Into the cycle of books I’m reading (I keep them aloft like oranges or chainsaws, in a pattern jugglers would call a half reverse cascade–or half shower–and adding a new book to the system is as effortless as completing one is difficult. You can imagine, I am sure, how difficult it is to remember my place in the text when I am able to actually read each book for just a fraction of a second at at time. Such trials are my lot, I suppose), I have added “How Proust Can Change Your Life” by Alain De Botton. I didn’t attempt to introduce any works by Proust himself because his books are generally heavier and have sharper corners.
At any rate, I am posting here mostly about a specific sentence of Proust’s quoted by De Botton, which follows without further editorial intrusion.
“That abominable and sensual act called reading the newspaper, thanks to which all the misfortunes and cataclysms in the universe over the last 24 hours, the battles which cost the lives of 50,000 men, the murders, the strikes, the bankruptcies, the fires, the poisonings, the suicides, the divorces, the cruel emotions of statesmen and actors, are transformed for us, who don’t even care, into a morning treat, blending in wonderfully, in a particularly exciting and tonic way, with the recommended ingestion of a few sips of café au lait.” - Marcel Proust
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