A Reading Diary

In which a nerd blogs about her reading habits and attempts to read Proust. My main's @antiquatedfeathers. You can call me Far.

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A (Late) Recap for the Week of January 16, 2017

In summary:

-Belle Époque lesbians

-Gilberte Swann showed up for the first time.

-So many fuckin’ flowers.

-We appear to have ditched the Narrator in order to hang out with Swann and Odette. 

-My thoughts on Odette and Swann are mixed, to say the least, but they’re very interesting characters. 

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January 20, 2017, Page 283, Volume I

I miss the Narrator and his familial woes, because Odette kind of annoys me. But even so, her and Swann’s dynamic is so interesting and so weirdly melancholy and it’s definitely keeping me hooked. 

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Swann could not get her to tell him what "period" it was. But after thinking the matter over she replied that it was "mediaeval"; by which she meant that the walls were panelled.

Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time

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January 18, 2017. Page 267, Volume I

I’m over halfway through Swann’s Way, guys. 

As for the reaction, I’m missing the Narrator. Swann is nice and all, but the Verdurins and their circle are really irritating me. Weirdly enough, Odette is also kind of making me think of Sally Bowles, and I can’t quite figure out why (I blame the Isherwood kick I was on a few months ago). I can’t tell if I like her or not. 

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January 17, 2017. Page 226, Volume I

There are flowers everywhere. Flowers, flowers, and more flowers. I am beginning to think my header and icon choices were very appropriate. 

Other details of note: Belle Époque lesbians. And Gilberte has made her first appearance. So has Odette. 

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Recap for the week of January 9, 2017

-Can’t read the book on an empty stomach because I get hungry.

-Almost everyone in the Narrator’s family is kind of a dick. 

-The Narrator is in general kind of adorable and relatable.

Other stuff:  -Definitely enjoying the language. 

-Combray somehow manages to feel incredibly familiar and is making me think of the small town I grew up in even though they’re absolutely nothing alike. 

-Have I mentioned the food descriptions? 

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January 14, 2017, Page 151

The Narrator’s passion for reading is honestly so relatable. 

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January 12, 2017. Page 87, Volume 1

The Narrator is incredibly endearing and his obsession with the theater is super adorable. 

Also, his uncle is kind of a dick, but that’s neither here nor there. 

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January 11, 2017. Page 76, Volume 1

Oh, my god. The food descriptions are making me so incredibly hungry. Note to self, don’t read In Search of Lost Time while having only eaten half a grapefruit and some cold heat-and-eat Chinese food. I’m craving really good French food now. 

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An Explanation (or, why this blog exists)

So I made a bet. It was this: I would read Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, and if I completed it in a reasonable amount of time, my dad would take me to France. So of course, like any sane person, I said yes. 

This blog exists so that I can track my progress and motivate myself to complete my goal. After I finish with Lost Time, I hope to use it as a general reading diary, but for now, it’s just going to be Proust.

Don’t expect deep, scholarly analysis or anything, as I’m not a scholar and am really just a supremely nerdy teenager. If anything, there’s going to be a lot of shitposting and goal-setting. However, I hope this proves to be an enjoyable and entertaining journey.

If you want to join me for the ride, hop aboard.