When I started this walk down literary memory lane to answer questions about the books I wouldn't part with, the first book I thought of is a lost book... I read it as a child, the approximate title was Tales and Legends of the Sea and it fascinated me. It narrated the legend of The Flying Dutchman and other sailors' stories. The book allowed any doubt to persist on whether it told true stories or fictions; I think it is this porous border between reality and imagination I enjoyed so much. I have never found this book again, either in bookstores or on the internet and maybe it is better this way... Who knows if it ever really existed?
But here are the five books that really matter for me, each in their own way:
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
It is, in my opinion, the one children's book that comes close to perfection. In this book, everything - the drawings and the narration - every single word has been perfectly chosen. You go from Max's room to his inner world full of monsters, that Max will eventually harness, and you end with a hot dinner and a perfect fall. I very often think of this book when I start a new children's literature project.
Swann's Way, volume one of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
It is the kind of book you're not really allowed to mention whenever you're making this kind of list. But here I go. On the occasion of a hospital stay, I spent so much time on a bed that, after having tried every possible position, I dived into In Search of Lost Time. I have never experienced anything similar since then. I didn't think it was possible to express through words and with such acuteness all the convolutions of the soul.
The Easy Way To Stop Smoking by Allen Carr
Definitely not in the same style as In Search of Lost Time but it casually changed my life! I never touched a cigarette after reading it and I started dancing instead.
