I don’t mind the “I don’t like to read book” statement, but I hate it when they justify it with some bullshit reason, like “I’m an engineer, so I don’t like to read books” or “I like movies, so I don’t like to read books”. Those aren’t mutually exclusive statements, that’s not the reason why you don’t like to read books.

At 12, I read a book about super smart 12 years olds who fell in love, used their brains to make a shit ton of money and run away together. The female protagonist read Racine (17th-century French playwright and master of alexandrines), so I started reading Racine to try and be as smart as her - and loved it. She also read Heidegger, so I tried to - but that one failed massively. I still count that book as one of my favourites because it pushed me to expand my culture in litterature, cinema and maths.

At 12, I read a book about super smart 12 years olds who fell in love, used their brains to make a shit ton of money and run away together. The female protagonist read Racine (17th-century French playwright and master of alexandrines), so I started reading Racine to try and be as smart as her - and loved it. She also read Heidegger, so I tried to - but that one failed massively. I still count that book as one of my favourites because it pushed me to expand my culture in litterature, cinema and maths.

Les Impatientes by Djaïli Amadou Amal (don’t know if it was translated in English though) and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

My condolences, and I hope you know that your grandma was probably thrilled to see you, and that the plans you had made should not be a source of guilt for you. You enabled her to have something to look forward until the very end.

It’s a French book of poetry called Le fou d’Elsa by Aragon - or Les yeux d’Elsa, also by Aragon. I used to carry it with me in times of stress, just to be able to open it at a random spot and let the words flow through me.

This is called the familiarity bias, where the things you know give you a sense of security and comfort. So keep your safe space, especially in times like these.

I had the same thought reading Simone de Beauvoir’s La Cérémonie des Adieux, which basically goes over the last years of Jean-Paul Sartre in sometimes excruciating details. Like “Monday, March 27th, 1995, he had a meeting with this guy and spent two hours writing this article. We had an argument with this person regarding this very profound philosophical subject.” or “Summer of 96 we went to this place on holidays, stayed at this lovely hotel, and had this lunch at this restaurant where we were reading this magazine” level of detail, and I was in awe.

I actually can read the 7 Harry Potter books in under 24H. Not in a single run, but if I time myself over 2 or 3 days, the total amounts to around 23H and 45min - though I basically know the books by heart now, which does speed up the process.

I also read both parts of Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive) in a few days last year.

I couldn’t watch TV or screens as a kid (it gave me horrible migraines and nausea), so I developed lightning quick reading skills.

Leïla Slimani