Alain de Botton (1997:46) in How Proust can change your life notes that Marcel Proust’s Maurice Duplay said that when Proust couldn’t get to sleep, he most liked to read a train timetable.
De Botton continues:
The departure time of the St Lazaire train was not the point for the man who found no reason to leave Paris for the last 8 years of his life. Rather the timetable was read as though it were a gripping novel about country life, because the mere names of the provincial train stations provided Proust’s imagination with material to elaborate entire worlds, to picture domestic dramas in rural villages, shenanigans in local government and life out in the fields (1997:47).
In this spirit I offer a list of my current reading (unlike the provincial French train stations in no order, but as they occur to me):
- The Crown’s Silence, Brooke Newman, account of the British monarchy’s involvement in slave trading (also on Borrow Box).
- New Scientist articles about whether we really need 8 hours sleep every night (again on Borrow Box).
- Wikipedia article about John Ball https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ball_(priest).
- Articles in The Conversation.
- Articles in Aeon including a recent one (by Julian Baggini) about how we are losing track of doing things for intrinsic purposes, including being ‘in’ nature and prayer.
- Articles in The Guardian, especially in the wake of ‘Hannah the plumber’s’ win in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
- Report of the Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Aston Villa match on 27/02/26, again in The Guardian.
- My own notes on West Northants Local Plan Consultation which I then ‘AI’ed’ to produce a report which I circulated to fellow parish councilors to read.
I did find that there was a Proust effect of the sort mentioned by De Botton. For the three Portuguese books, for example, including them in the list took me back to the context where I bought the book. For Assim Se Pariu O Brasil (This is how Brazil was born), this was a book stall in Lisbon last October. For Filosofias Africanas (African Philosophies) a new book shop in Rio de Janeiro that served excellent coffee. For História do Rio de Janeiro através da Arte (History of Rio de Janeiro through Art) the shop after we had visited the Botanic Garden in Rio de Janeiro with our grandson.
Putting each item on the list meant that it became linked with a set of memories. It also means that I have created links between some, perhaps even most of the reading I’ve listed. Some of these spring to mind very easily (such as between the Brooke Newman and Akala books, Assim Se Pariu O Brasil and Filosofias Africanas). Others are less obvious but I’m sure they are there.
There are so many questions inspired by Johnathan’s post. We met and went round the room with those questions that inspired us:
- Why do you read what you read?
- What do you read when you can’t sleep because your brain has an excess of energy that needs soaking up?
- Where do you find you reading material (I have been banned from every library I have ever joined) so – I’m reduced to buying?
- What influences your reading choices – I’m a functional reader; I read for information and relaxation?
- I read with a sense of nostalgia; re-reading my A’ level texts, I find them (#coughs) challenging – what texts have you recently revisited: what was it like?
Post by Jonathon Hughes
