The Proust Questionnaire — Book Edition

Coralie Bickford Smith Answers The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition

By Coralie Bickford-Smith November 8, 2013

Coralie Bickford-Smith, Graphic Designer (Penguin)

This November marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Marcel Proust’s opus, In Search of Lost Time (A la recherche du temps perdu), originally known in English as Remembrance of Things Past. To honor the occasion, we developed the Designers & Books version of the eponymous Proust Questionnaire, which we’ve sent out to various contributors and friends. Rather than including the questions from the original that asked about a wide array of “thoughts and feelings,” our adaptation focuses solely on the respondent’s relationship to books.

View the complete questions asked in The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition

Here are the answers Coralie Bickford-Smith sent in response to the Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition:

1. Of these, your reading preference: fiction; nonfiction; poetry; drama:
Fiction.

2. Your favorite childhood book (or favorite childhood author):
Enid Blyton.

3. Your favorite book character:
Jane Eyre.

8. A book you should have read but haven’t:
Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.

10. Your reading speed: very slow; slow; moderate; fast; very fast
Fast.

12. Your most idiosyncratic reading habit:
Reading in bed.

14. If you could be any author:
William Blake.

16. Your favorite writer of the gender opposite yours:
Philip Pullman.

17. The last book you bought:
Mr. Tiger goes Wild by Peter Brown.

18. Your favorite place to purchase books:
Rye Books.

19. The book you are currently reading:
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.

20. The book you will read next:
The Illiad.

21. The current location of the book you will read next:
Bedside table.

22. Your favorite format for books: paper or pixels
Paper.

24. A book that was particularly meaningful to, or highly recommended by, an acquaintance of yours:
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach.

25. If you have the chance to plan it, the last book you’ll read:
Reread The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

Also see “Celebrating a Proust Anniversary with The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition.”

Rick Poynor Answers The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition

Patterns, Printing, and Bookbinding: Coralie Bickford-Smith’s Book List

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