Check out my fancy new look! Sumant found the template for his own blog and made the catastrophic mistake of showing it to me first. I was all “I want! I want!” And he was all “Aw, take it.” Then I felt guilty and said I’d find him an equally awesome one in exchange. Needless to say, I failed at that. So now we’re blog twins. Sort of. It’s only fair.
Life: A User's Manual, Georges Perec, 1978
I also have a brand new book: Georges Perec‘s Life: A User’s Manual. I’ve already read it, so I’m allowed. This is one of my favourite novels of all time.
An excerpt:
Who, on seeing a Parisian apartment house, has never thought of it as indestructible? A bomb, a fire, an earthquake could certainly bring it down, but what else? In the eyes of an individual, of a family, or even a dynasty, a town, street, or house seems unchangeable, untouchable by time, by the ups and downs of human life, to such an extent that we believe we can compare and contrast the fragility of our condition to the invulnerability of stone.
translation by David Bellos
It’s lovely. Also I’ve got Perec on my list and the Toronto library at my disposal for the summer. Whee!