Cleto Munari

Product/Industrial Designer / Italy / Cleto Munari Design Associati

Cleto Munari’s Book List

In thinking about some of my favorite books I cannot avoid dreaming about my own desires for adventure and imaginary worlds. Dumas and Salgari are part of those childhood fantasies whereas my early adulthood found me leaning toward the aristocratic world described by authors like Tomasi di Lampedusa. Other books on this list are associated with my friendships and interactions with fiction writers such as Mahfouz and Saramago, or poets met through a friend of mine who translates and works with poets, including Wole Soyinka, Mark Strand, and Manuel Alegre. Still other books are those that I enjoy rereading every now and then.

1 book
Denis Diderot

Pensées Philosophiques  (“Philosophical Thoughts”) was an early work of Diderot’s, written around 1747. It was popular but also got him into trouble by criticizing religious belief and Catholicism. A few years later he would be an outright atheist. The “pensées” are more aphoristic than usual for the author; yet, even in these brief reflections of his I became convinced that passions and ideal desires are something you must not be ashamed of but represent the real essence of life.

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