Finishing The Guermantes Way: Thoughts So Far on Proust

It's always a good time for a vegan gluten-free donut

First things first, I adored this novel. 

In Search of Lost Time is the most fascinating study of human character that I've ever read.

I am NOT a literary critic, nor are any of my degrees in Literature, but as a lover of the classics, I have been truly enjoying myself while reading Proust.

I've mentioned before that I believe there is NO one way to read The Search. There is NO one way to read any of Proust.

The Search will reveal to you how it should be read. 

You may think, "I have time this weekend. I will read 6 hours of Proust on Saturday." Then, Saturday comes and you read for an hour and have the physically close the book and stare at the wall for another 45 minutes to process what just happened, or to deal with what the writing has conjured up within you.

Other times you may think, "I'll just spend an hour or so with Proust." Then, 4 hours later you emerge from the novel and feel like a completely different person.

Both approaches are VALID and valuable. I've experienced both.

If people spent half as much time actually reading or rereading Proust as they do telling others how to do it, it'd be a better bookish world. All jokes aside, I understand people's passion for Proust and their intense desire to share what has worked for them. It can come off as preachy and dictatorial, but I know it's mostly born of a fiery desire to get others to experience him.

I finished The Guermantes Way late last night and I closed the book and just sat there with my mouth agape. Marcel how dare you! 

I am not taking breaks (but for a few days) between the volumes, but I HAVE TO start Volume IV very very very soon. 

I am waiting with breath that is bated. My goodness Marcel. 

I really enjoyed The Guermantes Way. So far it's one of my favorites. Okay okay I've only read 3, but you get it. 

Thoughts on Proust so far:

1. He is hilarious. The amount of times that I have honestly laughed out loud through the 3 volumes that I've read so far, are more than I can count.
2. There is a real plot to this novel. People have said there isn't and you can't see the plot until you finish the last volume, I don't agree. You can sense plot in volume I. Perhaps I won't know exactly what Marcel is trying to say (I agree) until the novel is done, but there are real things happening to these very real people.
3. I don't need a schedule to read Proust. He dictates the speed with which I read certain parts of the novel. I love this. Being at his mercy so to speak (well, so to write).
4. Reading him feels like very akin to meditating. I sink deeply down into the work. So much so, every time I emerge from reading him for any extended length of time (45 minutes+) I have to stumble back into the world and remember my place in things.
5. I'll reread some or all of this novel repeated through my life. I know that I won't have that "beginner's eye" the next time, but that's okay. I'll be able to grasp things I may not be anchoring down right now and that's reason enough for me.
6. He's decadent. We talk about NOT holding books up against other works (just debated this yesterday with someone bookish) and I think that without comparing books, Prousts' work is in a league of its own. You can't help but stand before it in awe... to feel the sublime while reading it.
7. If Swann's Way is "boring" to you... perhaps this isn't the right time in your life for Proust. It's okay NOT to read him. I'm so glad that I waited until I was older. Until I'd really processed strife, pain, loss, grief, longing, long, despair, jealousy, loneliness... before diving into The Search.

I'm humbled by my experience so far with Proust. I've already been changing so much of how, when, and why I read, but Proust has catapulted that process to another level.

If a work is going to move and inspire me THIS much, why would I ever want to bite off works that don't nourish or feed my soul? 

Why would I want to "pass my time" with something that doesn't move me?

I mainly steer clear of the recently published and prize list stuff (with few exceptions), but at this time of year, I join others I know in reading a few holiday romance novels. I may do so this year as well, but they will be in far less quantity so that I can keep the big, meaty, intense books on my schedule forevermore.

I'm off to think about my life and start my day. 

I'm continuing on with Charlotte Brontë's Shirley and Bram Stoker's Dracula before picking up Volume IV of Proust.

Exciting times are head.

Happy reading my slow living friends. 

A la recherche du temps perdu: Wrapping Up My Reading of Proust

It has taken me over a month and a half to try to wrap up this novel. I am forever changed after reading In Search of Lost Time. 

I now understand what people who have finished mean when they say you have to read and finish it to "get it". And now I do.

Memory. Flashbacks. Pulling to the front of the mind what has lain dormant for decades. The power in this process. ALL of this and so much more is explored in this fantastic work of Marcel Proust.

I didn't expect to cry while reading the last 10 pages. Maybe the tears were because I could feel myself about to summit this masterpiece, or because of the tenderly beautiful things Proust urged me to think about regarding time and how we try to capture it, and if it's even possible to capture it or not.

Wow. Volume VII is a real treat. All of the treads of this work began to come together and it was so nice to revisit most all of the central characters, and see how they've changed (some into ugly old hags- I paraphrase- according to Proust). 

"Is there still time?" (p. 446)

How I remember. How I process my life are forever affected. After closing my kindle after the last words, "in- Time". I cried a river of tears and felt so accomplished.

THIS is the feeling that reading great literature gives you; part accomplishment + part sublime. 

I now stand n awe os what Marcel Proust managed to accomplish with this work and within his life considering his health ailments.

I find myself evermore mindful of drinking my hot coffee in the morning. Perhaps one day when I'm much older my involuntary memory will bring me back to a perfect cup I've made and unlock a hidden world of secret memories for me. 

Volume VII

Proust has encouraged me (not for publication), but for my daughter to start writing a novel of sorts for her where I take time to call to mind every memory from as far back as my mind goes. 

Something from Proust's work has lodged itself forever inside of my bones and as much as I was thinking during Volumes III and IV (and I loved both volumes), "My gosh this is long", I'm almost ready to start reading it again.

I've reread the last 5 pages over and over as I let this novel slowly settle into my bones. I'm finding more and more to love about it.

I thought of including a plethora of quotes, but decided to end with this quote and on this note: If you've even thought about reading Proust, pick him up. Start with Swann's Way. Ignore whatever you've heard (that hasn't been positive), and go into the novel with an open mind and heart. 

Moreover, that we occupy place, always growing, in Time is something everybody is conscious of in this universality can only make me rejoice, it being the truth, the truth suspected by each of us, that I add to seek to elucidate not only does everybody feel that we occupy a place in Time, but the simplest of us measures this place approximately, as he would measure the one we occupy in space. 

I am so happy that I committed ten and half months to the daily reading of Proust. I'm not one of the people who would ever tell someone "how to read Proust". 

Pick up Swann's Way and read it however your soul calls. Proust will dictate the manner in which you can consume his work.

Trust me... you'll never be the same if you commit to finishing it- either in a year or 10.

Happy Proustian reading. 

monsieur prouse by céleste albaret book review

 

Céleste Albaret's favorite picture of Proust

This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2026. It took me 7 months to read and finish it. I took my time, went down different rabbit holes, reflected back through the 7 volumes of In Search of Lost Time. 

I re-read Swann's Way at least once every year- in part or in whole. There is something so meditative about Proust's work, and I wanted desperately to hear about his writing life, his mannerisms, his last days, and just his life.

I want to list some quotes here in an encouragement for you to get this biography. If you have been interested in Proust or in The Search, I highly suggest you start with Swann's Way. Here is the free link to Swann's Way on Project Gutenberg. 

I like to always be reading one of the volumes of The Search. It helps me to live with mindfulness on creating memories. That's the power of reading Proust. He helps you see that by witnessing his memories- and the way he remembered- you too can focus on how you lay down your memories. 

 Proust began a life of partial seclusion in which he shut himself up for the sake of his work- and I with him- and which nothing disturbed for the eight years until the end. 

He did sometimes feel a wish or even a need for a holiday, or a desire to see again a certain town, a landscape, a painting, a church- like Cabourg, when he'd talked about showing me the high tides in Brittany. But it was always:

"We'll go when I've finished my book, dear Céleste. Then you'll see how marvelous it is." 

 

so many tabs and much more underlining inside

This is a book that I will flip through every so often and feel the space that Proust created for living a life dedicated for a purpose. 

To finish his book- that was all that mattered now. And from autumn 1914 onward, his whole life was organized around that compulsion more than ever before. 

He severed most communications. Before the end of the year he decided to give up his telephone. He may have told people it was because he was in financial straits, as has been alleged. But that was only an excuse; he indulged in whatever other expense he fancied. In fact, he didn't want to be disturbed against his will any more. He made himself sole master of himself and any visitors and all his connections with other people. 

It was a completely upside-down life, even in the simplest things. For example, I couldn't clean the house or do his room unless he was out, and since when he did go out it was rarely before ten in the evening. I never did housework except at night, never opened the windows of the flat except onto darkness. 

loved these inserts

I loved so many parts of this biography. There are definitely moments when I felt like Céleste Albert's view of Proust (who was really quite particular) was skewed. Proust seemed a little demanding... unrelenting even, and she was moderately oblivious.

We lived by electric light or perpetual darkness.

Now I realize M. Proust's whole object, his whole great sacrifice for his work, was to set himself outside time in order to rediscover it.

When I look back on all these things now and see the clearer than I did at the time, I realie that two things emanated from him as a man and from his life: his taste for quality, for perfection in everything- a perfection that belonged to the past, and which showed his loyalty to shops and restaurants. This attachment to the past in his everyday life is all the more strange when you realize how far, in his books, he saw into the future- when you think of all he wrote about the dissolution of a certain kind of world and society.

 

tiny sample of how I lived and reflected on these pages

No, Céleste, you will live. And when I am dead, you will see. People will read me; yes, the whole world will read me. You will see my work grow in the public's esteem. And remember, Céleste, this article says it took a hundred years for Stendahl to become famous. It will take Marcel Proust less than fifty. 

Secretly I took refuge in the memory of the magic nights.

The picture I have of him in my heart is the most beautiful possible, and the loveliest of memories. He is as magnificent as he always was. A prince among men and a prince of souls.

In summary,

The reading of this biography took 8 months because I allowed myself to truly live within these pages. I thought through Céleste's reflections of Proust's life with the same level of detail that I'd like to apply to my own memories.

In the end that's what it is all about with Proust- remembering and thinking about how we remember. 

Reading this biography has transported me back to my reading of The Search. I have loved revisiting my notes from that time, and I can feel a re-read coming on.

Happy reading ☕️

Do I Even Like Marcel Anymore: The Captive Volume V: In Search of Lost Time- Proust

We've established that no one reads my blog here- and that's more than okay, but I'll write into the void because my soul compels me to.

I'd like to think I combine the great works of literature, with the desire for light reading entertainment. 

Hence the coupling of Marcel Proust with cozy mysteries and romances to cleanse they palette.

I'm working my way through Marcel Prousts' In Search of Lost Time. I'm reading the Moncrieff, Kilmartin, Enright translation on ebook with audio as a "word for word" combo. As close to word for word as you can get. Neville Jason is not reading my translation. This allows me to stop often and reread a passage. 

I digress... This damn book... So, in this volume I found myself aggressively upset at our narrator. Let's call things what they are.. I was mad at Marcel. Frustrated. Annoyed. If this was Proust's mission- accomplished my boy.

This cover in no way matches the others in this kindle edition.
This makes me violently upset.

I am so happy to be making my way through this novel. 

I will NOT lie. I have no reason to. This novel IS beautiful. It IS reflective. It DOES change you.

However, it IS long. It IS tedious. It DOES induce claustrophobia at some points. 

I've found one of two camps with Proust. Either he's a genius and if you don't love every 400 word sentence, you don't get it. Or, he's boring and his rich boy problems go on for thousands of pages because he's a narcissist. 

I don't fall into either camp, but I'll reserve all final thoughts for when I close the kindle after completing volume VII: Time Regained.

I've laughed when others have said that Proust wrote this long novel so that the reader would look back "in search of lost time"-- get it? Like they lost all their time reading it (maybe you had to be there), but my emotions have been on a roller coaster.

I can say definitively after 5 volumes, this is kind of a work of genius. Also, a work of frustration. Also, it's too damn long. Also, it feels like every frigging thought in his head (and it might have been).

Okay give me a second. This post is starting to sound like the rampant ramblings of a crazy woman. I don't mean for this to be the case, but when you emerge from Proust's family apartment in Paris, it takes time to get your bearings.

I probably should let this volume digest before trying to articulate any sort of feeling about it, but I HAVE TO TELL SOMEONE. I need Proust reading friends. (Goals for 2023).

I digress again.. can I even get back on track at this point? Okay, let's try...

In this volume: The Captive- it is exactly what you think. Someone is being held captive. It's dear Albertine.

What strikes me the most about this volume is the thought of exactly how voluntary is this captivity? After Marcel asks for her hand in marriage (a totally bullshit attempt at keeping her IMHO), we see him "asking" her to move in with him. 

Let me just make bullet points at this point, because I can feel myself beginning to become enraged. This volume deals with:

• Jealousy- and lots of it
• Mansplaining- and lots of it
• Deception
• Dysfunctional ideas of love
• Manipulation- an lots of it
• Lies
• The concept of lying
• Exactly WHAT do we owe our potential partners when we first meet them of our stories
• Duplicity
• And so so much more

Have no fear, I'll end off this post with some quotes (because you have to see some of this to believe it), but Marcel basically convincing Albertine that he loves her and cares for her, but we are readers are inside of his fucked up, selfish brain and he always just seeking to manipulate her based on however he is feeling IN that moment.

His incessant need to believe that she is utterly devoted to him is egregious and honestly made me want to throw the book across the room. He is so unbelievably (but honestly it is very believable) thinking that she is in love with every single girl in her life. He imagines that she has this highly sexual sapphic past (and present) that she keeps hidden from him, and he uses these insane thoughts to justify his ill treatment of her. Barf. 1000 times barf. This friggin guy is a mess.

I can't wait to see what the last two volumes hold. Honestly, I am waiting with breath that is baited. I will give myself another 24 hours before picking up The Fugitive (yep you can infer from the title what comes next) and then go straight into Time Regained. 

I will make a long-winded Proust post when I am completely done with this book. I have so many things to say. 

Happy reading. 

Now that Albertine no longer appeared to be angry with me, the possession of her no longer seemed to me a treasure in exchange for which one is prepared to sacrifice every other.

Now that life with Albertine had become possible once again, I felt that I could derive nothing from it but misery, since she did not love me; better to part from her in the gentle solace of her acquiescence, which I would prolong in memory.

Not only did she take care never to be alone for a moment, so that I could not help but know what she had been doing if I did not believe her own statements, but even when she had to telephone to Andrée, or to the garage, or to the livery stable or elsewhere, she pretended that it was too boring to stand about by herself waiting to telephone, 

“Why do I go on seeking after a mysterious soul, interpreting a face, and feeling myself surrounded by presentiments which I dare not explore?” I asked myself. “I’ve been dreaming, the matter is quite simple. I am an indecisive young man, and it is a case of one of those marriages as to which it takes time to find out whether they will happen or not. There is nothing in this peculiar to Albertine.”

Proust, Marcel. In Search of Lost Time, Volume 5: The Captive

Read As Much Or As Little of Proust As You Like

I have read numerous articles about how to approach Proust's In Search of Lost Time.

Now that I am into Volume III, I wanted to add something.

I honestly feel that there is NO right or wrong way to read Proust's masterpiece.

my digital copy of Volume III by Modern Library

Whether one inhales each volume and then goes back slowly through thumbing along the chapters and pulling out more of the essence. Or, whether one goes so slowly that the melodic trance like way Proust writes lulls you to sleep each night. Each is valid. Each is fine.

I believe that more people don't approach Proust (or most of the great works of literature) is because of the "this is the ONLY and RIGHT way" to do so. It excludes large groups of people, and I'd like to be a part of that change.

Rereading is a gift and I am a huge fan of returning to text that moved and inspired me. I am a fan of letting literature provide insights into the great human condition.

With that in mind, it's fine if someone spends 6 hours straight reading Swann's Way only to emerge from the text and stumble into a bright reality. It will take the person some time to adjust to the current world and that experience seems like a glorious one.

Simultaneously, I can see the benefit in the reader who after a few pages, stops to remember their childhood bedtime routine. The reader who reflects on how their mother's presence was a constant comfort at bedtime and how dismal it was to be forced to fall asleep on one's own.

Proust's great work has room for every type of reader.

I honestly believe when it comes to In Search of Lost Time a reader can

1. Read it one page or 10 pages at a time
2. Inhale it over the course of 5 hour stretches
3. Read each volume back to back
4. Reach each volume and then take a break to let it digest
5. Journal throughout in a reflective manner
6. Skip journaling and sit and contemplate each section read over coffee
7. Read it digitally or physically (I am not a fan of audio personally)
8. Do it with a group or in a solitary manner as I am doing it

There's no right or wrong way to consume this massive tome. 

This work is so powerful that readers feel the need to share how THEY read it and offer that up as THE way to read it. While some do so from an elitist "this is the absolute only way" standpoint, most just want to share the way that worked for them.

I only want to add that it's okay to ignore ALL of it- and ignore me if that helps.

Just don't stay away from this novel because of all the directives on how it is to be read.

Start with volume I- Swann's Way. 

Approach it at a time in your life when you could benefit from reflection. From "me time". From a slowing down of sorts. 

Don't expect anything. Make a cup of hot coffee. Let the text take you away. Let it help you remember what it's like to truly remember. 

The Fury that Proust Provokes: The Fugitive: Volume VI of In Search of Lost Time

I don't even know what to say at this point.

This isn't a book review as much as it is an emotional check in

The more I read of this novel, the better I understand every little strand and string and realize that it's quite genius what Proust has done.

The absolute fury that is running through me right now though is another story.

THIS guy...THIS friggin guy... and we end volume VI with Gilberte's admission? Like... what? (You had to be there and I'd rather drink a cup of cut glass than spoil a novel for you, so you gotta read it to get it).

Walks to remember. Inspired by Proust

Proust's words wind up jumping into my memory. Reading him is a slow savoring process, and now I find myself turning the pages like a kid eating Halloween candy. Then, I go back and reread what I just made it through and it sinks in...

He is a jealous, neurotic, obsessive, manipulative self-centered asshole. Ahhh... That was cathartic.

Just when I thought there would be some pain for our narrator to experience and rightfully so... Proust does THIS to me? What? Why why oh why! And the revelations that this volume produces is better than watching Maury Povich tell someone, "You are not the father". 

Anyone who convinces you there is no drama to be found in the classics hasn't read Hardy or Proust or Austen.

I am so beyond excited to be moving on to Time Regained. I won't regain any of my time this year that I spent reading this work, and I'm glad that it took as long as it did.

I will let the pain and anguish from the twist in The Fugitive settle into me, and go straight into the next volume. I know that I'm baking myself a pie to celebrate finishing this novel.

Onwards and upwards my slow reading friends. 

Proust Reading Update: Sodom and Gomorrah Volume IV

 

I closed the cover of my kindle after Volume IV ended and said, "Well, damn that was long".  Proust knows how to end a volume that's for sure.

Halfway through, I did have a moment of questioning myself. I thought, "I could read so many other enjoyable novels while I'm slogging through this monstrous thing". But, then I thought about it. Long and hard. I realized that reading Proust is almost like radical statement.

In today's world of quick tik tok videos, and Goodreads goals, it can feel like a rebellion to dedicate THIS much time to one novel (albeit it 7 volumes).

I can't deny that Proust makes me examine my life. I'm having a very hard year, and reading ISOLT this year has been a front seat viewing invitation to reflect on my life. My place in things.

Sure, there are so many paragraphs and pages about dinner parties, meeting with old and new friends, so many misunderstandings, and in this novel in particular the gay sex and our narrator's (total pain in the ass this guy) intense jealousy and his constant thinking Albertine is secretly in a sapphic relationship that infuriates me about him.

Nevertheless, I'm 4 volumes in, so I have to finish this damn novel no matter what.

I debated "taking a break" between the volumes, but for some reason, that doesn't seem like the right move for me. 

Initially, I didn't have a plan for finishing ISOLT within one year, but as I am entering into my 10th month of reading it, I only have 3 volumes left, a bit of time to complete them at the bedside of my loved one who is battling cancer; my life is all over the place and my anxiety is at an all time high.

Living within Proust's world, can be tightening and slightly claustrophobic, but it is also insulating and can be deeply padded from the outside world. This has created a cocoon that I have lived within. 

Although Mme. Verdurin is someone I loathed and oftentimes made me quite upset with her belief that "There are certain desires, sometimes confined to the mouth, which, as soon as we have allowed them to grow, insist upon being gratified, whatever the consequences may be;"... She was all around ridiculous honestly.

As I move onto Volume V The Captive, I'm making sure to take a few days pause, to breathe deeply and then start the next volume alongside the other classics I'm reading. 

Happy slow reading. 

My Upcoming Weekend With One Read: The Guermantes Way (Volume III)

I'll be taking this weekend easy starting Saturday night. 

We have a few simple plans for Saturday, but they will take me away from home. I will be doing something I don't normally do, and focusing on ONE novel.

I'm about 100 pages into the 820 page volume, and quickly finishing it is NOT a goal of mine, but I am finding myself really enjoying that hypnotic trance like state I go into when reading Proust at night.

I've already mentioned that I loathe people telling other people how/when/why to read books with a definitive air of elitism, but it is good to listen to those who have mounted the beast that is In Search of Lost Time.

Commonly, people mention NOT reading Proust quickly.

"Quickly" is relative, but I think we get the point.. inhaling the novel is seemingly frowned upon.

The Guermantes Way (Volume III)- Vintage Classics Edition

I do love that feeling of a free set of hours and deeply going into the novel with some light classical music in my background and then emerging hours later and stumbling back into reality.

I won't let anyone tell me this isn't a great way to read Proust! I love those experiences.

I fondly remember reading Swann's Way on an airplane on the way to New Orleans. The passengers were mostly asleep and the plane was pin drop quiet.

I was so deeply immersed for those 3 hours that when the plane landed, I felt that I needed to wake up although I wasn't asleep. 

I will report back at the end of the weekend about my experience with The Guermantes Way and let y'all know if I added anything from my Autumn TBR as a concurrent read. Rarely am I working on one book at a time so this will be great.

OH... my physical editions of In Search of Lost Time may come today from the UK as well! I got the Vintage Classics edition. I am so excited. I'll be adding these 6 novels to my 25 book physical book collection. 

Here's hoping that you have the time and space to sink into a great novel this weekend.

Happy reading my slow living friends. 

11: pedro páramo : juan rulfo:

the paper in this edition is top notch. under my green light

Never have I ever struggled to understand a story, but love every word -- since Clarice Lispector. 

This novel took me two weeks to get through, because like Proust you have to slowly digest it. Actually, it's unlike Proust in the sense that Proust mandates you stop and pause, and leaves you with meandering feelings of loss and longing.

Clarice Lispector is an author who gives you these really undigestible bites of story that you feel before you understand. It's soooo amazing to experience.

Here are a few quotes from this incredible story...

But he shouldn't have told me that. Life beats you down all on its own. The only thing that keeps a person going is he hope you'll end up someplace different after you die, but when one door slams in your face and the only other one takes you straight to Hell, it would've been better never to have been born... For me, Juan Preciado, Heaven is right here where I am now.

I've broken free of its obsessive need for remorse. It turned bitter what little food I was able to eat, and it made my nights unbearable by filling them with terrifying visions of the damned and that sort of thing. When I sat down to die, it begged me to get back up to keep dragging out my life, as if it still hoped for some miracle that might cleanse my sins. 

She died full of sorrow. And sorrow ... You once told us something about sorrow that I. no longer remember. It was that type of sorrow that took her life. She died all twisted up, choking on her own blood. I can still see the expression on her face, one of the most miserable faces a human being has ever made.

 

Juan Rulfo- Source: The Nation

Author Info

Juan Nepomuceno Carlos Pérez Rulfo Vizcaíno, best known as Juan Rulfo, was a Mexican writer, screenwriter, and photographer.

Born: May 16, 1917, Apulco, Mexico

Died: January 7, 1986 (age 68 years), Mexico City, Mexico

November Reading Plans

I am working on continuing to slow down my life. I adhere to a proponent of slow living and I don't read with any yearly goal in mind anymore. My life is very stressful right now, and I've added back in some romance novels and cozy mysteries to the mix it all up. 

This month is all about working deeply on Proust and reading other entertaining novels.

1. The Fugitive Volume VI by Marcel Proust
2. Time Regained Volume VII by Marcel Proust
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (thousandth reread)
4. The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
5. The Debut by Anita Brookner
6. New Animal by Ella Baxter
7. Continue with Short Stories 
8. Holiday Cozy Mysteries 
9. Start Holiday Romance/Women's Fiction Novels

Those are my only definite reads, I will be working on other things possibly, but in the meantime I have a new host of novels to choose from.

Wishing you a slow and deep reading November this year. 

life in between the pages of books: urging in autumn and taking 6 months to finish one book

 

early morning table

I have been reading Monsieur Proust for about 7 months and I just finished today. I have realized that no matter what I do, so long as I have a great book sort of sitting in the background of my life, I have something to fall back into as the world continues to spin around me. 

I have spent less time watching others' reading lives, but as the autumn inches closer I am ready to watch and possibly create some vlogs that center slowing down and sinking into stories and novels. 

This is the time of year that I re-read the exact same stories and books. It's important that I slow down and spend time with stories that I am familiar with that I love. 

As much as I don't love the lack of daylight that is coming mid-September, I can feel myself needing to slow down and the quiet, dark hours will help me with that. 

My next major read will only be the continuation of Gustave Flaubert's letters that I've been working on for 8 months. I am only about a quarter of a way through, and I am loving them, so I need to just focus on them. 

I'm off to write in my physical book journal which houses my book reviews, as I quietly reflect on this biography. I absolutely love Proust and I have been reflecting on my reading of The Search and the yearn to re-read Book One or Two... It seems to call every Fall. Maybe I'll answer it again.

Happy reading ☕️ 

photo clearly missing the coffee that is present

My Springtime Re-Read: Emma by Jane Austen

 

2023 Classic Re-Read: Emma

I am an avid proponent of re-reading. 

I believe deeply that if a book isn't worth reading twice, it isn't worth reading once.

My time is so valuable. So precious.

When I read, I am seeking to be entertained or to touch the sublime- all else is folly.

I'm ONLY here for the 5 star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads. Nothing else will do.

I don't need to be a large part of the cultural conversation about currently published literature.

My degrees are NOT in literature. I do NOT care if someone else deems me "Well Read" or not. 

I've heard it all:

"Why would you waste your time reading Proust? It is so meandering and boring"

"Wow, you've read Proust! That's amazing."

"Jane Austen is so boring. I just don't get how people love the boring teacup drama. Who can even understand her anyway."

"Austen is timeless. She's the best writer I've ever read."

See where I'm going?

You have to read for yourself. YOUR own taste. What calls to YOU.

If you don't, you have a racked up list of novels that didn't excite you, and all you're left with it the fact that "people" can say you've read good stuff?  Or not, depending on to whom you're speaking.

ALL of that to say :).... Emma is my spring re-read. I'm in the mood for some nosey, messy, Austen drama followed up by a light screen adaptation. 

As with all re-reads, I know the story. There's no need to rush it. Emma will live alongside all of the other novels I have slotted for my Spring reads, and I'll most likely set a chapter goal. 

There are 3 Volumes, but if I'm honest, once I get into the novel, I will probably keep going. That's the Austen way.

She gets you into the drama and she is so darn funny, you can't look away.

Happy Springtime re-reading to you slow living friends. 🌸 

Victober Musings: Wrapping Up October

This is a snapshot of my entire month
Coffee, pizza, candles (and books)

I love a good readathon, but I loathe following prescribed lists. With that said, my Victorian October reads were all over the place-  like my hair on windy day's run.

This month, I recreated a Goodreads account. I know I know. I've gone on and on about how I didn't like the interface and I don't really like other people commenting on Goodreads about my reads (weird I know), but storygraph kept crashing on my phone. THEN, I moved back to paper journaling for my books and it was really inconvenient. I was out at the hospital and could not remember what other books I said I would read next, and so I created a private Goodreads account- and the new interface if better. Trash, but better.

October was filled with sleepless nights, loads of anxiety, and massive change. In other words, enter the escapist fiction.

I spent a lot of cool nights with Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton. I was so overwhelmed with sorrow as I read that novel. That is one sad book. I adore Gaskell's writing and the worlds that she creates, but I decided to put a hold on Ruth by her and save it for lighter times.

Mary Barton definitely had some Tess of the d'Urbervilles vibes, but I fear Ruth may actually have MORE.

Classics from this month

Classics I finished this month:

1. Volume IV: Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust - he really starts this one off with a bang
2. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell - loved this book. Broke my heart. 
3. Victorian Ghost Stories by Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Elizabeth Gaskell -creepy
4. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen -thousandth reread. LOVE it.
5. Volume V: The Captive by Marcel Proust - 2 volumes left

Cozy Mysteries I finished this month:

1. A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery Series (enjoyed every one)
1. Apple Pie a la Murder
2. Trick or Treat and Murder
3. Thankfully Dead
2. Pumpkin Hollow Cozy Mystery Series (enjoyed these a little less, but still enjoyed)
1. Candy Coated Murder
2. Murderously Sweet 

I also read

1. Obsession by Clarice Lispector (a short story) - loved
2. Verity by Colleen Hoover (with the additional chapter) - hated

This month I downloaded all manner of books

I picked some classics by Anthony Trollope, Elizabeth Gaskell, Dinah Mulock Craik, Kahlil Gibran, Cute Christmas Stories, Novels by Simone St. James, a few steamy Harlequin category romances, etc.

This has been a month of deeply remembering how vital my reading is to my well-being. My life is so stressful, and I need a balance now of intense classic literature + literary fiction, interspersed with romance novels and a few cozy mysteries.

I have to work on not burning out on cozy mystery series, and am just taking my reading as it comes. Now that I'm back on my private Goodreads, I am able to better track (or should I say more easily track) my reads, so my wrapping up November should be a bit easier.

As I craft my November TBR, I am filling the slots around my Reading Template. I'll post my TBR tomorrow. 

Happy reading and slow living.

04: swann’s way called and I answered, snow shoveling and christmas tea

I read all 7 volumes of In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu) in 2022. It was a very intense year for me. Something deeply tragic happened, and for some reason I felt called to the work.

No one recommended it. I hadn't seen any videos where people talked about it. It just called me.

It happened again. 

I made a plan to re-read volume on "The Way By Swann's" in 2026, but I couldn't wait and I started it already. I am not a fan of the deckled edges on the Penguin Deluxe Classics, and am waiting (2-3 more weeks of waiting) for a different edition of the Lydia Davis translation to arrive. I will just manage somehow with these cringey deckled edges.

swann and my tree

Christmas Tea of Choice This Season

Tea// White Christmas 

Shoveling snow and remembering my memories (yes that sounds weird)

A mountain of snow fell and while it was gorgeous to look at with my morning coffee, I knew that if I shoveled my truck before the snow removal team came by, it would make for a better driveway situation for me. Hence... snow shoveling for 48 straight minutes.

I started Proust and have been (as I did on my first reading) thinking about memories. Days gone by. Past experiences shoveling snow.

It feels so melodic to review my life in this way.

I am always so surprised by what comes to mind when I am super mindful in the present moment. I think about how the memory is laying down in my brain...  my ability to recall it.

For a long time, I went to bed early. Sometimes, my candle scarcely out, my eyes would close so quickly that I did not have time to say to myself: "I'm falling asleep."

 

swann's way under the tree

I am not sure if I will stop at volume 1 or if I will carry on. For now, the goal is to just read this volume deeply and allow whatever needs to be remembered to come to me in a dream like state- similar to how Proust wrote this novel.

If you've been shy about picking it up, I highly suggest you do do. No pressure. No worries. 

Happy reading ☕️ 

Quick Quotes: Proust and Emotions

Source: Stock Photos

 

They must always have an opinion about everything. And as they have no opinions of their own, they spend the first half of their lives asking us ours and the second half serving them up to us again.  

___________________________________________________________ 

She felt a sort of pang and as it were an itching in all her limbs at the thought of this happiness being snatched behind her back, unbeknown to her, and it made her irritated and jealous. 

From The Guermantes Way Volume III (In Search of Lost Time) 

 

 

It's Okay to Read All The Time

shutterstock

Quick reminder to myself and any/all who pass this post.

It's okay to read often. It's okay to re-read often. It's okay to read a ton or a few number of books.

It's okay to read non-fiction only. Fiction only. Classics only. Middle Grade only. Or anywhere in between.

I loathe the new society (though is it new really?) that demands we all be the same, yet different.

I soak up all of my free time with chapters of great books.

I don't justify or explain this to anyone.

Only fellow bibliophiles understand the sublime feeling of coming in close contact with great literature.

There is a feeling of complete love and joy when I conquer a great work (Hello Proust, I'm looking at you).

No matter who you are. No matter where you are on your life's journey, novels hold the key to a certain happiness that touches the soul. And unlike a favorite ballet, or museum... you get to return to the work over and over again.

Happy reading ☕️ 

Adding Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe to My Current Reading

As the season prepares to shift to Autumn, I get more reflective and introspective.

I made an impulse buy of a kindle edition by Alma Classics of Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders.

This is my first read of this 300 year old classic. Publication date 1722.

Alma Classics Edition

Interestingly enough, this kindle version doesn't have indented paragraphs. It's a bit weird, but I've adjusted.

I'm about 20% into this novel and I am IN LOVE with this story and Defoe's writing.

Most know Defoe from Robin Crusoe, but I've read anything by him since middle school.

This picking up of Moll Flanders is a good reminder to me of why I love being a mood reader. I really enjoy just letting the wind blow and following my intuition about what I want to pick up.  

Currently, I'm only focusing on The Guermantes Way (Volume III of In Search of Lost Time by Proust) and Moll Flanders. This is a delightful combination.

I am always in awe of how great literature can shift and shape me at certain points of my life. 

Have you picked up anything in the spur of the moment?

Happy reading my slow living friends. 

I Have Finished In Search of Lost Time... Now What?

It will take me even MORE time to formulate my opinions on In Search of Lost Time. 

I finished the novel two weeks ago, and have yet to wrap it up. How do I even do that?

For now, I can say that I am forever changed and ALL the hype about the work and the experience of reading it are true. So true. However, you must be at a point in life (regardless of age) to appreciate it.

I will work this weekend to wrap it up and discuss all of my thoughts on the 10.5 months I spent immersed in Proust's world.

Until I report back, happy reading

currently reading page

I added a current reads page to the banner of my site.

I don't always update what I'm reading here on the blog because I read so many books simultaneously and it can feel redundant to add the same photos, but this way I can just do it in one place.

Find it here: Currently Reading Page 

as shown on the site

I've been having a hard time, and haven't made much time for fiction reading. I realize that has aided in my overhwhelm.

Currently reading a few fiction books sprinkled in and my heart is already at ease.

One of my most anticipated reads of 2026 is on my list now and I am loving it. I adore In Search of Lost Time and this biography by Proust's housekeeper has allowed me to enter a world previously unknown to me. I just love it.

loveeeeeee this so far

I'm off to start a busy week and hope to get off on a good foot.

Wishing you a coffee-filled, slow-living sort of start to this Monday.

Happy reading ☕️ 

Victorian October 2022

This October (as always) I will be participating very loosely in Victober. 

My list of novels have been chosen very very loosely from the prompts. I am not a real prompt following readathon kind of reader.

I read by mood, by time of year, atmospherically and by being called to what my soul feels it needs from literature at that phase of life. 

THIS can't be dictated by readathon schedules and prompt schedules. I do find joy in reading or watching other people's book lists centering around Victober particularly.

Source: List Challenges

What I'll be reading:

1. Tess of the D'Urbervilles (a reread for me)
2. Jane Eyre (a reread for me)- sensing a theme here? And I'll be watching the screen adaptation
3. Dracula by Bram Stoker. This will be my first read of this! I recently finished Shelley's Frankenstein and LOVED it so so so much.
4. A Gentle Creature by Fyodor Dostoevsky (short story) I know. He wasn't a Victorian over in Russia, but he wrote at the same time as the Victorian period and therefore it counts to me :) I may not get to this one with my other reads during October, but it is on the list

I basically read Victorian literature all year long, but I just love the idea of reading atmospheric Victorian or gothic novels at this time of year. 

I'm excited by my choice of novels for my loose participation in Victober alongside Volume III of In Search of Lost Time- The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust, and Lispector and Brookner reads.

How glorious it is to have my kindle and bookshelf full of fantastic reads and rereads as Autumn comes!

Do you have any reads or rereads that you are looking forward to?

Happy reading my slow living friends.