My September 2024 Reads

Whenever I go back to France or Vietnam, I have a long list of paper books to read. I can’t take them with me when traveling, so I read them when I have access to them. They’re either unavailable as ebooks or were bought as collector’s editions. And I prefer not to read on ebook when the collector’s edition exists and belongs to me.

Animal Farm by Suntup Editions

The first one I read quickly was “Animal Farm.” I had never read this book, but I had read two graphic novel versions and knew the plot.

I only had time to read the introduction written by Orwell’s son. He explains that the success of Animal Farm allowed the family to live comfortably on a farm without worrying about money. And that as Orwell’s adopted son, he didn’t have the duty/expectation to become a writer himself. I imagine the pressure also weighed heavily on Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert’s son, and so despite his lack of literary talent, he forced himself to continue his father’s saga?

The book is a collector’s edition from Suntup Editions, which I had shipped from the United States at the cost of an arm and a leg. I intended to rebind it, but when I touched the book in person, I found the binding ultra sturdy and worth keeping as is. The letterpress letterpress printing gives a slight relief to the characters, but not in a bothersome way (for example, you can’t see the imprint of the previous page on the next one). The illustrations are gorgeous, I love them so much! I prefer them to the various graphic novel versions, which seem too simplistic to me.

This is my only book from Suntup, and once the hype hype dies down, I can see myself treating myself to other books from this publisher. My dream is to have a book from Lyra’s Books too (update: I got it!), but I’ll have to be patient because the titles they choose don’t appeal to me much.

The History of the Limited Editions Club

I read a third of this book on “The Limited Editions Club,” a publishing house for bibliophiles founded by George Macy. There’s very little info about him, and finally an expert is researching his life and work. It’s super interesting. I have 3 books from The Limited Editions Club and I’m interested in seeing how they were made. The book is beautiful, printed on acid-free paper. I almost ripped the binding to motivate myself to make a new one, when I remembered the price I paid for this book (book price + shipping from the US + taxes). So depending on the mood of the moment, I’ll decide whether to resell it (to fund other collector’s books) or rebind it and no longer be able to resell it. The format is very large; it’s not a book I can fit in my suitcase.

The Innocents Abroad by The Limited Editions Club

Among the 3 books from the Limited Editions Club, I managed to read a third of The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. This one cost me less because it came from an English-language bookstore based in Paris (phew). It’s a collector’s edition. It’s richly illustrated and way too funny! We follow Mark Twain, who had a spot on a cruise ship, visiting the Mediterranean and the Holy Land over several months. It’s the kind of travel journal I dream of being the author of. The ship’s itinerary is dreamy, as it visits Paris during the World’s Fair!!! and visits, among other places, Egypt, Jerusalem, Crimea… a delightful little trip that takes place at the end of the 19th century, with people from another era, another way of traveling, without the worries of world wars or the harmful effects of industrial progress. And it’s extremely funny. A refined humor, and his storytelling is so gripping that you never see the hilarious punchlines coming. He makes a lot of fun of other American tourists.

I’m going to have to finish the book as an ebook because I want to know how it ends. At first, I wanted to resell the book after reading, but now I’ve changed my mind; this book is way too good, and I think I’ll browse through it from time to time, if only for the old-fashioned illustrations with colors added by hand using stencils. More info here.

I’m sorry for those who don’t speak English. You’ll have to settle for this simple, second-hand edition (Amazon link). Here’s the presentation of the French edition:

What to do now? After living a thousand adventures as a pilot on the Mississippi (Life on the Mississippi, Payot), fleeing the Civil War, crossing the Prairie, trying the rough life of gold diggers (Roughing It, Payot), here is young Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, again broke, in New York. A proposal from the Alta California comes to save him: to follow for his readers the first organized tourist trip from America. And so Mark Twain, who as a child dreamed of exploring the Amazon, embarks on June 8, 1867 on the Quaker City, heading for Europe. On the program: the Azores, Gibraltar, France, Italy, Greece, Constantinople, Crimea, Smyrna, the Holy Land, and Egypt… Mark Twain, the man of the West, facing old Europe! The clash will spark. For, with a fierce eye and a sharp tongue, he is not willing to be fooled and proudly stands by his frontier values. This gives us a rather amazing fireworks of huge jokes, biting descriptions, funny anecdotes, and reflections more serious than one might initially think – with, as a bonus, some donkeys, camels, and a wild race across Europe, in search of a ghostly piece of soap… The success of The Innocents Abroad was immense from its publication in 1869 – probably because it marked, symbolically, an inversion of the gaze between the Old and New World. In this sense, Mark Twain is indeed, as Hemingway wrote, the father of the American novel, the first to found it, without further reference to Europe, on the traditions and values of America.

Frankly, there are plenty of super funny books like that that are forgotten over time. I remember: An Innkeeper’s Diary by John Fothergill, reissued by The Folio Society, also hilarious, which talks about managing a hotel in the days when individuals first traveled with their cars. I’m going to buy it (update, I have it!!! – as well as the two sequels), when I have a real “home”.

Proust

Then I devoured books related to Proust.

• Proust the Seer (amazon link): the style is painful, but you get the gist of where the author is going. Basically, Proust is a medium. That explains all his reflections on life and death, the soul of a person remaining in objects, the memories that arise from the little madeleine… The author defends his thesis that all these reflections on the psyche are normal and of their time (early 20th century). We have so repressed these kinds of phenomena that we can no longer understand or detect them. Whereas when you read In Search of Lost Time as an expert in “paranormal” phenomena, you immediately recognize Proust’s gifts, but also those of M. de Charlus, and Albertine!!! Finally I understand why Albertine is so special, because she bored me profoundly!
• Illustrating Proust – story of a challenge : a small book not very developed, where the author criticizes all the illustrations of Proust that have been made since the beginning. There are 2-3 interesting bits but once read, immediately forgotten.
• Illustrating Proust – art of repainting (amazon link): this book is much more interesting, but I could only read 1/3. It starts with an analysis of the illustrations of Pleasures and Days, Marcel Proust’s first book, illustrated by Madeleine Lemaire (Mme Verdurin, more famous and respected than Proust at the time). We follow the illustrations in the order of the novel, not in chronological order. There are tons of photos. With this book, frankly, I no longer even want to collect the illustrated books ofIn Search of Lost Time because the most beautiful illustrations are already there!

Stoned

It’s an ebook I bought (amazon link to the paper book) but it’s so engrossing that I read it even though I have a ton of paper books to finish. The author is a jeweler and she explains why luxury attracts us so much, why we get fooled by luxury. Then follow historical anecdotes about precious stones. I love it! Bibliographic references are missing, which is a shame. But there’s plenty of info to show off at dinners, e.g., the estimated carats of diamonds per capita; the bullshit of the diamond industry; why emerald is the rarest and most expensive of beryl? why we desire one object and not another? the colors of sapphire…

Reading this book opened my eyes to (1) why I want a particular object (2) how to resist a beautiful object (3) why learning craftsmanship allows me to control my buying urges. I realize that like many people, I want such and such an object not for its beauty, but for the hype created around that object, because everyone wants it and few can afford it, and I am completely fooled by marketing. Knowing the mechanism and especially now how to make these objects myself, allows me to strip away the marketing and see the object for what it is truly worth, and most of the time, it’s not worth much. I highly recommend it to those who feel they do a bit too much shopping 😀