I like being able to share my books now, and letting family members choose which they want when I die, and then sending the rest out into the world…this is important to me too.

But Kindle is a tool that will allow me to read some books more easily. Betrayal? Yes, in light of how I feel about my library. Not tragically so. But a little act multiplied thousands of time over can be a betrayal of libraries far greater than mine. “In Defense of the Memory Theater” by Nathan Schneider says it better than I can.

http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/in-defense-of-the-memory-theater/

Thanks so much for your comment!

But books aren’t just physical objects for enjoyment, being surrounded by shelves of books would only give me allergies. Books are just physical embodiments of ideas and feelings and fantasies and knowledge. As long as it transposes you to a different world from one you embody, the book is there. It doesn’t matter if it’s a physical thing or if it’s been digitized.

You’re right about one thing though, I do miss the bookmarks. You had your costmary leaf bookmark, I used to collect blossoms (any flower), and they’d serve as really good fragrant bookmarks too. I do miss that.

I wish I could I read him in French. I have the books in French, and browse through them longingly. I do see beauty of language in the English translation, but of course don’t know if it’s Proust’s or the translator’s. Perhaps it’s the same song, played with different instruments.

To really “get it” I think there’s also the need to understand French culture, politics, society. That one is a bit easier to poke my nose into. I even bought Madame de Sevigny’s biography (couldn’t find her letters in English.)

I hadn’t thought about how Proust has influenced my other reading. I know I can’t stand modern fiction filled with self-obsessed characters…hmmm….

Thanks so much for your comment!

I read him in French. It is an advantage, because in the English translation (I have seen some of it) you can’t see the beauty of his language. It is like vanilla icecream. I read Proust to forget this world and travel to the next one.

However, to read him in English I guess a considerable analytical effort is needed, since English is very different from French in its syntax, and the translator had to turn the sentences inside out and upside down to put a French sequence in an English order. It would be like translating a song into a drawing. It can be done, but then, whether the drawing will be intelligible..?