)

I blame Gopnik for first planting the seed of a trip to France. His writing is pristine, his mind is sharp, his experiences archetypal. Just enough idealism to keep me reading, tempered by the right amount of pretension to keep me wanting more, a reread is definitely in order.

I'll probably wish I had picked different books but that's it, the canon is closed. Let's hope I can learn to eat and read at the same time.

*I also have an audio book of St Therese of Lisieux to keep me company on the flight over