Literary Paris
The photo you see to your left is one I took today with my iPhone through a window of one of the many Anciennes Livres (bookstores) that line the streets of Paris. It's refreshing to see the reverence one finds for the written word - viewing this antique printing press is one of the many pleasures from which I profit, living in this stimulating and delightful city. People are reading everywhere. The buses are full and no one is idle - they are reading newspapers, books, journals, or writing on their laptops and notebooks. Haven't spotted a Kindle yet. The covers of the books are subtle - just the title of the book, usually in black and white, that entice one to pay attention to the content. No ostentatious book covers in these windows. Book signings abound, and I've been to several in the month that I've been here. Venues such as The American Library, The Village Voice, Shakespeare & CO, and yes, even The San Francisco Book Company are but a few that host and promote authors and support the expat literary community. There are also numerous writing groups in Paris. It is an ideal city in which to write, as the atmosphere is thick with the ghosts of ancient scribes. I'm having lunch on Sunday at La Closerie des Lilas, opened in 1847. The voices of Rimbaud, Jean-Paul Sartre. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, etc. are but a few the authors that echo within. Paris is a city of dreams... And, oui, I'm reading manuscripts like crazy while I'm here, looking for that new voice.
Kimberley in Paris, 30 Octobre, 2009
Thank you so much, Kimberley, for giving us such an evocative portrait of Paris in the fall ... and how wonderful to know that it is as artistically vibrant as it was when Hemingway attended Stein's salons. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, the City of Light is all the more bright for having you, the best literary agent ever, at home there! :)
See you when you're back!
xoxo
Kelli
Very exciting. It is easy in an automobile-based and television-obsessed culture like the U. S. to think that no one has time or the inclination to read. I have been traveling for three years and find that reading is still the singular joy and most important source of information for millions over the globe. Japanese are obsessive readers, as my year in Japan proved. I have been to Paris and loved it. Envy you!! - John Rachel
ReplyDeletePlease order a Dubonnet for me at La Closerie de Lilas.
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