Friday, March 13, 2009

The Flaneur by Edmund White

Today I finished reading both of the books I got from Paris last week so this morning I decided to check out Shakespear & Co. at 37 rue de la bucherie just on the river border between the left bank. This particular bookshop has appeared so many times in E. Hemingway A Moveable Feast so it would be a terrible thing if I do not check it out. Against my runny nose and sizzling headache (yes I am having my first flu in Paris...boo hoo) I jotted off from bed and left the studio at 11.30. The place looked exactly as how I would envisioned it from reading the book; old, antique, colourful and original. I had a nice and peaceful time taking the most leisurely look-around. There were so many books I wanted to get, around five to six; F.Scott Fitzgerald The Beautiful and The Damned, Ernest Hemingway In Our Time, about two books on Paris, Gertrude Stein's and Lisa See's Gold Mountain. In the end I settled for Edmund White's The Flaneur, about his memoir living and exploring the streets of Paris. I thought I should get just one book each on each visit so that I will want to come back coz I really like the bookshop!!
From the back of the book it says:

'A flaneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles without apparent purpose but is secretly attuned to the history of the streets he walks - and is in covert search of adventure, aesthetic or erotic.'

1 comment:

Natalie said...

i remember a lecture i had fr pdt Joshua Lie, he said smthing like, how people today, in d postmo era, tend to wander without a purpose..but as a reformist, we have no other purpose, bcos already been gvn to us, that is, only to glorify Him. so as you wander d streets of Paris, u shld be in awe, full of wonder, bcos of His magnificence. Dont let d streets take over you. tkcr. Gbu.